To do great writing, read great writing. Here’s the great writing I’ve been reading this week:
For the love of a dog – If you’re the kind of reader that thinks dog books begin and end with Marley and Me – or Lassie for that matter – you might not enjoy You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secret of Happiness. But if you appreciate variety in dog books as much as you appreciate variety in dog breeds, you’ll like Julie Klam’s breezy account of her years rescuing and raising Boston terriers. The breed isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – I prefer my terriers slightly bigger and fuzzier like our fox terrier Riley (that’s him with me in the picture above). Still, it’s hard not to relate as Klam meets, falls in love with and eventually shapes her life and family around first Otto and then a string of other rescue dogs. The 226-page book reads like a series of magazine essays – no surprise considering Klam writes for magazines as well – on topics such as finding a good partner, communication and letting go. As a writer, reading this also showed me that not all books need to be complicated or long, making the thought of one day writing my own that much less daunting.
Brilliant Mistakes – Elvis Costello and I grew up together. He hit the pop scene right around the time that I realized there was more to music than the bands everyone at my small southern California liberal arts college listened to. As I’ve grown and changed over the years, Costello has too, as Nick Paumgarten does such a fine job of explaining in his profile of the singer/songwriter in the Nov. 8 issue of The New Yorker, which I just got around to reading. According to Paumgarten, Costello is a willing shape-shifter, content to experiment in a variety of musical genres whether or not faithful fans want him too. It’s nice to see someone of Costello’s vintage – face it, he and I aren’t exactly fresh faces in our respective fields – continuing to re-invent himself. Madonna, who’s around the same age, has a reputation as the music industry’s resident chameleon, but after reading this, I’d say Costello is more deserving of that title.
Writing Advice
- Dr. Strangemuse, or How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Learn to Love Writers Block (Attacking the Page)
- Q&A with former Writer’s Digest publisher Jane Friedman on the business of writing (Writer Unboxed) – This is Part 1. You can read Part 2 here.
- Indie booksellers pick 2010 favorites (NPR)
Tech tools for writers
10 Alternatives to Delicious – Rumors are flying that Yahoo is shutting down Delicious, the once popular online bookmarking service that the Internet giant bought five years ago. I’m as sorry as the next person to see the old girl go, though I have to confess I stopped using her a while back – probably around the same time I started using Google’s Chrome as my web browser and Chrome’s bookmarks feature to store stories I wanted to come back to later. I know there are more efficient, effective save-and-share tools. My writer/web designer friend Ron Doyle favors Pulse, and iPad users can’t stop talking about Flipboard. Another options: any of the 10 alternatives SearchEngineLand writer Matt McGee quickly pulled together for this post once the rumors of Delicious’ demise started flying. ReadWriteWeb lead blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick lists a bunch of other recommendations in his homage to the online bookmark service, R.I.P. Delicious, You Were So Beautiful to Me.