The Daily Rituals of Famous Writers [courtesy ShortList]
It’s quite interesting, although I could do without the judgmental tone about the de Beauvoir-Sartre relationship.
[Book Nerd Links] The Daily Rituals of Famous Writers
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Tag Archives: Lists
A to Z Reading Challenge: My Answers
I ran across this on Not a Punk Rocker. I enjoyed reading her answers, so I thought I would participate, too. It’s not as if I am working against a deadline today. Nope, I am not shirking my professional duties to write this post. Okay, so maybe I am taking a slight break. Yes, that is it. A break.
If you’re a long-time reader of A Small Press Life (and if you are, thank you!), you’ve probably wondered what happened to our own reader questionnaire series, [R]evolving Incarnations. Never fear. It returns this Friday.
Until then, there’s this.
Oh, and I’ve decided to do it backwards. Z to A, which is how my books are organized.
ZZZ-SNATCHER BOOK (LAST BOOK THAT KEPT YOU UP WAY LATE): I am a late-night reader, so this is a pretty normal occurrence. It helps that I work from home and set my own weird hours.
YOUR LATEST BOOK PURCHASE: You can read about my most-recent book shopping extravaganza here. I don’t think I’ve bought any since then, but I cannot be totally sure. Yes, I have a problem. Oops, okay. I was wrong. I purchased a book whilst on vacation, as well as this one in early August:
The Winning of Barbara Worth by Harold Bell Wright
I totally have a problem! Continue reading
[Book Nerd Links] Interesting Reads for a Lazy Sunday
- 30 Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes For Your Next Existential Crisis [courtesy Flavorwire]
- 5 of the Best Literary Frenemy Pairings [courtesy Flavorwire]
- Pablo Neruda poems ‘of extraordinary quality’ discovered [courtesy The Guardian]
- Robert Frost Was Neither Light Nor Dark [courtesy New Republic]
A Reading List a Mile Long: Daedalus Books New Arrivals Late Spring 2014
- The Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel Thief by Duncan Hamilton. $4.98.
- Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal. $6.98.
- Gilded Youth: Three Lives in France’s Belle Époque by Kate Cambor. $4.98.
- A Brief History of the Holy Grail: History, Myth, Religion by Giles Morgan. $4.98.
- The Paintings of John Duncan: A Scottish Symbolist by John Kemplay. $6.98.
- Schott’s Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany by Ben Schott. $3.98.
- The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder. Robin G. Wilder & Jackson R. Bryer, eds. $5.98.
- The Language Wars: A History of Proper English by Henry Hitchings. $6.98.
- Scotland’s Books: The Penguin History of Scottish Literature by Robert Crawford. $5.98.
- The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker by Alice Walker. $4.98.
- Henry James: The Mature Master by Sheldon M. Novick. $3.98.
- Beaton in the Sixties: More Unexpurgated Diaries by Cecil Beaton. $6.98.
- Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb. $6.98.
- Cleopatra: The Last Queen of Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley. $5.98.
- The Archeology of Home: An Epic Set on a Thousand Square Feet of the Lower East Side by Katharine Greider. $5.98.
- An Edwardian Housewife’s Companion: A Guide for the Perfect Home by Rowena Davison & Reuben Davison. $3.98.
[Book Nerd Humour] Let’s Use Slate’s Travoltify Your Name Generator on Some Dead Writers
- CHARLES DICKENS=CARYS DORNIELS
- VIRGINIA WOOLF=VICTOR WHAYTE
- JANE AUSTEN=JOE ALLORN
- LEO TOLSTOY=LUKE TAYZLOR
- KATHERINE MANSFIELD=KRISTOPHER MCEEZALD
- JACK KEROUAC=JIA KEENEEDIA
- F. SCOTT FITZGERALD=F. STUART FERZGUSON
- ZELDA FITZGERALD=ZARA FERZGUSON
- GEORGE ELIOT=GRACE EDJANS
- ERNEST HEMINGWAY=ELLIOT HARGISION
- ANNE BRONTË=AVA BORFES
- CHARLOTTE BRONTË=COLE BORFES
- EMILY BRONTË=ELIJAH BORFES
What does this alternate world look like?
