“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”-Oscar Wilde
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Tag Archives: Reading
Voices from the Grave #21: Kurt Vonnegut Interview
Kurt Vonnegut interview from 1991.
“It’s the only art that requires skill on the part of the audience.”
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“She reads Dickens in the spirit in which she would have eloped with him.”-Eudora Welty
[20 May 2012] This Week’s Lessons in Reading and Writing
- My ideal non-fiction to fiction reading ratio is 4 to 1.
- There are certain writers-as in certain foods-I just do not like. But it is still important to take them for a spin every couple of years to see if that has changed. You never know, I love mushrooms now.
- I can go a week without reading a magazine-any magazine-and not explode.
- The only way that I will devote time to fiction crafting is to firmly write it in, using indelible marker. Works every time. You’d think I would do that more often.
- I should pay more attention to contemporary fiction (that actually has a contemporary setting.).
- No matter how organized I am in other areas of my life (which is to say, I am usually HIGHLY organized) it is hard to apply that to my business for any extended period of time.
AND A LESSON RE-LEARNED:
- Know your strengths and use them to move or alter creative boundaries.
Daily Diversion #8: An Old Man’s Gift (The Ford Times)
I do the blogging for a local gallery chain. We carry a lot of Charley Harper pieces (as in, the most in the world). Nine months ago, this would have meant absolutely nothing to me. Even though I’ve moved (mostly) in and (occasionally) out of the art world for the bulk of my adult life, I had barely heard of him before starting this gig. Back in “the day”-in this case the 1950s onwards-he did a lot of illustrations for a magazine called the Ford Times, which I had definitely never heard of. Even though I love old periodicals. (I think I can be forgiven for not reading old copies of a lifestyle magazine put out by the Ford Motor Company, right?) Anyway, I will try to wrap this up in a neat, figurative bow because, well, this is a diversion piece. As we know, in my universe, that constitutes a few sentences and a photograph or two. Moving on….
Ford Times, November 1958
I met a delightful old man yesterday afternoon. After he found out that I sometimes write about Charley Harper, he gave me this excellently preserved copy of the Ford Times. Although I have seen most of the prints made from these illustrations, I had never seen the magazine before. I had no idea that it was so small! I thought that it was a full-sized periodical.
Top: Flamingo by Charley Harper Bottom: Purple Gallinule by Charley Harper
He didn’t just gift me with any Ford Times issue, but one that featured some of the images I have written about. I love the flying flamingo in the background of the top illustration.
Tents with New Ideas
This layout makes me want to go camping, badly. But only if I can have that awesome car and the sweet tent, which actually makes setting up camp look fun! This story alone made my day (I’m weird like that). Thank you, Mr. Old Man! Your gift is in good hands.
[11 May 2012] This Week’s Lessons in Reading and Writing
- My Nook e-Book reader is my friend.
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula is even better than I remembered.
- Waking up a little earlier than normal is great for my writing brain.
- Buying a fat stack of books is a natural high.
- Success is at least 50% discipline, organization and perseverance. Self-promotion doesn’t hurt any, either.
- I don’t hear pounding on my front door when I am in the writing zone. Which still does not give someone the right to walk in uninvited, even if this is an apartment. Ahem.
- I’m not as attractive as I think I am when I am writing. I’m usually quite disheveled, apparently. Perhaps even wild-eyed. Whatever. This is what creation looks like, people. We don’t all look as preppy as Sylvia Plath whilst in thrall to the muse.
- Taking a holiday-including from writing, however brief-is soul-illuminatingly wonderful.
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“The poem has a social effect of some kind whether or not the poet wills that it have. It has kinetic force, it sets in motion…elements in the reader that would otherwise be stagnant.”-Denise Levertov
A Reading List a Mile Long: Oxford University Press Edition
These are just a few of the books I wish I had on hand for an upcoming road trip. Alas, I’ll have to make do with (perfectly lovely) other volumes. But a girl can dream (a dream of reading way too many books)!
- ReAction! Chemistry in the Movies by Mark Griep and Marjorie Mikasen
- On the Air The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning
- Darwin’s Camera Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution by Phillip Prodger
- D.W. Griffith’s the Birth of a Nation A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time by Melvyn Stokes
- The Urban Experience Economics, Society, and Public Policy by Barry Bluestone, Mary Huff Stevenson, and Russell Williams
- Nightmare in Red The McCarthy Era in Perspective by Richard M. Fried
- Atlas of the Medieval World by Rosamond McKitterick
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History Four Volume Set Edited by Bonnie G. Smith
- The Basque Country A Cultural History by Paddy Woodworth
- Paris Tales Stories Translated by Helen Constantine
- Scotland’s Books A History of Scottish Literature by Robert Crawford
- A Dictionary of Creation Myths by David Leeming with Margaret Leeming
- Swing Along The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook by Marva Griffin Carter
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“I learned from the age of two or three that any room in our house, at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to.”-Eudora Welty
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“One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 