February 2012
“Rather than set the world on fire with radical contigency, I expect that ebooks...”
– Carl Zimmer responds to Jonathan Franzen’s rant against ebooks. (via freepressbooks)
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All Male Authors?
In looking back over the comments on the “My Favorite Authors” post, I noticed that meganiane said: “Almost all male writers…” I hang my head in shame.
Yikes! It’s true, but it’s not true. What I mean is I failed to include several female authors who...
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My Favorite Authors and Books
The most popular questions that readers of Word Painting ask me is, “What are your favorite books,” and “Who are your favorite authors.” Usually they go hand in hand, my favorite authors tend to write my favorite books. I read both fiction and non-fiction throughout each year so I’ll break my list down into both categories.
[Keep in mind, this list is subject to...
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“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense...”
– Charles Lamb; The Life, Letters and Writings of Charles Lamb
Habits of a Reader
whispering-literature:
It is impossible if you want to get everything read you have on your reading list. It is for me anyway.
3 tips for writers dealing with rejection →
amandaonwriting:
Three tips for coping with rejection:
Laugh at your rejections.
Learn from your rejections.
Always have a new project underway, something that will give you hope no matter how many rejections come your way for the previous project.
You may take some consolation in knowing the rejection history of these writers and works:
Dune by Frank Herbert – 13 rejections
Harry Potter...
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“OK. Historically the stuff that’s sort of rung my cherries: Socrates’ funeral...”
– David Foster Wallace in an interview with Salon writer Laura Miller.
[The thing I love about this list is that it contains fiction and non-fiction works. To be a well rounded reader (and writer) one must read both. It’s as necessary as breathing air.]
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“Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the...”
– Samuel Lover; Rory O’More
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“I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction’s job was to comfort the...”
– David Foster Wallace; A Conversation with David Foster Wallace By Larry McCaffery
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“We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron...”
– Jules Verne; Journey to the Centre of the Earth
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Cormac and Oprah, Revisited →
Five years ago this June, Cormac McCarthy appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Given McCarthy’s legendary reticence (he had done only one major interview in the past, with the New York Times in 1992) and exalted literary stature (he has won every major American book award; Harold Bloom has called Blood Meridian the preeminent novel by a living American), this was one of the greatest “gets” in the...
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GEORGE WHITMAN, BOOKSELLER by Rachael Horovitz →
Samuel Beckett introduced me to George Whitman on August 15, 1983, in Paris. Or rather, I arrived in Paris on the morning of August 15, 1983, after finally finishing college, having been given by my father, the playwright Israel Horovitz, a one-way ticket and a date with Samuel Beckett.
The date with Sam was that same bleary morning. Café crème cigars cut with cups of actual café crème. Sam,...
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A Peaceful, but Very Interesting Pursuit →
Even after he published, Prufrock and Wasteland, T.S. Eliot continued to work his day job at a bank. The New volume of his letters reveals his financial anxieties and his unexpected attitude towards working and writing.
From 1917 until 1925, T.S. Eliot worked in a bank. A simple, declarative sentence, a biographical fact. Not the subject of dissertations or the reason two hefty volumes of The...
“I love reading another reader’s list of favorites. Even when I find I do not...”
– T. S. Eliot (via bookoasis)
“You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you, but at...”
– Frederick Buechner (via moreofamore)
“It wasn’t that I wanted to be a writer; I just didn’t want to be stupid.”
– David Carr, The Night of the Gun (via scribbleatthecoffeehouse)
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Thanks for the comments about my transition...
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I'd give my left nut to write half as good as...
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“I never went to college. I couldn’t afford it. I graduated from the library when...”
– Ray Bradbury (via axelgonz08)
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I'm at an impasse with my current novel. 6...
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“Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.”
– Bertolt Brecht
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“To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze...”
– John Ruskin; The Stones Of Venice
origamiunicorn asked: “Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.” -Stephen Fry. Looking at your posts on discussion about ebooks. Indeed the closure of bookstores like Borders is a worrying trend, publishing seems to be a big issue too. but regardless. books, ideas, writers will always be here to stay. kudos!