The value of books
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx.
I agree.
I love books. I have a large and ever expanding library of books. I collect them. They are my constant companions. I have piles of them alongside my favourite reading chair in my office. I have a pile of them alongside my bed. I constantly have four or five or more on the go at once. I have many more that I regularly refer to in my daily activities, especially in relation to my writing, books such as dictionaries. Others I dip into at random, enjoying a page or two as the mood or occasion takes me. I take books with me when I travel. Hardly a day passes without me having read something.
More recently, since getting back into study again, the local public library and the university library are frequent haunts. The regular stream of overdue notices are not a sign of tardiness; it is a reluctance to give up wonderful books that oh so briefly come into my life. In this context I rarely if ever borrow book; parting with them is such sweet sorrow.
I live to Read, and I read to Live.
Good reading.
PS: The bit about the dog is a mystery to me. This is a typical Marxism: not having ever been inside a dog, I couldn’t even begin to imagine that world. It must be terrible though. Imagine NEVER being able to read.
What I am reading: “The Canterbury Tales”
One of the required units of study for my Master of Arts course in Creative Writing is a unit on English Literature. It covers some of the great themes of English literature from Beowulf through to modern times. With such a broad scope there quite a deal of reading involved.
One of the texts I needed to read was Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. It had been over 40 years since I last read any of these fascinating tales. It was initially a struggle to come to terms with the version of English used at the time. As I got into it more, and as we read aloud from the text during the tutorial, I become more comfortable with reading it.
We weren’t required to read the whole work; that’s a major study in itself. We read sections only, dipping into several of the tales to sample some of the major themes. As I became more accustomed to the language being used I was amazed at the accomplishment of this important poet and storyteller. Some of the tales are hilarious and most that we read are good yarns. It was good to revisit them again after all those intervening years.
What I am reading: “Othello”
I recently revisited William Shakespeare’s Othello as part of the required reading for one of the units I am doing as part of my Master of Arts in Creative Writing course. It had been over 40 years since I last studied this play. I didn’t know how I would react to it after such a long break. I need not have worried.
I managed to read the play in two sittings. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The subsequent lecture and tutorial was quite stimulating with some excellent discussion on the many issues raised in the play.
The thing that struck me most forcefully in this study was the sheer nastiness of Iago. I had forgotten just how evil he was portrayed by Shakespeare. I am struggling to think of a more fundamentally evil character in English literature. The only character I can come up with is Hannibal Lecter in the film Silence of the Lambs. I am appealing for any readers to correct me in this; please leave a comment.
I was also amazed at the gullibility of Othello in falling for all of Iago’s manipulations. A major, tragic flaw in an otherwise outstanding character. Then there is Desdemona; her innocence is tragically only outweighed by her naivety.
I can write a book like that
Ever read a book, get to the end, throw the book down and say to whoever is within earshot, “I could write a book like that”?
I have, many times. And I guess many people reading this have said the same thing. Good authors make writing seem easy. There’s the secret. Good writing seems easy but is very hard to do. That is why so many people say they could write a book but so few actually start. Of those that start, very few actually finish. Of those that finish, even fewer edit and rewrite their book to publishable standard. Even fewer send the manuscript off to publishers and of those that do get to that stage, few are published.
It certainly takes a great deal of commitment, effort and discipline to get to the point where a manuscript can be sent to a publisher. I should know; I’ve written three novels for children. So far I have been unable to find a publisher; any keen publishers out there looking for new talent? Use my contact form.
So if you’ve ever said that you could write a book, whether that be a novel, a volume of poetry, a non-fiction book about your hobby or whatever, what is stopping you?
If the task seems daunting, break it into smaller chunks. Can you write 500 words a day? (This article is about 350 words long and it took me just over half an hour to write.) At 500 words per day – say, an hour per of writing per day, you could have a 250 page, 100,000 word novel written in about 200 days, or six to seven months.
Even the longest journey is completed one step at a time, and the longest novel is written one word at a time. Take it step by step. You can do it.
Good writing.
Further reading: