I'd rather be reading.

Moffett, originally uploaded by ubs_blogger.

Given my druthers, I'd be reading right now. And if I was reading, I'd be reading Permanent Visitors by shaggy author Kevin Moffett.

I'd be reading it for two reasons. One is that is won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award from University of Iowa Press, and I am a Hawkeye through and through. The other is that the book is blurbed by one of my favorite writers, Padgett Powell. Here's what he says:

"Mr. Moffett writes with a precision when things get somber that suggests old John Fogerty's bad moon rising. It's the power of true things said truly, and I think this power will grow."