Shelf of Fame 2016 Books I found particularly moving, thoughtful, or useful this year. Fiction Dracula: Bram Stoker I love Gothic novels. I’ve read this maybe four or five times. The more I read it, the more I enjoy it and all its strengths and weaknesses. Gulliver’s Travels: Jonathan Swift I had read a children’s … Continue reading The Year in Reading 2016
Last night, I was thinking about the blog and how I’ve ignored the blog. I sketched out something like the old monthly updates that Quinn and I used to do. He updated today after a long silence, so I took it as some synchronicity not to ignore. Reading I ordered The Horror Hall of Fame … Continue reading Just like the ones I used to know…
You can read Quinn’s post here. Check out The Laboratory #4! Reading V. After finishing War and Peace, I felt I had enough time to finish another longish novel before school begins. While teaching, I read shorter novels because my reading is interrupted so much by work. So far, V. is what you expect from … Continue reading Catch the Spirit, Catch the Quinn
You can read Quinn’s post here. Reading War and Peace My big summer reading project. This is the third start as I’ve had to set it aside for teaching duties. I’m close to finishing (Book 11 of 15, plus two epilogues). Slowly I’ve been catching up on the great Russian literature I’ve missed. Epic, but … Continue reading Wherein I play catch-up to the Quinn again.
This is the catalog for episode three of The Laboratory, part of The Outrider Podcast. If you’re not sure what this is, start here. Episode 3 began with our discussion of our unique failures in handling the last prompt. Jason wrote a paragraph or so and I wrote over 2,100 words of a still unfinished … Continue reading Your story has to be about asking questions, not coming up with the right answer or There’s poop on the floor: Laboratory #3.
I’m co-hosting a writing podcast with Jason Quinn Malott called The Laboratory. We are giving each other monthly writing prompts and then seeing what comes of them. We get into writing process and mechanics in a way that’s at least interesting to me. Our third episode was released today. I’ve started cataloging our references from … Continue reading Next time you better plan your massacre more carefully: Laboratory #2
Read Quinn’s new post here. Reading White Egrets by Derek Walcott. Sometimes I read for surprise and difficulty. Sometimes I read for comfort. The voice and craft of this book put it in the latter category. Not that all the topics of the book were comforting: aging, losing gifts or talents, losing loved ones and … Continue reading Catching up with Quinn #3
I’m reading Faulkner’s novels in chronological order with a friend. We’ve read Vonnegut and Hemingway, so Faulkner seemed the obvious choice after Hem. After spending so much time with Hemingway, then beginning Faulkner, one of the most obvious takeaways we’ve had is wondering why these guys get compared so much. Other than attempting to be … Continue reading the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time: Reading Faulkner
You can read the previous post for an explanation of the title. Read Quinn’s new post. READING: Still reading The Apocrypha and Roethke. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. A student asked me about Cancer and I didn’t have much to say. That afternoon I went to the library to get a new audiobook and … Continue reading After Quinn: Catch-Up #2
Stephen McClurg 