So, you know you're a writer when: your friend gives you a writing lock-in for your birthday and your brother gives you a book titled, The Dictionary of Disagreeable English: A Curmudgeon's Compendium of Excruciatingly Correct Grammar. However nerdy they may seem, I LOVE those gifts.
The lock-in was a delight (even though I was an idiot and left my power chord over an hour away in my apartment so my battery died part way through the day and I ended up writing everything up by hand). With my ADD being how it is I got up every half hour or so and wandered the floor of the building. It proved to be an exceptionally fun way to take a break. If I didn't have to work and I could stay home and write all day I would spend my day at Grub Street HQ writing. Just the fact that they had an action figure of E.A. Poe should tell you how cool this place was. I am all for it. I also managed to get a LOT of writing done.
The book is funny and informational. It makes me actually enjoy grammar. Anybody else think that's weird? He has an insultingly brilliant way of commenting on the stupidity of the misuse of language. I highly recommend checking it out.
15 June 2008
10 June 2008
A cool set of book quotes
Some people don't believe that I collect quotes so here is a selection:
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like. ~ Abraham Lincoln
After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books. ~ Albert Camus
For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives.
~ Boston Athenaeum - Amy Lowell
All books are either dreams or swords,
You can cut, or you can drug, with words.
~ Sword Blades and Poppy Seed – Amy Lowell
I have a real soft spot in my heart for librarians and people who care about books. Ann Richards
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. ~ Barbara Tuchman
There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it. ~ Bertrand Russell
A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Cicero
A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you. ~ Daniel J. Boorstein
I don't think one can accurately measure the historical effectiveness of a poem; but one does know, of course, that books influence individuals; and individuals, although they are part of large economic and social processes, influence history. Every mass is after all made up of millions of individuals. ~ Denise Levertov
The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it. ~ Elizabeth Drew
The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you the knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. ~ Elizabeth Hardwick
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away.
~ Emily Dickinson
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed on and digested. ~ Francis Bacon
Readers are plentiful, thinkers are rare. ~ Harriet Martineau
I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read about the effects of smoking that he gave up reading. ~ Henry G. Strauss
A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum -- of both books and money! But especially books, for books represent infinitely more than money. A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold. ~ Henry Miller
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books. ~ Katharine Mansfield
Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. ~ Kathleen Norris
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. ~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal. ~ Lenore Hershey
She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. ~ Louisa May Alcott
A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body. ~ Margaret Fuller
There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself. ~ Mark Twain
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. ~ Mark Twain
In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. ~ Mortimer Adler
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. ~ Mortimer Adler
Our house was a temple to The Book. We owned thousands, nay millions of books. They lined the walls, filled the cupboards, and turned the floor into a maze far more complex than Hampton Court's. Books ruled our lives. They were our demigods. ~ Nick Bantock
A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas—a place where history comes to life. ~ Norman Cousins
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. ~ Oscar Wilde
Books are the best of things, well used; abused, the worst. What is the right use? What is the end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some books leave us free and some books make us free. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty. ~ Theodore Parker
[A] lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools. ~ Thomas Jefferson
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the intercourse with superior minds... In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most previous thought, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. ~ William Ellery Channing
"Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book." ~ Stephan Mallarme
"Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." ~ Isaiah 34:16
"The road to knowledge begins with the turn of the page." ~ Anonymous
"The sensation felt when touching paper differs from the coldness of metal or
the perfection of plastic as it radiates a core warmth that we expect to come
from a living object. Each fiber greets our hands in a comfortable, familiar
tradition that we were introduced to as children, and constantly thereafter in
school and at work. Most of the paper we use is bleached perfectly white with
just enough texture to reliably meet the rubber rollers of a copy machine. Yet
once in a while we are fortunate enough to encounter the kind of graphic design
that not only visually stimulates, but that we can also taste with.”