Thanks to Vickie Lester for letting me know about the Travoltify Your Name generator!
Some of My Favourite Literary Biographies, Part One
I own a sizable collection of literary biographies. These are some of my favourites:
- Auden by Richard Davenport-Hines
- The Secret Life of Aphra Behn by Janet Todd
- Louise Bogan A Portrait by Elizabeth Frank
- Truman Capote by George Plimpton
- Secrets of the Flesh A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
- My Wars Are Laid Away in Books The Life of Emily Dickinson by Alfred Habegger
- Herself, Defined H.D. and Her World by Barbara Guest
- George Eliot A Life by Rosemary Ashton
Do you have a favourite?
My Top Six Cold Weather Writers
Cold weather never travels alone. It packs many well-loved delights in its frosty bag of tricks, including: hot chocolate, gingerbread, nifty patterned gloves and scarves, pumpkin-flavored everything, frozen breath, crackling wood fires, mulled beverages, and fairy lights. Whilst those are wonderful there are other, lesser extolled, pleasures in which to indulge: mint chocolate brownies, hot water bottle cozies, the scent of real pine, watching snow fall at midnight, and seasonal reading. Oh, seasonal reading! How I adore thee.
Yearly I turn to you, as the calendar begins its long hike through winter’s desolate days…
I seek you out to warm my cold soul and chapped heart…
You do things to me that hot drinks and heavy blankets never could…
What a comfort you are, my winter writers!
There is but one solution when faced with the inevitable onslaught of nasty, chilling weather: arm yourself to the teeth with a weighty supply of wonderful books, and dig in for the duration. As soon as temperatures sink, an instinctual survival mode kicks in and I start to ritualize my life-including a long-standing pattern of reading works by the same authors. The books themselves vary, of course, but their progenitors remain fixed. This time of year my preferences tend towards the following qualities of language, attitude, or thought: severity, hardiness, bareness, intellectual passion, bluntness, pluckiness, and mental or emotional resilience.
Do you read in such seasonal ways? If so, please share your favourite cold weather books and/or writers in the comments! Here is my list.
MY TOP SIX COLD WEATHER WRITERS
EMILY BRONTË
Emily Brontë by Branwell Brontë
REASON: Her solitary, willful disposition.
“I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide.”
ANTON CHEKHOV
Anton Chekhov, 1889
REASON: No one speaks to my deepest soul the way nineteenth-century Russian writers do, Chekhov chief amongst them.
“The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.”
EMILY DICKINSON
Emily Dickinson
REASON: The economy of her writing.
“One need not be a chamber to be haunted.” Continue reading
[Book Nerd Links] A Bunch of Links for Your Morning Reading Pleasure
- 50 of the Best Books You Haven’t Read by Authors You Already Love [courtesy FLAVORWIRE]
- 8 of the World’s Most Idyllic Creative Retreats [courtesy FLAVORWIRE]
- A Whistlestop Tour of Famous New York Artists’ Studios and Homes [courtesy FLAVORWIRE]
- 7 Books That Will Inspire You to be a Better Writer [courtesy HUFFPOST BOOKS]
- Why NYC Subway Riders Still Read Books [courtesy HUFFPOST BOOKS]
- Always Remember [courtesy THE PARIS REVIEW]
- #BookBeard Winner + The BookBeardies–Week One [courtesy HALF PRICE BOOKS]
[Book Nerd Links] The 50 Coolest Books Ever
The 50 Coolest Books Ever [courtesy ShortList.com]
Tell me, dear readers, is your idea of cool the same as theirs?
[Book Nerd Links] Ten Amazing Cheeses and Their Literary Counterparts
Cheese Reads: Ten Amazing Cheeses and Their Literary Counterparts [courtesy The Airship]
This is…different, and mouth-watering. Thoughts?
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