The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: books

  • Getting Away

    tumblr_m6o8rdALXy1qhwhflI like to be entertained by stories. I want to be taken away to a place I’ve never been or to see place I’m familiar with in a new way.

    That’s not asking too much, is it?

    Now, don’t get me wrong – we need all kinds of stories. We learn from them, we are informed by them, hopefully we take them to heart and not too seriously. Except when we should. It’s complicated.

    But it shouldn’t be. We should be able to discern which stories are entertainment and which are informative. The blurred lines of our society right now make that sometimes very, very difficult.  (more…)

  • The Task of Gifting

    Christmas means fighting evil.
    What a cool gift to someone like me who likes both Doctor Who and Calvnin & Hobbes.

    I’m a writer.

    I like things. I like stuff. I have a lot of stuff already.

    I like things that pertain to writing and the tangential things associated with writing.

    What should you get the writer in your life for a birthday, holiday, or special occasion?

    (more…)

  • If you can’t gift me happiness, give me tequila instead

    In the past, my Christmas wishlists were miles long and filled with one item after another that I wanted. This year, it was a fairly short list. Maybe I’m getting older. Maybe I’m realizing that material things just weigh me down. Maybe I realize that I’m moving in a year and a half and I don’t want to have to pack all of that stuff up and haul it to yet another apartment.

    Books are always a great present. But books are heavy. Allow me to reference you back to my aforementioned comment about moving again in a year and a half. I love books. Lately though, I’ve barely made time to read the mountains of books that I already own, much less discover new series. I’ve fallen in love with my library. I can check out books, read them, and return them when I’m done. And sometimes I’ll love a series enough to want to own it.

    That’s becoming more of a rarity, though. (more…)

  • You Can’t Go Wrong with Books

    Writers are not hard to buy for. I promise you, they are probably the easiest group of people (aside from kids – why do I have twenty things I want to buy the five-year-old but can’t think of a single thing to buy my Dad?) to shop for.

    Why?

    Easy. We love stories. Anything that comes in story form is perfect for us.

    (more…)

  • What are you reading?

    Writers tend to be voracious readers. Some of us even read multiple books at a time; I’m reading three simultaneously at the moment. What we read, as you may have seen in some of our previous posts, often influences what we write, and we all need that constant input. The more we read, the better our writing becomes.

    Because we all read so much, we like to check in now and then to share with each other what we’re currently reading.

    Ted Boone

    I’m currently reading the Mistborn trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson ( http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final-Empire-Book-ebook/dp/B002GYI9C4 ). Interestingly enough, the first book seems to be a caper story set in a fantasy world. Given that I’m in the (slow, agonizingly slow) process of reimagining my most recent manuscript, a sci-fi caper novel, this first book is decidedly apropos.

    Larry Jenkins

    There are currently three books in my “reading” rotation.  I alternate American Gods by Neil Gaiman and A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin on the Kindle.  When I’m taking a walk or doing housework, I listen to Annie Jacobsen’s Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base.  It’s my second time through the Gaiman and Jacobsen books.  Both warranted a reread.

    Muriel Green

    I am currently reading My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme. I was trying an experiment where I read only memoirs for a while, and this book is a capstone to that experience. It is well written and full of personality. The introduction describing how Prud’Homme helped his great aunt record the story of her life is very touching. The way Child describes Paris of the 1950’s you can tell she was really in love with that city. My mother told me once that people often fall in love with Paris. She said I should go there because it might turn out to be the love story of my life. I have not taken that on yet, but from reading this book it is becoming a very compelling idea in my imagination!

    Sara Lundberg

    When it comes to books, I have a bit of ADHD. For some reason, I can never read just one at a time. Usually I try to balance the books I’m currently reading by choosing something fiction or fun paired with something that’s either a classic or nonfiction, in addition to whatever we’re reading for book club. Right now I’m reading The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker (one of my favorite books and favorite authors), and The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (because I’ve really gotten into true crime lately). For book club, I’m reading The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens, which I’m enjoying more than I thought I would. Book choices for book club can be a little hit and miss.

    Kevin Wohler

    I’m currently reading half a dozen books, some in hardcover and some on my Kindle. I’ve been reading Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, taking in a chapter here and there for inspiration. And I’m reading George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones (which is a lot more time-consuming than watching it on HBO). I’m also working my way through a biography, a book of poetry, a cyberpunk novel, and an old mystery. Some day I’ll have “time enough at last.”

     Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I’m reading a few books. For a modern novel, I am reading Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr. For short stories, I am reading The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Conner. I also keep a set of books going on my Kindle. Currently, those are How to Tell a Story and Other Essays by Mark Twain, The Adventurous Boy’s Handbook by Stephen and Finn Brennan, and The Damned by Algernon Blackwood.

    Paul Swearingen

    I finished reading “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern today and was disappointed, even though the story is intriguing. The text is replete with comma splices, misused words, and even sentences with scrambled words. Evidently her editor is incompetent or under order not to change. It is one thing to purposefully employ experimental writing techniques; it is quite another to continually abuse the English language to the detriment of the story. Morgenstern crafted a fine, although ethereal story, and it deserves better treatment than found in the present version.

  • Other Media Influences (Week of 27 February 2012)

    We’ve talked about our writing influences and heroes quite a bit here at the cafe. We do that because they’re important to us, they shape us and how we write. Being a confabulator of any kind means being the sum total of everything that one has read, watched, heard, touched and tasted. Have you read a passage about a meal that made you want to go out to eat? Are there songs that make you happy or sad for no apparent reason? Movies that make anxious to go home and write something?

    The team here this week is talking about the other media that inspires us or fires our imagination. When you take your seat at the Cafe this week and get that mocha in front of you, savor the heat of the milk, the aroma of the espresso, the sweetness of the chocolate on your tongue. We’ll tell you everything you’d ever want to know (and probably a little more) about how those things fit into our stories.

  • I simply remember my favorite book…

    My favorite books all enter into the category of those that make me weep hysterically (except maybe everything Douglas Adams ever wrote, which only promote the tears after hysterical laughter.  Maybe I should say books that promote hysteria!). But for today, I’ll go with my favorite novel by a living author:  Galatea 2.2, by Richard Powers.

    My first reading of Galatea 2.2 came during my freshman year of college;  I found the book by wandering the library bookshelves and pulling something that looked interesting off, a practice that has introduced me to most of my favorite writers.  Later, I would discover that the head librarian was also a fan of the relatively unknown Richard Powers; hence, the library including all his works in their otherwise scanty recent fiction collection.  With the book’s ample treatment of the history of literature, it instantly hooked this budding English major.

    (more…)

  • Not My Favorite

    I don’t have a favorite book.

    You don’t believe me?

    Well, maybe I just haven’t found it yet.

    Don’t get me wrong, though. I have books that I have read over and over, I have books that captivated me so much I plan to read them again as soon as possible, and I have books that I read again at various times throughout my life to see what new things I can glean from them after new life experiences.

    But how could I choose a favorite?

    Choosing a favorite book also says a lot about a person. Maybe that is why I am reluctant to commit. What would it say about me as a writer if I chose something bad? Or pretentious? Controversial?

    (more…)