~ The Reactive Square - John Maeda
"A book is a human-powered film projector (complete with feature film) that
advances at a speed fully customized to the viewer's mood or fancy. This rare harmony between object and user arises from the minimal skills required to manipulate a bound sequence of pages. Each piece of paper embodies a
corresponding instant of time which remains frozen until liberated by the
act of turning a page." ~ The Reactive Square - John Maeda
"We read about 1,000 times more than we write." ~ Xerox PARC - Rich Gold
"We think of an eBook as an intelligent pet." ~ BeeHive Hypertext - Talan Memmot
"Reading surrounds us, labels us, defines us." ~ Xerox PARC - Rich Gold
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." ~ St. Augustine
"It took people 10 years to figure out that while stuck in a morning commute, they could be listening to a book." ~ Publishers Weekly - Paul Hilts
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." ~ Alvin Toffler
"Change can be scary. When papyrus replaced clay tablets, and the Gutenberg press calligraphy, did a bit of panic set in? Are we in the midst of a revolution of similar proportion? Very probably." ~ Susan McLester
A popular admonition goes “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Yet we do it all the time. We ascribe qualities of character to people based on their physical characteristics. And our language takes shape to reflect that attitude. ~ Anu Garg
"A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas—a place where history comes to life." ~ Norman Cousins
"We should not see print and electronic literature as in competition, but rather in conversation. The more voices that join in, the richer the dialogue is likely to be."
~ N. Katherine Hayles
"A good library is a palace where the lofty spirits of all nations and generations meet." ~ Samuel Niger
"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” ~ Jorge Luis Borges
"The public library is the most dangerous place in town.” ~ John Ciardi
"A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life." ~ Henry Ward Beecher
"If information is the currency of democracy, then libraries are the banks.”
~ Wendell Ford
"Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn." ~ Leo Tolstoy
"A circulating library in a town is an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge!”
~ Richard Brinsley Sheridan
"The closest thing we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library.”
~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission." ~ Toni Morrison
"The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history. ~ Carl Thomas Rowan
"Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became the courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries." ~ Arthur Ashe
"I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries." ~ Carl Sagan
"The printed page transcends space and time. The printed page, the infinity of the book, must be transcended." ~ The Electro-Library - El Lissitzky
"When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will
have knowledge." ~ The Book of the Book – Idries Shah
"Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." ~ Ecclesiastes 12:12
"Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen.
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content,
And what obscured in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margin of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover.
The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide.
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory
That in golden clasps locks in the story.
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
By having him making yourself no less."
Lady Capulet talking to Juliet, compares the young lover's face
to a most captivating book and invites her to read in it with delight.
~ Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
"The body of Benjamin Franklin
Printer,
Like the covering
Of an old book
Its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering
And gilding
Lies here, food for worms;
But the work
Shall not be lost,
It will (as he believed)
Appear once more,
In a new
And more beautiful edition,
Corrected and amended
By the author."
~ Epitaph for Benjamin Franklin
"Books may well be the only true magic." ~ Alice Hoffman
"Books are the carriers of civilization…They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print." ~ Barbara W. Tuchman
"I grew up kissing books and bread." ~ Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie
"A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return." ~ Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie
"It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful."
~ Vincent van Gogh
"Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself. What better book can there be than the book of humanity?" Mohandas K. Gandhi
"The true university of these days is a collection of books." The Hero as Man of Letters - Thomas Carlyle
“What is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
~ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
"For books are more than books. They are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives." ~ Amy Lowell
"The age of the book is about gone." ~ George Steiner
"I cannot live without books." ~ In a letter to John Adams - Thomas Jefferson
"If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it." ~ Toni Morrison
"Keep reading books, but remember that a book’s only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself." ~Maxim Gorky
"I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book." ~ Groucho Marx
"There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and at forty-eight." ~ ABC of Reading - Ezra Pound
"Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty."
~ George Bernard Shaw
"What in the world would we do without our libraries?" ~ Katharine Hepburn
"I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit
in a library." ~ The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."
~ Almansor - Heinrich Heine
"Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons." ~ Message to the American Booksellers Association - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Even bad books are books, and therefore sacred." ~ The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
"God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide." ~ The Strange Necessity - Rebecca West
"The portability of the book, like that of the easel painting, added much to the new cult of individualism." ~ The Gutenburg Galaxy - Marshall McLuhan
"A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down."
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
"Still, the E-book is not a passing thing, but here to stay as it becomes cheaper and improved. Nonetheless, it is really no more than a screen upon which to read, and it is clear that when enough people start reading them, electronic books will do for the ophthalmologists what taffy and caramels did for dentists." ~ The New York Times - Martin Arnold
"Classic—a book people praise and don’t read." Following the Equator - Mark ~ Twain
"Every book is a failure." ~ George Orwell
"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."
~ Charles Dickens
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us."
~ Franz Kafka
"Every man must die sooner or later, but good books must be preserved."
