I Got Card-ed

It's my favorite day of the year:  the day I sit on the floor at my coffee table eating cake and drinking reading water writing Christmas cards.  It's nearly impossible to feel anything except gratitude at this moment.  I hope each of you are having a great December and I hope our paths cross soon over holiday travel.

December is our "bring your favorite" holiday piece to the club.  The reads are always festive and occasionally leave you with a little something in your eye.

Wait a Minute Mr. Postman

I'm in love

100 Postcards of Book covers from Penguin.  I can't even begin to describe how awesome these are.  (Okay, some are a little odd, but collectively, I can't wait to send these.)

Expect mail.

Have a great weekend ahead:  happy reading, happy writing, have a happy time with the ones you love.

Love in a (Grain) Elevator

Most especially if you are from a small place whose name makes use of the word "Shed", "Duck", or any other four letter noun followed by either "town", "ton" or "ville", take a few minutes and read this NYT book review on Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolaus Butler.  Jonathan Evison and the accompanying video that is absolutely worth three minutes three seconds of your life will get you to add this title to your reading list.  Wisconsin gets a special nod.

Planter on Fire

Either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning* a complete stranger stops me in my path to ask me if I blogged about New York.  She was convinced I was someone else and I didn't completely dissuade her with my answer, "I blog and I love New York, but it's mostly about books."  [Eloquent right?]

It was fun to be in the City.  It was fun to read on the plane.  It was fun to sleep at random hours and participate in a DJ dance party.  I hope you had a great weekend and a great holiday Monday.

*The author is leaving it up to the reader to determine said timing of the event.  She does admit that the meal and events of the day leading up to this random conversation were a small distraction from writing that day.

To Infinity and Beyond Bridget

Sometimes you think you're going to write about one thing, then you click a link and your morning outlook changes.  GBC Kate posted a link to a LemonDrop article "What Dying of Breast Cancer (at 26) is Teaching Me About How to Live".  It's a good article.

Not content with this snippet (with my root cause background), I clicked to Bridget's blog and started reading.  (Going back to GBC Kate's comments to the link, I wasn't the only one tearing up over an electronic reading device.)

So, this morning, if things seem a little rough, remember Bridget.  Also revisit your calendars and as my Uncle once advised me, spend your free time with the people you love, not those that you like only a little.

Up to the Sky...

I need to pack at some point in the near future.  With this self-acknowledgement, I've noticed that I have become one of "those" who still have unopened boxes from the last move.  Some are this way because I have been in a smaller space and I have too many kitchen items.  One box is still taped because I haven't had the heart to face the memories.  Maybe I'll visit it the move after this one.

Maybe.

In the winding down period before the winding up, I feel the chaos and this Al Kennedy piece felt at times as though he stepped inside my own head to find his words.  In "The Chaos of Writing:  Still hitting the keyboard after all these years," he notes, "Almost half my life has passed before my eyes. It was dusty. And creased."  He's moving as well and has had to deal with the emotional side of packing that creeps in beside the practical.  You're in the midst of a box, and stop short to look at a photo, listen to a CD, pause to remember, sometimes to cry.  What to keep?  What to rid?  How in the world did I end up with so many [insert slightly embarrassing admission here]?  Endings and beginnings swirled up in cardboard and whatever adhesive you happen to find.  Holding it together is always the hardest part.

Kennedy says, "Onwards".  Come what may, always, ever, and back again.

Down to the Letter

I give credit to @WendyMonday for discovery of "Letters of Note: Correspondence deserving of a wider audience."  Those of you that know me know I am a fan of letters and have a random collection floating about in shoe boxes, stacks, and one very full Pottery Barn case taken from the Tammy Wynette spelling song (apologies for the inside joke).  The site is a collection of letters, postcards, or any written media which can be authenticated.  I offer a nod to Shaun Usher for his selections.  Later this year, the collection of correspondence will be assembled into a book.  This will sit on my shelf alongside My Faraway One.

My favorites thus far are my discovery post (and intro to the site) "I Love My Wife.  My Wife is Dead.", a letter by Richard Freynman to his wife.  I've lost track of the number of times I've re-read this letter.  I'm also a fan (like many others) of  "I Like Words" a letter to Hollywood from Robert Pirosh.  The opening line includes "buttery".  How can you resist?

Play Nice. Play Often

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements 
will never do any harm to the world.”

― Voltaire

On this day in 1717, Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille.  He never stopped writing and I suspect never stopped dancing.

Letter Opener

Last night I dreamed I left my Kindle at the library. I think my subconscious was trying to remind me to read more and Excel less. With a tightly packed week, I have had just enough time to review a few letters from My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz mentioned here.

I'm sharing opening excerpts from two letters to begin your day. One selected because it was written 95 years ago today; the other chosen for the romantics among us.

Alfred Stieglitz, September 28, 1916

[Lake George, NY]

It is another day. - Afternoon. - Another perfect day. But not so varied - not so exciting. - Blue sky - a perfectly calm smooth Lake - brilliant sunlight & milder in temperature.

Georgia O'Keeffe, December 10, 1916

[Canyon, TX] written on paper 24" x 17"

Sunday - Sunset.

