Arts & Letters

There is a website called Arts & Letters Daily that you might enjoy looking at. It's full of links to articles, book reviews, and essays. Down the left sidebar is a long list of various types of links, as well.

Some things you'll like and some you won't, but there's a lot of variety there. In the many links, you will probably discover some interesting websites that will appeal to you.

Enjoy!

Travel Books

Lately I have been reading some travel books by Paul Theroux. If one can overlook his occasional negative comments about America (and he is an American) and his cynical views of a number of the places he visits, they are interesting books. I have to say, they have put me off of doing any traveling other than armchair traveling, but then he travels alone and wings it as far as finding accomodations and transportation--something most of us wouldn't attempt. His preferred mode of travel is the train, which is why I have persisted in reading his books. Train travel fascinates me, as does learning something about different countries and the people in them.

The books cover more than 30 years, so they are not up-to-date, but are interesting nevertheless, if you keep in mind when Mr. Theroux was making the trip he is writing about.

The four books I've read are The Great Railway Bazaar, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Old Patagonian Express, and Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (a revisiting of The Great Railway Bazaar trip 30+ years later).

In the first and last books mentioned, Mr. Theroux travels from London, through Europe, on to Central and Southern Asia, Japan, and across Russia and back to England. Riding the Iron Rooster covers travel throughout China, and The Old Patagonian Express follows a trip from Boston through Mexico and Central and South America to Patagonia.

If you like the idea of train travel and of seeing the world, you might check one of these books out from the library and see if you like them. You can also read the descriptions and customer reviews at Amazon, linked above.

Do you know of other authors who've written about train travel? If so, please share! I'd love to hear of some different books to try.

Writing Tutorial in 3 Videos

You can go to YouTube and search "writing fiction" to get some interesting videos with good information about writing. I found a series of three videos (about 9 minutes each) summarizing Jack M. Bickham's writing book, The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them). These are entertaining and will give you some good tips, too.

On Writing and Reading

Today's writing link: SpecFicWorld Lots of resources and articles about writing for your perusal.

I am still wandering around somewhat on this blog, but I hope my links have at least given you lots of writing tips and ideas for your own writing. I don't feel ready to share my own writing. That wasn't my original idea for this blog--sharing writing tips was. I'm not sure that is interesting enough, though, so we shall see.

I do encourage you to read lots of different types of writing. That will go a long way in helping you to decide what type(s) of writing you would like to do. Right now, I am reading The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney. It is what you might call a literary murder mystery. Set in Canada in the 1860s, it is written in a different style than I am used to, but is not so far out as to be difficult to follow. I am only about halfway through, so I don't know yet if I will recommend it totally, but so far so good! The author switches back and forth between characters and uses present tense quite a bit. There is a first person narrator for parts of the book, but the author takes us often to third person narrative for some of the other characters.

An Article About an Author

A few days ago my friend, Barb, recommended to me a book titled Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz. It's on my list of books to read. Meanwhile, I found an article about Ms. Schlitz at The Christian Science Monitor. It's called "Shy School Librarian Finds Success as Author" by Elaine F. Weiss. So, Barb, this link is for you! It's a nice article and it is also encouraging for those would-be writers who read my blog. Enjoy!

Regarding A Literary History of the American West

In my previous post I provided a link to a wonderful book online titled A Literary History of the American West. I have been reading it a bit at a time and have completed the first section. While it is, of course, about books and literature, there are plenty of bits of history and folklore and Native American lore embedded in the essays that make up the chapters. You will enjoy it, whether your interest lies in books or history. In addition, there are a great many books of all kinds referred to, which will give you reading material to look for. I would suggest searching online first, since much of the older material could very well be found there. I haven't done that yet, although I already had some of these authors bookmarked.

The material covered in this book isn't just fiction and poetry--it's exploration, history, nature, settlement, and many other things. I recommend at least sampling it a bit to see if you find material that appeals to you. If you like it a lot, you can go here and download a pdf copy. All 1423 pages of it!

I've been enjoying it a great deal and think you will, too.

News about Books, Writing, Authors, Etc.

I was surfing the internet looking for a good site to recommend for news and information for writers (and readers). I wanted to recommend a site for you that would contain all sorts of information--news about books and writing, author interviews and websites, book reviews, lists, awards, and so forth. It seems to me that an excellent site for all this is one I have referred to in passing before: BookSpot.com They have lots of pages on different topics dealing with writing and books and also a lot of links to other sites that you may find interesting and useful. Explore the site and I am sure you will find things you like!

Some examples:

Click here to see BookSpot's bestseller page with links to a number of bestseller lists, all gathered together for your convenience.

Click here for information about various book awards.

There are lists of various kinds, such as one for the best of outdoor literature. This one has a brief review of each book on the list.

BookSpot has, on their home page, some Must-See sites, which link to places like BookPage, Bookwire, and Bookreporter, where you will find news, author interviews, and book reviews, plus articles of various kinds.

There are also links for writers here.

This is an enjoyable site with lots of information and links gathered up in one place. I think you will enjoy it a lot.

Sites for News and Reviews

Here are some places to visit for readers and writers.

Book Spot

Readers Read

Readerville

Stop, You're Killing Me!

Scifan

The Mystery Reader

Reading Like a Writer

I have just read a delightful book titled Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose. (Link to Amazon is just for your information--feel free to check it out from the library!)

This book is about reading carefully for its own sake, but also for what it can teach you about writing. Ms. Prose (yes, that's her name) discusses how careful reading can help you with your writing. She has chapters with titles like "Words", "Sentences", and "Paragraphs". She talks about how careful reading can show you ways to handle your own writing, by having a selection of writers to read when you are stuck and in need of inspiration or instruction by example. Her book mentions a variety of authors and books to start you on your way.

I enjoyed this book just because I like to read about books, but it also inspired me with regard to writing. Read the reviews at Amazon and see if you think it would be a book for you.

Writing a Book Review

Writing a book review is something I haven't tackled myself on any serious basis, but many bloggers like to review books at least occasionally, and I hope to do some, as well.

I found an article on the web that describes how to go about it, so I thought I would link to it in case you would like some direction to get started. It is from Los Angeles Valley College and is called, appropriately enough, "How to Write a Book Review."

Book reviews don't need to be all that formal or thorough, but the suggestions in that article will give you some guidance and some ideas. It is common practice to link to the book on some booksellers website, such as Amazon, just so that people can see it and read the publisher's description and perhaps some customer reviews. If you want, you could add a disclaimer that says you are linking there for information purposes only.

I personally find book reviews helpful in deciding whether I would like a book well enough to either buy it or look for it at the library. It helps to find out whether the book reviewer thought it was well written or poorly written, whether it is scholarly or more for the lay-person. Of course, a reviewer might hate a book and you would love it, but at least you would know something about it to help you decide whether to seek it out or not.