~ Don Vincente
"You can never be too thin, too rich, or have too many books." ~ Vogue - Carter Burden
"Book-love, I say again, lasts throughout life, it never flags or fails, but, like Beauty itself, is a joy forever." ~ The Anatomy of Bibliomana Vol.II - Holbrook Jackson
"The written word remains. The spoken word takes wing and cannot be recalled." ~ Anonymous
"Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time." ~ John Ruskin
"Old books, you know well, are books of the world's youth, and new books are the fruits of its age." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Books in a large university library system: 2, 000,000. Books in an average large city library: 1 0,000. Average number of books in a chain bookstore: 30, 000. Books in an average neighborhood branch library: 20, 000." ~ Lois Horowitz
"There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all." ~ Oscar Wilde
"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts -- the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art." ~ John Ruskin
"The Bible remained for me a book of books, still divine -- but divine in the sense that all great books are divine which teach men how to live righteously." ~Sir Arthur Keith
"Some books leave us free and some books make us free." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last. " ~ John Ruskin
"The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry; The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy; The books that people talk about we never can recall; And the books that people give us, oh, they're the worst of all." ~Carolyn Wells
"In every fat book there is a thin book trying to get out." ~ Unknown
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like. ~ Abraham Lincoln
After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books. ~ Albert Camus
For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives.
~ Boston Athenaeum - Amy Lowell
All books are either dreams or swords,
You can cut, or you can drug, with words.
~ Sword Blades and Poppy Seed – Amy Lowell
I have a real soft spot in my heart for librarians and people who care about books. Ann Richards
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. ~ Barbara Tuchman
There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it. ~ Bertrand Russell
A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Cicero
A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you. ~ Daniel J. Boorstein
I don't think one can accurately measure the historical effectiveness of a poem; but one does know, of course, that books influence individuals; and individuals, although they are part of large economic and social processes, influence history. Every mass is after all made up of millions of individuals. ~ Denise Levertov
The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it. ~ Elizabeth Drew
The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you the knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. ~ Elizabeth Hardwick
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away.
~ Emily Dickinson
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed on and digested. ~ Francis Bacon
Readers are plentiful, thinkers are rare. ~ Harriet Martineau
I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read about the effects of smoking that he gave up reading. ~ Henry G. Strauss
A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum -- of both books and money! But especially books, for books represent infinitely more than money. A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold. ~ Henry Miller
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books. ~ Katharine Mansfield
Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. ~ Kathleen Norris
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. ~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal. ~ Lenore Hershey
She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. ~ Louisa May Alcott
A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body. ~ Margaret Fuller
There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself. ~ Mark Twain
Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. ~ Mark Twain
In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. ~ Mortimer Adler
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. ~ Mortimer Adler
Our house was a temple to The Book. We owned thousands, nay millions of books. They lined the walls, filled the cupboards, and turned the floor into a maze far more complex than Hampton Court's. Books ruled our lives. They were our demigods. ~ Nick Bantock
A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas—a place where history comes to life. ~ Norman Cousins
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. ~ Oscar Wilde
Books are the best of things, well used; abused, the worst. What is the right use? What is the end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some books leave us free and some books make us free. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty. ~ Theodore Parker
[A] lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools. ~ Thomas Jefferson
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the intercourse with superior minds... In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most previous thought, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. ~ William Ellery Channing
"Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book." ~ Stephan Mallarme
"Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." ~ Isaiah 34:16
"The road to knowledge begins with the turn of the page." ~ Anonymous
"The sensation felt when touching paper differs from the coldness of metal or
the perfection of plastic as it radiates a core warmth that we expect to come
from a living object. Each fiber greets our hands in a comfortable, familiar
tradition that we were introduced to as children, and constantly thereafter in
school and at work. Most of the paper we use is bleached perfectly white with
just enough texture to reliably meet the rubber rollers of a copy machine. Yet
once in a while we are fortunate enough to encounter the kind of graphic design
that not only visually stimulates, but that we can also taste with.”
