Recently I listened to Joe Queenan—author of a book about his love of books and reading—on NPR (the soundtrack of my life) eager for the pleasure of hearing someone who reads as voraciously (okay, more) as I do, and loves books as intensely (not possible that it could be more) and who, like me, is obsessed … Read more
About when I turned ten I began crafting my library checkouts, hoping I’d look smart. I’d balance my Nancy Drew with a biography of Abraham Lincoln, so the librarian thought well of me. (It seems my self-esteem problem enacted early.) Today, reading Why Are So Many Literary Writers Shifting into Genre?, on The Millions, I … Read more
Here’s a big fat lie: Stick and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Words slice to the bone. When we explode, we’re not out of control—we’re using our anger to control and shut people down. I freeze at yelling, I’m silenced by harsh words, and I wither each time someone … Read more
The perfect first line. How we chase it, scrambling phrases and our brains, seeking magic words to pop open our stories like magic keys.( Sometimes I want to create an entire book because a great beginning sentence pops into my head.) Tougher, can be that last line; Tougher because it’s culminating an entire world. … Read more
I suppose they were meant to teach me reading skills. And the goodness of clean living. But what The Bobbsey Twins taught me was needle sharp envy. Freddie and Flossie Bobbsey’s adventures are the first books I remember reading. Their stories educated me about a world from which I was deeply, meanly, forever locked out. … Read more