I have no particular resolutions and no fixed reading lists, but here are some of my goals for the new year. In addition to becoming a better person (less complaining and more encouraging of others, especially in their writing endeavors), I want to... Read More Books On Writing—My local library has some more that I’m … Continue reading Goals for the New Year
Tag: Good Books
There has been a great deal written about how authors should be “brutal” to their characters and kill them off, whenever the plot requires it, just to keep readers from feeling a character is “safe.” And then, when it happens, there is the inevitable outcry that it was a horrible ending, leaving some readers inconsolable … Continue reading Authorial Brutality: Considerations on Killing off Characters
One of the blogs I follow recently did a Bookshelf Tag (in her case, it was a Movie Shelf Tag), and it got me thinking about the power of stories and books, in particular. I discovered that the books that inspire me aren’t usually the ones that introduced me to a genre, while the ones … Continue reading Inspiration, Introduction, and Influence: The Power of Books
I’m a firm believer that writers need to know the rules, and most of the time, that they should follow them. But this depends greatly on what kind of rules we’re talking about. Grammar rules are the ones I support the most. We need to know what a comma splice is, and a fragment, and … Continue reading When Writing Rules are Wrong
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a reader with free time must be in want of a good book…and thus begins the curious relationship between reader and the written word, much like that of a courting couple. You pick up a book and flip through its pages or read the back cover: the first … Continue reading For Better or Worse: Readers, Books, and the Marriage between Them
I’m a snob when it comes to books. My friends recommend something to me to read and frequently, I can’t get through it. The grammar, the writing style, the characters…something prevents me from finishing or at least from enjoying it properly. They tend to make it seem like a bad thing, that I have such … Continue reading Defending Snobbery
If what we read becomes part of us, as C. S. Lewis asserts is inevitable when one reads deeply, taking in a work to enjoy every aspect of it, then what we read becomes vitally important. If our reading is more than just “passing the time” and becomes something we talk about, think about, and … Continue reading The Evil in Good Books
Andrea Lundgren 