~ The Reactive Square - John Maeda
"A book is a human-powered film projector (complete with feature film) that
advances at a speed fully customized to the viewer's mood or fancy. This rare harmony between object and user arises from the minimal skills required to manipulate a bound sequence of pages. Each piece of paper embodies a
corresponding instant of time which remains frozen until liberated by the
act of turning a page." ~ The Reactive Square - John Maeda
"We read about 1,000 times more than we write." ~ Xerox PARC - Rich Gold
"We think of an eBook as an intelligent pet." ~ BeeHive Hypertext - Talan Memmot
"Reading surrounds us, labels us, defines us." ~ Xerox PARC - Rich Gold
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." ~ St. Augustine
"It took people 10 years to figure out that while stuck in a morning commute, they could be listening to a book." ~ Publishers Weekly - Paul Hilts
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." ~ Alvin Toffler
"Change can be scary. When papyrus replaced clay tablets, and the Gutenberg press calligraphy, did a bit of panic set in? Are we in the midst of a revolution of similar proportion? Very probably." ~ Susan McLester
A popular admonition goes “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Yet we do it all the time. We ascribe qualities of character to people based on their physical characteristics. And our language takes shape to reflect that attitude. ~ Anu Garg
"A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas—a place where history comes to life." ~ Norman Cousins
"We should not see print and electronic literature as in competition, but rather in conversation. The more voices that join in, the richer the dialogue is likely to be."
~ N. Katherine Hayles
"A good library is a palace where the lofty spirits of all nations and generations meet." ~ Samuel Niger
"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” ~ Jorge Luis Borges
"The public library is the most dangerous place in town.” ~ John Ciardi
"A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life." ~ Henry Ward Beecher
"If information is the currency of democracy, then libraries are the banks.”
~ Wendell Ford
"Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn." ~ Leo Tolstoy
"A circulating library in a town is an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge!”
~ Richard Brinsley Sheridan
"The closest thing we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library.”
~ Ashleigh Brilliant
"Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission." ~ Toni Morrison
"The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history. ~ Carl Thomas Rowan
"Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became the courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries." ~ Arthur Ashe
"I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries." ~ Carl Sagan
"The printed page transcends space and time. The printed page, the infinity of the book, must be transcended." ~ The Electro-Library - El Lissitzky
"When you realize the difference between the container and the content, you will
have knowledge." ~ The Book of the Book – Idries Shah
"Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." ~ Ecclesiastes 12:12
"Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen.
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content,
And what obscured in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margin of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover.
The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide.
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory
That in golden clasps locks in the story.
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
By having him making yourself no less."
Lady Capulet talking to Juliet, compares the young lover's face
to a most captivating book and invites her to read in it with delight.
~ Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
"The body of Benjamin Franklin
Printer,
Like the covering
Of an old book
Its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering
And gilding
Lies here, food for worms;
But the work
Shall not be lost,
It will (as he believed)
Appear once more,
In a new
And more beautiful edition,
Corrected and amended
By the author."
~ Epitaph for Benjamin Franklin
"Books may well be the only true magic." ~ Alice Hoffman
"Books are the carriers of civilization…They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print." ~ Barbara W. Tuchman
"I grew up kissing books and bread." ~ Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie
"A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return." ~ Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie
"It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful."
~ Vincent van Gogh
"Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself. What better book can there be than the book of humanity?" Mohandas K. Gandhi
"The true university of these days is a collection of books." The Hero as Man of Letters - Thomas Carlyle
“What is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
~ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
"For books are more than books. They are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives." ~ Amy Lowell
"The age of the book is about gone." ~ George Steiner
"I cannot live without books." ~ In a letter to John Adams - Thomas Jefferson
"If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it." ~ Toni Morrison
"Keep reading books, but remember that a book’s only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself." ~Maxim Gorky
"I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book." ~ Groucho Marx
"There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and at forty-eight." ~ ABC of Reading - Ezra Pound
"Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty."
~ George Bernard Shaw
"What in the world would we do without our libraries?" ~ Katharine Hepburn
"I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit
in a library." ~ The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."
~ Almansor - Heinrich Heine
"Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons." ~ Message to the American Booksellers Association - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Even bad books are books, and therefore sacred." ~ The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
"God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide." ~ The Strange Necessity - Rebecca West
"The portability of the book, like that of the easel painting, added much to the new cult of individualism." ~ The Gutenburg Galaxy - Marshall McLuhan
"A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down."
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
"Still, the E-book is not a passing thing, but here to stay as it becomes cheaper and improved. Nonetheless, it is really no more than a screen upon which to read, and it is clear that when enough people start reading them, electronic books will do for the ophthalmologists what taffy and caramels did for dentists." ~ The New York Times - Martin Arnold
"Classic—a book people praise and don’t read." Following the Equator - Mark ~ Twain
"Every book is a failure." ~ George Orwell
"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."
