When you look at this picture, what do you see? People reading, yes. Are they reading together or alone? I get a sense of alone-together from this group. Each is absorbed in his reading but it’s a companionable solitude, or so it looks to me. In a sense, though, every reader is always a solitary… Continue reading »
Archives for Uncategorized
Bookstores Say “Boo!” to Amazon
Today’s Washington Post has a fascinating little story, tucked into the Style section, about some bookstores refusing to shelve books produced by Amazon. The boycotters include Washington’s own indie stalwart, Politics & Prose. If I go to P&P, I won’t find a copy of what sounds like a charming new novel, Care of Wooden Floors… Continue reading »
Let Content Dictate Form
One of the latest books to find its way into my house is Stephen Sondheim’s Finishing the Hat, a collection of his lyrics fortified with anecdotes and commentary and thoughts about writing. For Sondheim, that means writing songs, of course, but right off the bat he lays out some guidelines that almost any kind of… Continue reading »
Cheers for the New Year
It’s 2012. I’m glad to be here. I hope you are too. Be inspired, be engaged by whatever you do, and be kind to yourself and others. Happy New Year. If you’re in search of a New Year’s mantra, you could do worse than the sentiment the New York Tribune came up with for the… Continue reading »
Two Months in Two Paragraphs
A quick recap of what I’ve been doing since August instead of blogging: I vacationed (or staycationed). I started Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse,” which somebody should have made me read sooner. I wrote about some neat work being done by two biologists and a physicist who are using algorithms and massive amounts of citation… Continue reading »
