March 2012
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“If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don’t bother to vote, you are in...”
– David Foster Wallace, “Up, Simba”
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“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to...”
– Yogi Berra; When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!: Inspiration and Wisdom From One of Baseball’s Greatest Heroes
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“When it was dark, you always carried the sun in your hand for me.”
– Sean O’Casey; Three More Plays: The Silver Tassie, Purple Dust, Red Roses For Me
On Writing Symbolism into Your Work →
avajae:
While not an absolutely necessary element, writing symbolism into your story is a fantastic way to deepen the meaning of your novel and tie everything together. Not all of your readers will pick up on every element of symbolism that you write into your novel, but those who do will appreciate the nuances in your work.
Do you write symbolism into your story? What examples can you think of...
“Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whiskey and drive fast on empty streets...”
– Hunter S. Thompson (via alisonwynn)
[Sounds like every Friday night back when I was in college!]
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“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal,...”
– John Green
Top 10 Most Misunderstood Lines in Literary... →
nouvellabooks:
For those looking to laugh out loud.
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“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art...”
– Elie Wiesel
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All 7 Harry Potter Books Are Now Available On The...
FYI … for those of you who own a Nook. You can shop for them directly on whichever Nook you own. Cheers!
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Crazy Customers
Customer: I'm having trouble with my Nook.
Me: I'm sorry. What seems to be the trouble?
Customer: The book I'm reading is stuck on the page.
Me: [Turning on the Nook and opening up the digital book] Is this the book?
Customer: Yes. It won't go past that page.
Me: Well, you're on the last page. See here [pointing at the page number]. You're on page 391 of 391.
Customer: [Looking at me like a deer in headlights] I feel so stupid.
Me Wanting To Say: Well, this certainly removes any doubt in my mind.
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Alfred A. Knopf Books: Congratulations, Julie... →
aaknopf:
She’s just been selected as the winner of this year’s PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her novel The Buddha in the Attic. The judges—Marita Golden, Maureen Howard, and Steve Yarbrough—considered more than 350 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the U.S. during…
I read The Buddha in the Attic last fall. Good book.
skies-of-honey asked: I worked for Borders for five years, and I agree with absolutely everything you said in your post about working in a bookstore. Unfortunately, even though you're working a "book culture", it's still a retail environment and you will get tons of people who are there to pick up books for their kids, buy presents, or just stumble in to find the pop-psychology book that was...
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Shopping in a Bookstore Does Not Make One...
Last year when I was cut by the State of Texas from my teaching position, I decided I wanted to leave teaching (despite the fact that there were no longer any teaching positions available in my area) and go work in a bookstore. I worked for Half-Price Books many years ago so I applied for a position at two of their locations in my area. In the meantime, I knew a manager at a particular Barnes...
Killing Charlemagne: Belief and Technique for... →
killingcharlemagne:
Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
Submissive to everything, open, listening
Try never get drunk outside yr own house
Be in love with yr life
Something that you feel will find its own form
Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
Blow as deep as you want to blow
Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
A 1996 Charlie Rose with Jonathan Franzen, David... →
barretta:
Excellent discussion of the modern novel that hinges on the effect of television on reading audiences, and the authorial inclination to adapt and change his work to his readers. I don’t have much use for Leyner, but the other two are excellent. There’s a moment in particular where you see Wallace gently poke fun at Franzen’s antipathy for television audiences—if you didn’t know they...
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The problem is not that I do not have enough to...
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“I don’t deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is...”
– Flannery O’Connor; The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
Cult of Speed: On writing by Paul Kingsnorth →
cultsofspeed:
On writing
Writers are desperate people, and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers - Charles Bukowski.
Sometimes people contact me asking for advice on ‘how to be a writer’. It’s always flattering, but I often feel I’ve let them down by not having the…
This is all good advice.
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“Now and then, an inch below the water’s surface, the muscles of his stomach...”
– Ian McEwan (Atonement)
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Those Crazy Customers
[I'm working the Nook stand wearing my name tag and . . .]
Customer: Do you work for Barnes & Noble?
Me: [Looking down at my name tag]
Customer: I mean, do you work here [referring to the Nook area] or for Barnes & Noble?
Me: This [referring to the Nook area] is Barnes & Noble.
Customer: [Forces a strange laugh] Can you help me find a book?
Me Wanting To Say: NO! You seriously need more help than just finding books.
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“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born...”
– Gabriel García Márquez; Love in the Time of Cholera
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“Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.”
– Stéphane Mallarmé
Amanda On Writing: Henry Miller on Writing →
amandaonwriting:
Henry Miller (from Henry Miller on Writing)
1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4. Work according to the program and not according…
I take exception to point 1. I have worked on multiple things. If you have...
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“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns...”
– Anne Lamott
I'm Off To See The Wizard!
