May reading
May has been a good month for reading. I read Mort, by Terry Pratchett,, which was good fun, and I finally knocked another item off of my to-do list: Read Strunk & White.
Many years ago, I read that every writer should read The Elements of Style, by Wm. Strunk and E. B. White, study it, and re-read it every year. This struck me as such fine advice that I went out, bought the book, and read the first ten pages. With less then 90 pages to go, it shouldn't have taken me another six years to get to the end, but somehow it did. I got caught up on the mysteries of colons and semicolons, two punctuation marks that I have never fully understood. The book slipped back onto my bookshelf and has stayed there ever since, near the front of the pile but rarely opened.
I am now happy to report that I have finally read the whole thing. I felt its influence on my writing immediately, as if I could tighten sentences better than ever before. I felt my critical eye sharpen as I read. I did not feel the need to run out and buy half a dozen more books on how to write, and I do intend to re-read it next year, if not before. I even read some of it aloud to Nova.
Speaking of Nova, she is becoming very enthusiastic about books. In the past few weeks, she's started demanding to be read to all day long. She'll pick up any book that happens to be lying around and hammer me with it, saying, "Book! Book!" She might sit down and have me read a few pages once I take the book, or sometimes she goes and gets another one until she's made a pile around me of every book in her reach. Her favorites are still the ones starring dogs, like Officer Buckle and Gloria and Dog, which we read practically every day, sometimes two or three times. I need to get her some new books, soon.
I am currently reading Wuthering Heights. More on that when (and if) I finish it.
Many years ago, I read that every writer should read The Elements of Style, by Wm. Strunk and E. B. White, study it, and re-read it every year. This struck me as such fine advice that I went out, bought the book, and read the first ten pages. With less then 90 pages to go, it shouldn't have taken me another six years to get to the end, but somehow it did. I got caught up on the mysteries of colons and semicolons, two punctuation marks that I have never fully understood. The book slipped back onto my bookshelf and has stayed there ever since, near the front of the pile but rarely opened.
I am now happy to report that I have finally read the whole thing. I felt its influence on my writing immediately, as if I could tighten sentences better than ever before. I felt my critical eye sharpen as I read. I did not feel the need to run out and buy half a dozen more books on how to write, and I do intend to re-read it next year, if not before. I even read some of it aloud to Nova.
Speaking of Nova, she is becoming very enthusiastic about books. In the past few weeks, she's started demanding to be read to all day long. She'll pick up any book that happens to be lying around and hammer me with it, saying, "Book! Book!" She might sit down and have me read a few pages once I take the book, or sometimes she goes and gets another one until she's made a pile around me of every book in her reach. Her favorites are still the ones starring dogs, like Officer Buckle and Gloria and Dog, which we read practically every day, sometimes two or three times. I need to get her some new books, soon.
I am currently reading Wuthering Heights. More on that when (and if) I finish it.
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