One-third into Anne Lamott’s book, Bird by Bird, I was not happy. The advice for aspiring writers that she offers in those first chapters (subtitle of the book isSome Instructions on Writing and Life) seems simplistic and obvious (maybe I’ve just heard it or read it all too many times before) and too cute. And what [...]
Continue Reading →Annie Dillard is an intense writer, and a generous one: she writes as she counsels others to write in her book The Writing Life, “spend it all, shoot it play it lose it, right away every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a late place in the book, or for another book; give [...]
Continue Reading →Captain Paul K. Chappell of the U.S. Army writes a very persuasive book with his Will War Ever End? A Soldier’s Vision of Peace for the 21st Century. Comparing the tolerance of war to the tolerance of slavery, serfdom, and subjugation of women — all of which are now almost universally deemed unacceptable and unthinkable– Chappell [...]
Continue Reading →William Hazlitt’s On the Pleasure of Hating is a sometimes charming, sometimes mind-bending, and always intelligent collection of essays by this free-thinking, humanistic, and very exacting nineteenth century philosopher. He makes no big-blown arguments. Instead, all his essays build incrementally with well-drawn points (supported by his wealth of knowledge of literature, ancient and contemporary, and of [...]
Continue Reading →Forrest Church’s Love and Death: My Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow is a fine book. Church has thought deeply and fully about death and how to prepare for it, and has good advice on making the most of life. He began this book in response to a diagnosis of terminal cancer, and the mixture [...]
Continue Reading →The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey is a wonderful artifact of the seventies. It is completely lacking in irony and chock-full of zen insight; it is also refreshingly optimistic about the possibilities for all of us to play better tennis and enjoy a better life. I liked this book a lot. Gallwey [...]
Continue Reading →Yesterday I read Nick Hornby’s book, Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. It was recommended to me and I liked it. But it is not a book that most people would enjoy reading. Sure, it is funny and sometimes there are great insights but basically it is a book of one-liners or one-paragraphers and only a real book [...]
Continue Reading →What better to do on Valentine’s Day than consider the seven deadly sins? Love is of course a virtue but other emotional states associated with Valentine’s Day — envy (her boyfriend got her roses), pride (my boyfriend is way hotter), covetousness (I want two boyfriends), gluttony (it wasn’t that big a box of chocolates), sloth (store-bought [...]
Continue Reading →Yesterday I read Ten Poems to Set You Free by Roger Housden. Housden has written a series of books about poems, all with the theme of reading and using poems to help a person change themselves for the better. Housden writes with energy and sincerity and he picks great poems by good poets. Mary Oliver, Stanley [...]
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