~ Charles Dickens
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us."
~ Franz Kafka
"Every man must die sooner or later, but good books must be preserved."
~ Don Vincente
"You can never be too thin, too rich, or have too many books." ~ Vogue - Carter Burden
"Book-love, I say again, lasts throughout life, it never flags or fails, but, like Beauty itself, is a joy forever." ~ The Anatomy of Bibliomana Vol.II - Holbrook Jackson
"The written word remains. The spoken word takes wing and cannot be recalled." ~ Anonymous
"Books are divided into two classes, the books of the hour and the books of all time." ~ John Ruskin
"Old books, you know well, are books of the world's youth, and new books are the fruits of its age." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Books in a large university library system: 2, 000,000. Books in an average large city library: 1 0,000. Average number of books in a chain bookstore: 30, 000. Books in an average neighborhood branch library: 20, 000." ~ Lois Horowitz
"There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all." ~ Oscar Wilde
"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts -- the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art." ~ John Ruskin
"The Bible remained for me a book of books, still divine -- but divine in the sense that all great books are divine which teach men how to live righteously." ~Sir Arthur Keith
"Some books leave us free and some books make us free." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last. " ~ John Ruskin
"The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry; The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy; The books that people talk about we never can recall; And the books that people give us, oh, they're the worst of all." ~Carolyn Wells
"In every fat book there is a thin book trying to get out." ~ Unknown
"Miss, why do you write?"
The title is the simple and complex question from one of my students today when I told them that for my birthday I was doing a writing lock-in. She couldn't understand why I would want to do that or be excited by it. When I told her writing is a compulsion I had to explain compulsion. (What would you expect? They're my English Language Learners and while they may not speak English as their first language I will defend my point that they are brilliant for being able to work in two languages to anyone who is fool enough to think otherwise based on accents.) Explaining compulsion is what really got me thinking.
I write because I have to. It's not that it's the only way I express myself because I show the beauty in the world in my art and photographs. I show the range of feeling through music and theatre. So, what is it that makes writing not just something I love, but something that I MUST do? Honestly, I haven't figured it out. It's been tossed around in my head all day and I just don't know. How do I explain my need to write and my OCD love of books? I love the scent of paper and ink. (I agree with Giles that "Knowledge should be smelly") I love the feel of a pen on paper or the rhythm of typing. I love the sound of it. It's very textured for me. Very tactile.
When I told my student that I couldn't explain she asked me, "What inspires you?" (I was so proud of the vocabulary word usage!) When I told her benches (see my favorite bench at the top of the page), manholes, rocks, trees, fire hydrants, weird street signs, fashion, animals, sunsets, the ocean, lakes, colours, music, and anything else that she sees around her that people take for granted she looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I am. She asked me about paperclips and I told her I could write a story about a paperclip so she challenged me to make on up on the spot. By the time we got to the end of this five minute discussion the paperclip wanted to be a staple so that it could stay in one place because it had gotten tired of moving from one stack of papers to another. It then talked with a staple and decided they didn't have it any better being a staple because they were often forgotten and bent out of shape and it wanted to be free. It was actually fairly interesting and my students were fascinated that their teacher has such a strange imagination. But they enjoyed it and asked to write a stories next year. I told them I would work it in.
All that being said, I've decided that one of my goals this summer is going to be to put together a slide show of things that inspire me. I will put together a slide show of the pictures in my writing notebooks and take pictures of more things. I'm going to include that here for people who really are interested in what makes as spec-fic author write, let alone a nutjob who can write a story about a paperclip. :-P
I write because I have to. It's not that it's the only way I express myself because I show the beauty in the world in my art and photographs. I show the range of feeling through music and theatre. So, what is it that makes writing not just something I love, but something that I MUST do? Honestly, I haven't figured it out. It's been tossed around in my head all day and I just don't know. How do I explain my need to write and my OCD love of books? I love the scent of paper and ink. (I agree with Giles that "Knowledge should be smelly") I love the feel of a pen on paper or the rhythm of typing. I love the sound of it. It's very textured for me. Very tactile.
