2 posts from October 2007

I stole this from Cori -- thanks :)

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
I prefer trade paperbacks, but since I buy most of my books secondhand, I'll take what I can get. My biggest gripe is the lack of margins in books -- I'm a note jotter, and I LOVE big wide margins for writing. I'd like to publish a line of books printed in just this manner.

Amazon or brick and mortar?
Brick & mortar.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
I like Barnes & Noble. However, I have a couple of used bookstores that I much prefer to either. Burwood Books (Beatrice, NE) is housed in the historic Burwood Hotel downtown, a beautiful turn of the century place with three stories of used books. The Antiquarian in Omaha's Old Market District is much the same. Stacks of books everywhere, really reasonable prices. My only gripe is The Antiquarian's regular clientele smoke. A lot.

Bookmark or dogear?
Bookmark, usually of a haphazard variety: a kleenex, a gum wrapper, a leaf, or a grocery list will do. I've made beautiful bookmarks for friends & family for Christmas, but I usually don't have one.

Alphabetize by author or alphebetize by title or random? 
Maybe this is part of my problem. They're all grouped by subject: Great Plains literature, Native American literature, horror, short story collections, anthologies, 18th century British, 19th century American, etc...  

Keep, throw away, or sell? 
Keep. Unless I really really hate a book, it'll be mine forever. 

Keep dustjacket or toss it? 
I always keep them, but I flatten them and keep them on the top shelf. Just in case I end up with an accidental collectible :) 

Read with dustjacket or remove it?
I can't read with a dust jacket. 

Short story or novel? 
I love them all. I Iove the short story form -- so compact, so forceful. It's just beautiful how tiny details can paint a complete picture. But... when you find a novel that is fantastic, it's so lovely to get lost in that world and be able to stay there for days and weeks. 

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Again, I love them all! Collections are great when you're trying to get a feel for a particular author, pick up his idiosynchrasies and figure out "what's it all mean?!" Anthologies, though... of course you can never completely trust that you won't get an editor with an agenda, but the quality of literature in an anthology gives a really high bang for your buck. If you can only have one book, make it a Norton Anthology that's 4 inches thick!

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?  
 I've never read Lemony Snicket. I did love the Harry Potter series, but I'm glad to see it wound up.  

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I just stop whenever. I carry my books around with me, so I may read a half page while waiting in line, or 43 pages while eating my lunch.

"It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"?

"Dark and stormy!"

Buy or Borrow?
Depends on the book. I buy fiction and non-fiction related to things I'm especially interested in. I borrow non-fiction for research and school.

New or used? 
I love to sniff new books, but I love a used book too. I never buy one that stinks of basement though. 

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? 
I'll take any kind of recommendation, even if it's only a pretty cover.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Tidy endings.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? 
I read during carpooling, read at lunch, read while I'm eating, read in the bathtub, read before bed. 

Favorite series? 
Harry Potter, probably. I don't do many series. I remember liking the Green Mile series by Stephen King. 

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Ada the Ayrshire. :) This was a cartoon that ran in my farmer father's favorite magazine, "The Grass & Grain." We had an Ada comic book, and over the years, I never knew what happened to it. But at Burwell Books one afternoon, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I looked down and saw a copy of Ada. It cost 10 cents and is a priceless memento of my childhood. My kids think I'm odd. Who else would get so attached to a cow-comic?

Favorite books read last year? 
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy; The Shawl, by Cynthia Ozick; Rachel Calof's Story, Rachel Calof; Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman. 

Favorite books of all time? 
On Writing, and Misery, Stephen King; Walden, Henry David Thoreau; The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck; My Antonia, Willa Cather;  

When you have one of those days when nothing wants to go on the paper, this is a good way to loosen things up. It only take a few  minutes and works surprisingly well.

To start: You need two characters and a basic setting. Do this fast, without giving yourself too much time to overthink it. The point is to try to get the rhythm of it. When I first set this down, I don't even attribute the lines, just basic dialogue & a few bits of setting. Have fun!

1. Character A speaks. Must be less than 6 words.
2. Character B does not speak; instead, describe an action that he/she performs.
3. Character A speaks one line.
4. Character B responds less than 3 sentences.
5. Character A answers one line.
6. Character B responds less than 3 sentences.
7. Character A gesture.
8. Character B speaks less than 3 sentences while performing some action.
9. Character A speaks a line beginning with "I remember . . . "
10. Character B responds with less than 2 lines.
11. Character A asks a question.
12. Character B speaks a line beginning with "I used to believe . . . "
13. Describe character A and some object from the setting, either A is doing something, or the object relates to A somehow.
14. Character A speaks one line.
15. Describe Character B's actions when he/she doesn't respond.
16. Character A speaks a line beginning with "I never" or "I always."
17. Character B speaks one line.
18. Character A speaks one line; describe the action while he says it.

There you have it. Easy-peasy. As Anne Lamott tells us, all first drafts are shitty, so here's my shitty first draft. Later I'll post revisions, and we'll see how we progressed from this to that.

So, here's the exercise:

A: "I thought you weren't coming."
    Jane dropped her bags in a heap on the floor and flopped into the chair, covering her face with her hands.
A: "Looks like you had a fantastic day."
B" "My God, Neil. My life is turning to shit and I can't seem to get myself out. I've been fighting with Bill all day over the phone."
A: "Do tell."
B: "Oh, it's really the usual. His inability to commit, his lack of attentiveness, his aversion to family and convention. Really, you must be tired of hearing this?"
    Neil cleared his throat.
B: "I'm sorry to bore you." Jane leaned forward in her chair, taking Nail's hand in hers. "You're perfect. Tell me the secret of finding a perfect, normal man."
A:   "I remember you before you met him. You weren't so keen on convention then, remember?"
B: "But I love him, Neil. That's the difference. Now I want to be utterly conventional."
A: "Don't you think you need a c onventional man for that?"
B: "I used to believe that eventually I'd find someone who was perfect for me, you know? Now I'm beginning to doubt it."
    Neil picked up his pen from the table between them, holding the tortoise-shell barrel between his pale fingers. "Want me to write you a happy ending?"
    Jane gave him a wan smile and sighed. She slid her ring over the knuckle and then back, over and over as the silence stretched out.
A: "You'll never guess who I saw at the farmer's market this week. I went to get some arugula and tomatoes,and I happened to see your sister. She was buying goat cheese."
B: "You never met my sister . . . did you?"

Anyway, that's my shitty first draft :)