I’ve told the story before and it’s true: One of my favorite professors at university announced to his class of aspiring young writers that Moby Dick is a novel; all the rest are just entertainments. While I agree with the sentiment of this, I might substitute Madame Bovary for the great white whale.
Yet there’s still a problem. Let’s face it, with few exceptions. all the rest are not really entertaining.
Continue reading “The End of Publishing”Of course the most common separation amongst readers is those who read deliberately and those who pick up a book, magazine, or cereal box unconsciously to fill in time as it passes. Although the relative value of the reading material selected by the later type is highly variable, the observable tactics suggest it must be within easy reach.
Continue reading “A Note on Reading Strategies”Imagine reading a story about a young couple who travel from Boston to Albany, stopping along the way to feed the horses and bed down under the stars. It’s 1820 and the trip is expected to take at least a week. Now imagine a modern reader who complains that the couple should have driven a car so that the trip would only be a fewhours long.
Ridiculous?
Continue reading “It’s Fiction!”
A Celebration of Reading 