When I told my student that I couldn't explain she asked me, "What inspires you?" (I was so proud of the vocabulary word usage!) When I told her benches (see my favorite bench at the top of the page), manholes, rocks, trees, fire hydrants, weird street signs, fashion, animals, sunsets, the ocean, lakes, colours, music, and anything else that she sees around her that people take for granted she looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I am. She asked me about paperclips and I told her I could write a story about a paperclip so she challenged me to make on up on the spot. By the time we got to the end of this five minute discussion the paperclip wanted to be a staple so that it could stay in one place because it had gotten tired of moving from one stack of papers to another. It then talked with a staple and decided they didn't have it any better being a staple because they were often forgotten and bent out of shape and it wanted to be free. It was actually fairly interesting and my students were fascinated that their teacher has such a strange imagination. But they enjoyed it and asked to write a stories next year. I told them I would work it in.
All that being said, I've decided that one of my goals this summer is going to be to put together a slide show of things that inspire me. I will put together a slide show of the pictures in my writing notebooks and take pictures of more things. I'm going to include that here for people who really are interested in what makes as spec-fic author write, let alone a nutjob who can write a story about a paperclip. :-P
09 June 2008
Yea for lock-ins!
*Click on the title for the Grub Street website*
So, on Saturday, for my 25th birthday present from Kid (my former Frosh/Soph college roommate and then my grad school roomie as well) is a lock-in via Grub Street. Yes, my friends, I will be locked-in and writing on Saturday (the day before my birthday) before a crazy dinner and karaoke night with my friends. This is what their calendar has to say about this most auspicious of occasions:
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
$50/$25 members, fee includes catered breakfast and lunch, unlimited coffee, and sporadic wireless internet access. Taking a Grb Street class is a fantastic way to learn the craft of creative writing, as well as a way to connect with other writers, revise your manuscripts and get ideas for future stories. But it's not sitting down and actually putting pen to paper for multiple hours and cranking out the words. That's what the Lock-In is all about. For one day, be the dedicated writer you always want to be at our seven-hour catered lock-in. You'll meet and visit with Grub Street staff and other writers, eat good food, and have fun getting a month's worth of writing done in one afternoon at our inspiring headquarters. In fact, you'll have no choice. Open to writers of all genres.
All I have to say is BIC HOK TAM! For those of you who don't know what that means, it's an acronym for "Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard, Typing Away Madly". It is one of my favourite cheers from the Book in a Week (BIW) and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) groups. And besides going into total writer mode I'm going to be not only reminded to eat, but rather I am going to be given food. Considering I am one of those writers who is a bit of the absent minded professor types and food appears nowhere on my radar while working that is a good thing. I need to be reminded. I'm only human after all (much as my brain wanders non-human paths in the effort to edit and write my spec fic novels).
So, yea Kid for the perfect writing present for a writer. Though I should expect it as she is a writer herself.
All I have to say is BIC HOK TAM! For those of you who don't know what that means, it's an acronym for "Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard, Typing Away Madly". It is one of my favourite cheers from the Book in a Week (BIW) and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) groups. And besides going into total writer mode I'm going to be not only reminded to eat, but rather I am going to be given food. Considering I am one of those writers who is a bit of the absent minded professor types and food appears nowhere on my radar while working that is a good thing. I need to be reminded. I'm only human after all (much as my brain wanders non-human paths in the effort to edit and write my spec fic novels).
So, yea Kid for the perfect writing present for a writer. Though I should expect it as she is a writer herself.
05 June 2008
Scrivener
*Click on the title of this entry to go to the webpage for the program*
So, Scrivener is probably the best writing program I've ever seen, let alone used. I believe that my first quote about it was: "It's writing ART!" and I meant it. It allows me to do all sorts of things that I wouldn't normally be able to do (a.k.a. remain organised).
Scrivener has given me the ability to combine my whole mess of ways I write into one program. I have notecards for plot, places, characters, and chapters. I've colour-coded them according to groups, books, race, gender, etc. I can mark the chapter cards with whether they're done, edited, first draft, N/A and any other label I so choose. As someone who is planning on getting her first novel into the hands of an agent/publisher by Christmas that's a good thing. The thing that has been holding me back for years was I couldn't keep track of what I'd edited. I started the trilogy at 12, finished it all by the time I was 18, and have been editing since. Seriously, people think Tolkien taking 7 years and sleeping with his ms is nuts. I'm going on 13 years at this point. Anything that keeps me organised and on track it brilliant.