I'd like to write you with letters about two feet high -

But maybe that would be a bit high -

Font-ain of Youth

I may have to change the timing of when I'm reading Turn Right at Machu Picchu. The last few nights my dreams have been of walking, shoe adjustments and other exercise. The good news is that I have avoided the "puma wakachi" (the bug that makes the puma cry) in my subconscious state.

For the editors, logophiles, people (like me) who find themselves debating the use of "Arial", or if you own one of these shirts, you may wish to add Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield to your reading lists. It might Pico your interest.

Winded

Usually if I sit in front this screen, I find words. Today is an exception. Severe weather in the area has left me with a heavy feeling that I have not been able to shake.

Everyone I know is physically well, and I am grateful. I know there are many who experienced loss as a result of yesterday's events. You have my empathy and my thoughts. For those interested, here are ways you can help.

Be kind to your neighbors. Check in on your friends. Say thanks to those to found ways to help you.

Plain Twain and Auto-fill

As it is Monday, I thought I should offer some tidbit of motivation and/or inspiration for the week. I also thought this writing should be witty, so I consulted Mark Twain. My paperback copy of Tales, Speeches, Essays and Sketches was originally purchased for a college English class and the pages are littered with my cursive notes. It is interesting see how my handwriting and note-taking has progressed since that time. Ah, youth! (I think I am at risk of digressing and perhaps dulling you into a desire for another cup of coffee so I should get back on track.)

This collection of Twain's writing includes an essay entitled "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences." Twain's opinion is that "Cooper has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115." He also notes a violation of eighteen of the "nineteen rules governing literary art in the domain of romantic fiction." (Bear with me, as I am finally nearing the point.)

I hereby offer six of these rules (p. 379) to you for your week's reflection as I think they are not restrictive to composing romantic fiction:

13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.

14. Eschew surplusage.

15. Not omit necessary details.

16. Avoid slovenliness of form.

17. Use good grammar.

18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.

Hope you have a great week.

Writer's Only...

In August, I suggested that you might be interested in Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss if you wanted a grammar review. In truth, I have had this book for a couple of years, but had never actually read it. This week was my turning point for the book. I could write that I finally selected this work because I have been proofreading a bit more than I normally do (which is true), however I think logistics played a more important role. I have not visited our local library in a few weeks so was perusing my bookcase for something not yet finished. (It is like using those random items in your pantry for a meal when you do not want to go shopping. I am guilty of this as well.)

The first fifty pages dedicated to "The Tractable Apostrophe" have been entertaining and include those dry English examples of subtle wit that I have come to adore. Her illustration of "Cyclist's Only (his only what?!)" reminded me of several GBC discussions regarding observed signage in the local area.

Check your apostrophes and don't end up in a comma.

Wanted: Cmmercial Wholesaler [sic]

This week I have read a number of job postings which have contained grammatical and/or spelling errors. These mistakes do not bode well for the company image, however should you judge a corporation on an individual error? If you are interested in the position, should you apply and ignore the mistake? Should you contact the company regardless of whether or not interested in the role to advise the poster of their blunder? My HR sources indicate that one should not point out spelling errors during interviews.

So what, then is the appropriate course of action?

1. Ignore. (It is hard to ignore something you have noticed.)
2. Tweet about it.
3. Incorporate the headlines into business lectures.
4. Collect errors and one day publish an award winning business book entitled Spell-binding
5. Advise the company to correct it.
6. All of the above.

How Tweet it is

updated August 21 (formatting only)

For those of you who have pondered writing a book but did not think you had the time, perhaps you should consider publishing through Twitter. As some of you NPR fans no doubt already have heard, Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less by Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin will hit our stores in January. (It is likely to be a quick read.) The books included range from the classic read (The Odyssey) to the closet read (Twilight). My guess is that Aciman's and Rensin's work will also be light enough to be included in your carry-on luggage...and perhaps your wallet.

For anyone who doesn't want to wait until January to get a dose of Twitterature, you can try following @epicretold as Professor Sreedharan tweets Mahabharata. You will need to take a long term view with this one.

[sic] or Tired

There are at least two things I think each of us should revisit at several points during our lives: a driving manual and a grammar book. We are exposed to both of these useful gems at points in our lives where hormones are raging and our brains are not yet fully developed. We use them in order to pass an exam or a class, and then the books are likely to be tossed, recycled, or stored on a shelf (in a box) not to be used again. (For those fortunate PhD students, you have approximately a six to ten year delay relative to the normal population before you abandon your writing references.)

Why should we revisit grammar? Instinctively, we tend to notice the obvious misuse: “it’s” instead of “its”, “are” instead of “our”, and the random spelling “errers”. What about those perhaps more complex rules concerning the comma or the apostrophe? Yes, most of us still have retained the memory of those “School House Rock” episodes (“Interjection!”), but have you ever wondered if the colloquialisms of our region have crept into our professional writing? Do we occasionally slip in an abbreviation in formal communication due to our tendency to express ourselves in < 140 characters? Are we content if our Word document has no green squiggly lines?

For those of you who answered “Yes, Yes or No, No” to the above questions, you might be interested in these books to refresh and perhaps entertain your brains:

• Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
• The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press Staff
• Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk
• Sin & Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose by Constance Hale