Lists

September 7, 2010

I’ve posted before about how I’m always writing lists. Lists of things to do (tomorrow, later, next week), lists of things to buy (glue, glitter, gum), lists of events coming up (B-day party Saturday, Mike and Jake’s going away party). I write probably three lists a day, minimum. That’s why my blog is covered in Post-Its (my hubby, Ted, designed it as sort of an in-joke– though I’d like to think of it as an homage…).

A few days ago I found a grocery list in the gutter outside our house. Here it is.

I love the little details on it. What does it say about a person that they needed a 3 lb bag of tilapia and Orowheat bread? Or Kroger Value Bacon for that matter? And what about the Bratwurst Beer? Do they mean sausage or is there an actual beer that tastes like Bratwurst? They also wanted to ‘check on cinnimon [sp] and struttle cake, which they wrote a second time as struddle cake.

And check out the picture on the other side– I wonder why the person didn’t write on the side with the lines? Maybe they didn’t want to write on the cute little puppies’ faces?

Maybe I should send the list to FOUND Magazine?

This got me thinking about ‘lists’ in literature. What writers have used a list or lists in their writing? Aaron Hamburger uses them effectively in his novel Faith For Beginners, in fact, he opens the book with a list of plants that grow of the Wailing Wall.

And when we first meet Alma, the fourteen year-old narrator (or one of two narrators) of the glorious The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, she gives us her life story in a list that she actually continues through most of the novel.