You can look at things in an outline mode, chapter by chapter, or on a corkboard with notecards. From the above description you can guess which view I like. In all seriousness, the colours, labels, and views save me time, energy, and frustration. I find that I am getting everything done more quickly and smoothly. For me, Scrivener is decidedly the best program out there. It's such a relief to find a program that's intuitive enough for me to recommend it to others, pretty and smooth enough to keep me organised, and varied enough to keep my attention.
So, I say, "Three cheers for Scrivener! Three cheers for the person/people who created it! Three cheers for being able to keep me on target!
So, Scrivener is probably the best writing program I've ever seen, let alone used. I believe that my first quote about it was: "It's writing ART!" and I meant it. It allows me to do all sorts of things that I wouldn't normally be able to do (a.k.a. remain organised).
Scrivener has given me the ability to combine my whole mess of ways I write into one program. I have notecards for plot, places, characters, and chapters. I've colour-coded them according to groups, books, race, gender, etc. I can mark the chapter cards with whether they're done, edited, first draft, N/A and any other label I so choose. As someone who is planning on getting her first novel into the hands of an agent/publisher by Christmas that's a good thing. The thing that has been holding me back for years was I couldn't keep track of what I'd edited. I started the trilogy at 12, finished it all by the time I was 18, and have been editing since. Seriously, people think Tolkien taking 7 years and sleeping with his ms is nuts. I'm going on 13 years at this point. Anything that keeps me organised and on track it brilliant.
You can look at things in an outline mode, chapter by chapter, or on a corkboard with notecards. From the above description you can guess which view I like. In all seriousness, the colours, labels, and views save me time, energy, and frustration. I find that I am getting everything done more quickly and smoothly. For me, Scrivener is decidedly the best program out there. It's such a relief to find a program that's intuitive enough for me to recommend it to others, pretty and smooth enough to keep me organised, and varied enough to keep my attention.
So, I say, "Three cheers for Scrivener! Three cheers for the person/people who created it! Three cheers for being able to keep me on target!
03 June 2008
Critic Vs. Editor
So, as my friend so bluntly put it, "As a critic you're kind but as an editor you're kinda a b****". I've come to realise that she's right. I'm sweet as can be when I'm reviewing something basically because I choose what I'm reading and it's already caught my attention because it feels polished to me. I pick up a book for many reasons. It's been recommended to me. It's got a cool cover. It's by an author I like. It's title is rather spiffy. The pen name of the author makes my brain go "Wow, nifty name". The list goes on and on. But no matter what, there is something about the book that has made me pick it up and go "This is what I'm reading next."
As an editor I'm incredibly harsh, though never rude. I will absolutely tear a piece to shreds if I think it needs to be. Every line can literally be cut to pieces. It can be bleeding coloured pixels or ink (depending on if it's emailed or given to me in ms format) and I won't feel bad about it. I think this comes from a combination of several things. 1. I am a writer myself and a perfectionist so if something doesn't work I want to hear it. I may not change it, but I want to hear it. 2. I've been a part of this wonderful group called Other Worlds Writers' Workshop for something like 6 years and we're incredibly harsh with each other's work because the goal is to get it published.
OWWW (both the sound you make when you read your first crits and an acronym for the group) is near and dear to my heart. Short Stories in a Week, the Crazy Crit Challenge, and other such silly and writerly stuff make me smile. They also frustrate me, aggravate me, and make me want to take a flying leap on occasion. The general guideline there is to shred something with kind intentions. Basically, tell the author what you really think but keep in mind that they wrote it and love their work as much as you love yours. From this stuff I've gotten a much thicker skin and the ability to see all feedback as just that, feedback. I don't take it for the Holy Book, nor do I completely discount it. I use what I want and don't take the rest personally.
Now, I was asked by someone to critique his work who is not in the group. I did so in my frank way and met with a bit of backlash for it. Apparently, that style of critique was not what he was looking for though he said he wanted straightforward thoughts and opinions, comments and questions, and edits and adds. I feel a bit bad for that. If I had known that he didn't want me to be that frank I wouldn't have. Now, my overall comments are generally good with my thoughts on characters and plot but my critique I'm guessing felt a little harsh as the line by line is generally things that need to be changed in my opinion with only the really stand out good things mentioned. What I've realised through criting the first couple of chapters of this guy's book is that I need to remember that someone who isn't in a serious crit group online or in person doesn't have the same level of toughness about a crit that I do and I need to remember that. Poor fella. I really do feel bad, even though I've never met him.
