The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: reading

  • Ask Questions

    I’ve never really done a lot of critiquing, outside the stuff you do in school. Its the flabby muscle in my writer education, if you will.

    I’m not a very critical thinker. I can work through a thought if someone gives me the starting point, but generally speaking I’ll take it all at face value. I’m probably not going to catch the implications of every decision made in a book; I’ll miss parallels even when they’re painfully obvious. (And when they are obvious, I’ll generally disappointed by the lack of surprise.)

    So, we’ll say — I critique poorly. I ask questions, and let the writer figure out what I’m trying to say.

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  • 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.

  • At Least My Friends Don’t Sit On My Face

    Prioritizing is a pain in the ass.

    There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Something’s going to get pushed back until tomorrow… which comes with its own to-do list.

    Some things are easy to put first on the agenda. Obviously I’m not going to go into work naked because there just wasn’t enough time to get dressed after my shower—my office is COLD. (more…)

  • What’s the latest non-fiction book you read and why?

    Fiction writers need to read. It’s how we absorb stories best. Drinking coffee fuels the actual writing but things from the “real” world actually fuel the imagination. This week we’re asking each other what we’ve read that comes under the category of non-fiction. Whether it’s a biography or a science book, something about history or journalism, it’s going to be about something real and that’s what will inspire us to write something fantastic.

    Have you tried the dark roast we have? It’s excellent, but then so is the organic coffee. And did you know that we only buy free trade?

     

    R.L. Naquin:

    Most of the non-fiction books I read have to do with the craft of writing. With book three in my series looming, my main characters are going to have to sleep with each other soon. I can’t get around it anymore. So, I’m currently reading Be a Sex-Writing Strumpet by Stacia Kane. That’s right. There’s a how-to book out there for everything.

     

    Jason Arnett:

    The last non-fiction book I got was about writing (and that may be a theme here today) but the last one I read was a biography of a writer. Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century was fascinating and manages to collect the bits and pieces of a biography of the Grand Master from other biographies of authors into one place. I’m also spending some time with Brian Greene’s The Hidden Reality, though it’s not at the top of my reading list every day as the science there is mind-bending though the writing is sharp and crisp.

     

    Christie Holland

    The last non-fiction book I read was How Good People Make Touch Choices by Rushworth M. Kidder.  Oh, you probably meant something that I didn’t read for a class.  That would be The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.  It was much more interesting and will be much more helpful when the zombie apocalypse happens.

     

    Paul Swearingen

    The Long Walk – Slavomir Rawicz

    This astounding book reads like a novel – a Polish teenager gets caught up in Russian deportations to Siberia in the early days of World War II, is taken to a prison camp, befriends the wife of the camp director, steals supplies, breaks out with a small group, heads south, adds a 16-year-old girl who is escaping from another camp to their group, walks across Siberia and Mongolia before losing two members in the Gobi desert, heads on through Tibet, loses another group member, see yeti, and end up in India, where he loses his mind for a month but finally recovers.

    I am personally fascinated by tales of survival and the triumph of the individual; this one was a one-sitting read.

     

    Nancy Cayton Myers

    Story by Robert McKee.  Seminal screenwriting text, that I’m never not reading.  This book, more than any, has helped me with story structure, character, plot, image, and how to make decisions at all phases of the writing process.   It’s a great how-to on the work and art of storytelling

     

    Sara Lundberg

    I’m right in the middle of reading The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour. I have this fanciful dream of someday acquiring a couple acres of land and try to live as simply and self-sufficiently as possible, but I have no idea where to even start. I figure it’ll be handy to have my own self-sufficient community for when the zombie apocalypse occurs.

     

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I have been reading The Ultimate Screenwriter’s Workbook by Ron Peterson. Ron’s bootcamp was the first writing workshop I had ever attended. Coming up on April’s Script Frenzy, it seemed fitting to re-read his book. I’m not sure if you can actually buy the book, I have never been able to find it anywhere other than at his class, but it is the basis of my screenwriting process. Ron will always sit right next to Robert McKee, Syd Field, and Aristotle on my desk.