Reading Archives - Page 9 of 25

The Work of Art by Adam Moss

December 30, 2024 / Reading, Writing Guides

It took me months and months to finish this book, and I think that’s the right pace for something like this. This book can only be appreciated in print form. The pictures and notes would not work at all on Kindle. The challenge of the book is that it’s almost impossible for creative people to articulate how they created their work, and this problem pervades the book. Moss takes this in stride, but there are few eureka moments that feel at all instructive. Still, it’s alway fun to get a glimpse into how artists work. If there’s a theme here, it’s art is hard. Keep trying.

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The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

December 30, 2024 / Essays, Nature, Reading

This one didn’t meet my high expectations. The essays feel too forced and contrived, like the author is trying too hard. Lots of handwringing. Her circle of concern is very very large. I don’t know how many essays reference the sad departure of her children from her once full home. I have no patience for mourning the loss of a child who has simply moved across town. If only. I read a half dozen of her short essays in the hot sun, wanting to be done with the book and move on to something more comforting. The essays went down easier out of doors, even if I don’t subscribe quite so much to her views.

You can’t come back to something that is gone. — Richard Powers, The Overstory

Sometimes the only cure for homesickness is to enlarge the definition of home.

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke

December 30, 2024 / Fantasy, Reading

A wonderful little snippet of a fantasy story. It could have been chapter one of a 500 page fantasy novel. Yet, one to read every Christmas eve.

One should be patient with saints, I suppose. Though the trouble with being patient,” she said, “is that, generally speaking, there’s no one to see you doing it.

Thinking on Paper by V.A. Howard, J.H. Barton

December 30, 2024 / Reading, Writing Guides

Book Notes

Divide writing time into thirds:

Idea generation
Composition
Editing and style

Three rules for ordering of arguments:

Make concessions to the opposition first
Devote at least one paragraph to every major pro argument in your thesis statement
Save your best argument for last.

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James by Percival Everett

December 30, 2024 / Literary Fiction, Reading

An innovative retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. There are some brutal, hopeless sections of this book that gutted me. There is some humor, but mostly this is a dark, dark book. The ending of vengeance and violence doesn’t feel consistent with Jim’s character, but a man can take only so much.

A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

December 14, 2024 / Mystery-Suspense, Reading

What a crazy rollercoaster ride through Harlem in the 1950s. I’m just now catching my breath!

There were more bars on his itinerary than on any other comparable distance on earth. In every one the jukeboxes blared, honeysuckle-blues voices dripped stickily through jungle cries of wailing saxophones, screaming trumpets, and buckdancing piano-notes; someone was either fighting, or had just stopped fighting, or was just starting to fight, or drinking ruckus-juice and talking about fighting.

Needful Things by Stephen King

December 5, 2024 / Horror, Reading

Another completion in my quest to read every Stephen King book. This one missed the mark for me. To execute the pretty good idea for this horror tale, King had to involve way too many characters — almost the entire town of Castle Rock. With so many characters, I had a hard time connecting with any of them. Any other author would get a two stars, but King gets a pass.

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A System for Writing by Bob Doto

November 19, 2024 / Reading, Writing Guides

I learned at least one thing from reading this book: I have not been doing the Zettelkasten thing right. Mr. Doto here provides a practical guide on how it’s supposed to be done, and in reading it, it helped me conclude decisively that this kind of note-taking is absurd and in no way how I want to take notes.

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The Age of Voltaire by Will Durant

November 8, 2024 / ★★★★★, History, Reading

Continuing my quest to read all eleven volumes of Will Durant’s Opus, The Story of Civilization. Volume IX centers on science and philosophy overtaking religion through thinkers like Voltaire and Diderot. The church did its best to stop it, but in the end, the French Enlightenment steered the faithful away from religion toward the beginnings of existentialism. While this movement addressed religious corruption and the horrors of inquisitions, there is also a feeling of great loss as civilization let go of its rudder of morality and faith.

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This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

November 5, 2024 / Essays, Memoir, Reading

I enjoy Ann Patchett’s novels, but I love her essays. She writes with such clarity and compassion. My first book of her essays was These Precious Days, which was written upfront as a collection of essays. This one came together after the fact as a compilation of essays Ann had written in magazines over many years. Only later did she decide to publish them as a book. As a result, there isn’t much of an underlying theme, other than Ann herself. I came for the essays on writing, but stayed for her views on RV life, dogs, opera, marriage, friendship, and defying all odds, the opening an independent bookstore in the post Amazon era. Ann narrated the audiobook, which added to the personal voice of these essays. After reading this and These Precious Days, I will basically read anything she writes.

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