The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (2)

Excerpt:

“Putting a book together is interesting and exhilarating. it is sufficiently difficult and complex that it engages all your intelligence. It is life at its most free. Your freedom as a writer is not freedom of expression in the sense of wild blurting; you may not let rip. It is life at its most free, if you are fortunate enough to be able to try it, because you select your materials, invent your task, and pace yourself.

” . . . . The obverse of this freedom, of course, is that your work is so meaningless, so fully for yourself alone, and so worthless to the world, that no one except you cares whether you do it well, or ever.”

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard

Excerpt:

“Every year the aspiring photographer brought a stack of his best prints to an old, honored photographer, seeking his judgement. Every year the old man studied the prints and painstakingly ordered them into two piles, bad and good. Every year the old man moved a certain landscape print into the bad stack. At length he turned to the young man: ‘You submit this same landscape every year, and every year I put it on the bad stack. Why do you like it so much?’ The young photographer said, ‘Because I had to climb a mountain to get it.’ “

Reading As A Writer

Ms. Meryl K. Evans a “writer, editor, and researcher, compiled a list of,

“Top 25 Books for Writers.”

 

While she wrote it, I stumbled upon it, and as my #3 goal in life is to improve my mind and typing fingers with books, I headed for the library and looked up the list.

The college campus library is fairly extensive, and several of the books popped up straight from the catalog. My first selection? The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard. I started it last night, whizzing through one chapter at a time and finishing the first description at 1am.

I cannot help but call it a description. Dillard takes her reader through the eyes of a writer, vivid examples, almost like an impressionistic-realism painting for writers.

Now this list is double-sticky taped to my  hobbit hole’s wall, and hopefully, by the end of the week, the first check mark will embellish my “Top Twenty-Five.”

Recommend Dillard? Not sure yet but stay tuned for updates.

http://www.meryl.net/2010/02/08/top-25-books-for-writers-and-writing-topics/