Reading about Writing.

MONDAY, JULY 5, 2010


Reading about Writing.

Two of my sisters are teachers. They take young minds, shape them, teach them how to think and unleash them on the world. Once is very scientific about it. The other teaches what her students should be doing so they don’t look like idiots using their own language.

They were visiting together in South Florida this holiday weekend. The youngest sister that lives in the Smokies had probably already jumped in the car predawn to try to make the trip home in one day. I think there is something genetic about that.

Her daughter brought a friend along for the trip. My brother in law is surviving the sea of estrogen similar to the one he is in when his three daughters are home. I guess he enjoys it because I have never heard a complaint. He does occasionally escape to the recliner for total sports immersion in front of the television at about 100db. He coaches cross country track. He teaches English Composition where I went to high school. My sister teaches there too and they are like a well oiled linguistic tag team.

I told my sister that teaches English about my blog a while back. I am pretty sure she considers it too much like work. She has read at least a few posts. She does a lot of recreational reading and instructed her brood to get her a Kindle for her birthday. I think she wanted to add the experience of reading on an electronic device to turning paper pages.


She sent some books to our house after her last visit to town. One of the books was meant for me. She told me on the phone she was sending me something. I assumed it was a fountain pen she had in a drawer that she wasn’t using. We both have a thing for pens and pads.

Instead of a pen it was “Old Friend from Far Away” by Natalie Goldberg which is quite instructional in nature. It has writing exercises in it. It even has tests. I may do some of the exercises. I gave up tests in college. I thought it an odd way for an author to fill pages... some with only a topic and one sentence on them. This makes it easier for both the author and the reader to finish the book quickly.

The heart of the book was preceded by several pages of praises mostly from authors and teachers. Only two were from newspapers. I kept looking for that ringing endorsement from the New York Times in the paperback edition I have but could find it nowhere. Not that the NYT endorsement really means much except a lot of people bought the book. From some books I bought because of the endorsement, I know it does not necessarily translate into good or easy reading. Natalie’s book is easy to read.

Information from the book jacket identifies Natalie as a poet, teacher and the author of eleven books. Normally, that would be sufficient to inspire me to return the book to the shelf at a bookstore since it is almost three strikes and she’s out. One out of 11 would indicate to me that this book had less than a 10% chance of being the author’s best work. Natalie's book spends time letting readers know how much she loved Allen Ginsberg. He died before publication so he gets a special memorial since they taught workshops together.

This is truly a book with a mission. It is a book that encourages people to write. It has exercises and advice on how to do that. It demands a lot of dedication and work to use the book as a step by step guide to writing. I am on page 69 now and there are 308 pages in the book including three pages of books the author thinks prospective authors ought to read. If I follow the guidelines for the exercises, take the tests and read all of the recommended works before I start writing in earnest I figure the only thing left of my writing would be a lot of pages of practice sessions. I have been practicing far too long.

I appreciate that my sister the English teacher sent me this book on writing. It has excellent advice and some good ideas for topics to write about. I think she did it out of love rather than some other motivation although I am probably worse than even I think I am.

I am going to read Natalie’s entire book. Maybe my teacher sister can teach me something. I know I can read about writing and now I found out that like Natalie I can write about writing too... and I have passed my test for today: writing about reading books about writing while still reading them without getting too scientific about it.

Reading about writing.

Write ten minutes.

© 07.06.2010 steven d philbrick SR+ DakotaDawg


POSTED BY SRPLUS AT 12:49 PM