Reading Archives - Page 25 of 25

Dry by Augusten Burroughs

February 2, 2022 / Health & Well-being, Reading

I listened to the audiobook of this one, which was read by the author himself. I read it for the personal reflections on alcoholism and sobriety, the processes of rehab and AA, and to get another take on life as a recovering alcoholic. He goes through a whole cycle of drinking—sobriety—relapse—sobriety in the book. I was very worried for him before he relapsed, which seemed inevitable, and that worry carried over to myself. Am I heading for relapse as well? Is it truly inevitable?

Burroughs drank to hide some very painful memories and to block out the loss of a dear friend. He didn’t drink for the taste. That’s the lesson here. Look for the underlying pain and address that. Don’t cover it up with booze.

Sober. So that’s what I’m here to become. And suddenly, this word fills me with a brand of sadness I haven’t felt since childhood. The kind of sadness you feel at the end of summer. When the fireflies are gone, the ponds have dried up and the plants are wilted, weary from being so green. It’s no longer really summer but the air is still too warm and heavy to be fall. It’s the season between the seasons. It’s the feeling of something dying. Sobriety

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

January 31, 2022 / ★★★★★, Literature, Reading

Key Themes

Corruption in the British court system.
Miseries of children — orphans, child labor, mistreatment.
The mystery of Lady Dedlock.

Highlights

It is the long vacation in the regions of Chancery Lane. The good ships Law and Equity, those teak-built, copper-bottomed, iron- fastened, brazen-faced, and not by any means fast-sailing clippers are laid up in ordinary. The Flying Dutchman, with a crew of ghostly clients imploring all whom they may encounter to peruse their papers, has drifted, for the time being, heaven knows where.

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To Show and to Tell by Phillip Lopate

January 24, 2022 / Reading, Writing Guides

Advice on Essay Endings:

Repeat a phrase or idea that was introduced earlier, like the return of a musical refrain; Often the initial setup or opening sentence will forecast the ending.
Tweak or transform an earlier mentioned idea into something new, perhaps with a different spin.
Introduce a new insight helped in reserve just for the occasion of the ending.
“Readers should be left with some things to work out on their own.”

“Creative nonfiction allows the nonfiction writer to use literary techniques usually used only by fiction writers, such as scene-setting, description, dialogue, action, suspense, plot. All those things that make terrific short stories and novels allow the nonfiction writer to tell true stories in the most cinematic and dramatic way possible. That’s creative nonfiction.” — Lee Gutkind

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