“I’m actually pretty tough. I’ve run a marathon and traveled by myself to weird places and engaged in conversations with a lot of strangers, and when my toughness runs out I can rely on a certain willful obliviousness to keep me going. On the other hand, my single most unfavorite thing in life so far has been to touch the mushy bottom of the lake during swimming lessons at summer camp and feel the weird slime squeeze between my clenched toes, so the idea of walking through the swamp was a little bit extra-horrible to me.”
—Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief
November 2010
32 posts
October 2010
12 posts
“She felt that those who prepare for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy. It is necessary to prepare for an examination, or a dinner-party, or a possible fall in the price of stock; those who attempt human relations must adopt another method, or fail.”
—E. M. Forster, Howards End
Where IS Waldo?!
One of the kids I work with dressed as Waldo for Halloween today, and for every two kids who ran up to him yelling, “I found Waldo!” there was one who asked, “Who are you supposed to be? Who’s Waldo?”
Turns out the Where’s Waldo books are out of print. Sad! How old are those books anyway?
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
—Ira Glass (via Rabbit Write’s interview on Gala Darling) (via healywu)
September reads
Slightly overdue, the books I read in September:
1. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I was underwhelmed…though I remember loving American Wife, and Prep was recommended by a good friend so I thought I’d find it a lot more engaging. To me it was boring and trite. I bought it used and I’d happily give it away if anyone wants it… I’m sure it’s actually a good, pleasant read if you enjoy boarding school fiction and/or you aren’t being ornery and curmudgeonly like me.
2. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Loved this book. Highly recommended.
3. Anagrams by Loorie Moore. To be honest, I just wasn’t really feelin’ it. I know lots of people are huge Loorie Moore fans. Is there something else of hers I should try if this one didn’t grab me? Am I just being curmudgeonly again?
4. Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through his Son’s Addiction by David Sheff. I’ve read way too many memoirs in the last year or two; I’m a little burned out on them. I did learn a lot from this, though.
5. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon. This is awkward…a good friend, whose taste in books I usually trust completely, told me I HAD to read this because it was SO good. I didn’t like it at all. I refuse to even pretend to like it a little bit. But I can see why people WOULD like it… It’s a quick read, it’s sort of a mystery/thriller… I don’t know. I just couldn’t get into it.
September was not the best month for good reads, huh? The only one I’d want to own or read again is A Visit from the Goon Squad.
I need some awesome fiction to read. Pronto.
“You can’t win all the contests and then lose at one contest and say ‘Why am I not winning this contest as well?’”
—David Rakoff discussing cancer and Half Empty in a Fresh Air interview
