May 2010
3 posts
some of what's been read recently
Big Machine, Victor LaValle
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barberry
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle
Linchpin, Seth Godin
Maybe I will manage a proper entry on at least some of those. The Talent Code was fascinating. I read it over a long period of time, but I really enjoyed it. The basic idea is that most “talent” is based on repetitive, hard...
“If listening with honey can make a Scandinavian warrior great, imagine what it...”
– Frank Chimero’s student Sage Warner on Beowulf. She continues, “The version of Beowulf that I read in seventh grade described the hero as having honey in his veins. His greatest virtue was how, when he received his subjects in his great beerhall, he would listen to them — really listen. His eyes and...
“Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, one of eight rules for writing a short story [via] (via bobulate)
March 2010
1 post
nothing happens
My brother and I were discussing microfiction recently. His latest is attention-grabbing and full of action. Mine has absolutely nothing happen.
Writing about what I read has made me realize that I like it when nothing happens. Or when things happen, but you almost don’t realize they do. The same applies to films and photography (the other two things I spend the most time and energy...
February 2010
2 posts
When You Reach Me
I’ve gone through many books recently. I have a soft spot for young adult books and was excited about When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I’ve always liked reading “below my reading level” – when I was in high school I loved babysitting and reading the kids’ books when they had gone to sleep. Something soothing in the ease of a fast and entertaining read.
Do not read When You Reach Me if sick...
1 tag
stories in my head
Inspired by the 3 minute story on npr, I wrote a short story yesterday. I haven’t written fiction in a long, long time. It energized me and excited me in a surprising way.
January 2010
13 posts
Librarian authors →
Anne Tyler and Per Petterson. I love librarians.
“I gave them all the truth and none of the honesty.”
– Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
why I prefer fiction →
I can’t handle reality.
“You’ve got these kids who just want to get a reputation, who kill just to be able to say they did it,” said former gang member Ken Cunningham, who now owns a small plumbing company and ministers at a local church. “There’s a mentality of ‘When in Rome, we do as the Romans do.’ “
Purchased:
A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro
Downloaded:
A Single Man, screenplay by Tom Ford & David Scearce
Currently reading:
Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann (It is so beautiful I can’t imagine reading anything else at the same time. However, seeing A Single Man this weekend had an obvious impact on me.)
“Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to...”
– Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet”
“Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old,...”
– Joan Didion
Didion
Joan Didion. She’s another one whose work I forget I love.
I wonder if this is happening with people I actually know. Am I forgetting people I love?
Noah's Compass
I forget how much I love Anne Tyler. I never think to list her as a favorite writer, but I always enjoy her writing. I never anticipate her work only to be disappointed (see Irving, Last Night at Twisted River). And I re-read her novels like other people eat comfort food. Saint Maybe was the first Tyler novel I read and I don’t even know how many times I have read it since. Each book is like...
The Dart League King
The Dart League King was a facebook recommendation. An old friend was looking for book recommendations and we seemed to have the same taste in books based on her recent reading list. She recommended The Dart League King with conviction enough to have me add to my next book order. It has been sitting in the house since October since other, more pressing books (American Pastoral and Last Night in...
Reading:
The Dart League King, Keith Lee Morris
Shakespeare Wrote for Money, Nick Hornby
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Trenton Lee Stewart
Waiting for:
Noah’s Compass, Anne Tyler
A Literary Life, Larry McMurtry
When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead
Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t...”
– Toni Morrison, Tar Baby