As an editor I'm incredibly harsh, though never rude. I will absolutely tear a piece to shreds if I think it needs to be. Every line can literally be cut to pieces. It can be bleeding coloured pixels or ink (depending on if it's emailed or given to me in ms format) and I won't feel bad about it. I think this comes from a combination of several things. 1. I am a writer myself and a perfectionist so if something doesn't work I want to hear it. I may not change it, but I want to hear it. 2. I've been a part of this wonderful group called Other Worlds Writers' Workshop for something like 6 years and we're incredibly harsh with each other's work because the goal is to get it published.
OWWW (both the sound you make when you read your first crits and an acronym for the group) is near and dear to my heart. Short Stories in a Week, the Crazy Crit Challenge, and other such silly and writerly stuff make me smile. They also frustrate me, aggravate me, and make me want to take a flying leap on occasion. The general guideline there is to shred something with kind intentions. Basically, tell the author what you really think but keep in mind that they wrote it and love their work as much as you love yours. From this stuff I've gotten a much thicker skin and the ability to see all feedback as just that, feedback. I don't take it for the Holy Book, nor do I completely discount it. I use what I want and don't take the rest personally.
Now, I was asked by someone to critique his work who is not in the group. I did so in my frank way and met with a bit of backlash for it. Apparently, that style of critique was not what he was looking for though he said he wanted straightforward thoughts and opinions, comments and questions, and edits and adds. I feel a bit bad for that. If I had known that he didn't want me to be that frank I wouldn't have. Now, my overall comments are generally good with my thoughts on characters and plot but my critique I'm guessing felt a little harsh as the line by line is generally things that need to be changed in my opinion with only the really stand out good things mentioned. What I've realised through criting the first couple of chapters of this guy's book is that I need to remember that someone who isn't in a serious crit group online or in person doesn't have the same level of toughness about a crit that I do and I need to remember that. Poor fella. I really do feel bad, even though I've never met him.
The Baronet's Song (originally called: Sir Gibbie) by George MacDonald *****
*Click the title of this entry to go to a webpage with the whole book on it*
This is one of my all time favourite books. It was published in the US in the year of my birth and I knew it growing up as The Baronet's Song. My mother gave it to me as a child. I fell in love with the Scottish accents and the young mute boy by the name of Gibbie. He's the first literary character I remember having a serious crush on, truth be told.
I thought of it today because I was writing a critique for a friend of mine and for the first four pages his main character did not speak, even when spoken to. I loved it. I thought, at last somebody has written another story using the same sort of issues that the "Wee Sir Gibbie" had. Turns out, my friend's character does speak, but is a man of few words.
Anyhow, I went online to see what I could find of my dearly beloved book and found the website I have linked into the title. If you click on it you will be taken to an online copy of the book. MacDonald was an inspiration to many authors we know and love today (like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, and W.H. Auden to name a few) though he's been somewhat forgotten by current readers. I recommend that people read his writing, though some may struggle with the musical Scottish accents (yes, they are written in). All of his books are well worth the read and for the humanity they remind us of and the warmth they bring to the heart.
02 June 2008
A change in focus and the why of it
So, what I've determined is that essentially I have no time to read complete books. That depresses me more than somewhat, but, as I have to keep up with stuff for the kids and they take priority that is that. I adore my students and my focus is on them.
As a result, rather than feeling like "Damn, I haven't read a complete book!" I thought I would go, "Hey, that's an interesting thought!" and put those in here too. The focus is still literary and artistic because I am me after all, but I think I'll broaden the scope and see if that gets me writing in here more.
I'm also a fan of my new layout. It's all fresh and new for summer. Plus, that's my photograph up there and that's a cool addition. Let people see what I do with a camera, a park bench in NH, and the noonday sun. Don't think it turned out half bad. And it feels nice and summery.
As a result, rather than feeling like "Damn, I haven't read a complete book!" I thought I would go, "Hey, that's an interesting thought!" and put those in here too. The focus is still literary and artistic because I am me after all, but I think I'll broaden the scope and see if that gets me writing in here more.
I'm also a fan of my new layout. It's all fresh and new for summer. Plus, that's my photograph up there and that's a cool addition. Let people see what I do with a camera, a park bench in NH, and the noonday sun. Don't think it turned out half bad. And it feels nice and summery.
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