What I'm Reading This Week-- Jan.17, 2010 - the alchemy of words
Quote de jour
"Ora, lege, lege, lege, relege labora et invenies.
Pray, read, read, read, work, and you shall find."
~from Mutus liber 17th century alchemist's manuscript
You never know what you'll find on my messy desk. There are library books, books pulled from my own groaning shelves, notebooks, scraps of paper, coffee mugs, a computer keyboard full of crumbs, layers of print outs, postcards, photos, tarot cards and that's just the surface. Forget about the drawers, the second desk and the floor. It looks unorganized, a creative frenzy, but there is order in the chaos, and delightful alchemical surprises lurk under the piles. Insight and inspiration often come from random flipping through illustrated books like this one, the source of this week's quote de jour. This is one reason you won't find me using a Kindle. I like looking at words on real printed pages with dog-eared corners, smelling of inky pulp and time. Words printed in their original format have more soul than any photo copy. Words can dance in between the covers in an alchemy of font size, ink color, paper weight. Shall we move from the sublime to the ridiculous?
It's hard to believe but I've joined Twitter. Won't you join me? The Twitter badge is in my sidebar. I'm no tweeting fanatic, at least not yet but I thought I should bone up with Twitter Wit which is so funny, I'm paralyzed with performance anxiety.
I'm luxuriating in this slim, debut novel The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy. It's a dreamy coming-of-age story set in lush, early sixties Puerto Rico and it's the next best thing to a tropical vacation. This is one (pretty) example of telling a book by its cover.http://www.sarahmccoy.com/
I'm a sucker for beautifully designed book covers, so all I can say about this minimalist effort is, wtf?
John Updike's last book published before he died in 2009 is a short story collection My Father's Tears. Is this bland design the best they can do? The contents are infinitely better. He once said,“The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me.” Sounds like the alchemy of words to me. The story about seeing his own father's tears is my favorite thus far.
This week's assortment of magazines. Vanity Fair rose to the top of the heap with their savvy coverage on Meryl Steep. I dread flying again. I'm actually glad my trip to Florida got canceled. Too bad it's not green to own a private jet ,but would I say no to hitching a ride on one? The line starts here.
"Ora, lege, lege, lege, relege labora et invenies.
Pray, read, read, read, work, and you shall find."
~from Mutus liber 17th century alchemist's manuscript
You never know what you'll find on my messy desk. There are library books, books pulled from my own groaning shelves, notebooks, scraps of paper, coffee mugs, a computer keyboard full of crumbs, layers of print outs, postcards, photos, tarot cards and that's just the surface. Forget about the drawers, the second desk and the floor. It looks unorganized, a creative frenzy, but there is order in the chaos, and delightful alchemical surprises lurk under the piles. Insight and inspiration often come from random flipping through illustrated books like this one, the source of this week's quote de jour. This is one reason you won't find me using a Kindle. I like looking at words on real printed pages with dog-eared corners, smelling of inky pulp and time. Words printed in their original format have more soul than any photo copy. Words can dance in between the covers in an alchemy of font size, ink color, paper weight. Shall we move from the sublime to the ridiculous?
It's hard to believe but I've joined Twitter. Won't you join me? The Twitter badge is in my sidebar. I'm no tweeting fanatic, at least not yet but I thought I should bone up with Twitter Wit which is so funny, I'm paralyzed with performance anxiety.
I'm luxuriating in this slim, debut novel The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy. It's a dreamy coming-of-age story set in lush, early sixties Puerto Rico and it's the next best thing to a tropical vacation. This is one (pretty) example of telling a book by its cover.http://www.sarahmccoy.com/
I'm a sucker for beautifully designed book covers, so all I can say about this minimalist effort is, wtf?
John Updike's last book published before he died in 2009 is a short story collection My Father's Tears. Is this bland design the best they can do? The contents are infinitely better. He once said,“The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me.” Sounds like the alchemy of words to me. The story about seeing his own father's tears is my favorite thus far.
This week's assortment of magazines. Vanity Fair rose to the top of the heap with their savvy coverage on Meryl Steep. I dread flying again. I'm actually glad my trip to Florida got canceled. Too bad it's not green to own a private jet ,but would I say no to hitching a ride on one? The line starts here.
Posted by Layla Morgan Wilde at 1/17/2010 9:03 AM 
Categories: What I'm Reading This Week
Tags: Sarah McCoy Twitter Wit Alchemy of words My Father's Tears
Categories: What I'm Reading This Week
Tags: Sarah McCoy Twitter Wit Alchemy of words My Father's Tears
Is writing poetry more alchemical than witing prose?
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Not necessarily. Transmutation depends on the raw materials and the skill of the alchemist.
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Tweet, tweet, I am on Twitter as kathryneo1022. The reason for that is I had apparently joined before as kathryneo, but forgot, so that name was taken...
I actually have not been on twitter for a month or so. I sometimes or often post links to my Gather articles on Twitter. When I do tweet, I often answer people' s remarks. I used to go once a week, but have not had time.
I will give Updike a try again.
The Puerto Rico book reminds me vageuly of a YA book...about two, actually, "When my name was Yukiko." written by a Korean woman living here about her time in Korea under Japanese occupation...and that is not the right title.
Far from the Mango Groves... by someone...that is not the right title, but it is about an Hispanic woman whose family moved to Miami. Really well done.
I love Memoir. If I were not so horribly unreliable about picking up my library book orders, I'd order it. But I will remind my self in a few months.
Back to the manuscript. First 2 chapters to send next week and the week after to contests. Working on final draft of Chapters 3-5. The hard work.
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Time, the magic word!
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This is quite a collection you have here Layla. You may really want to look inside your drawers coz there might be an alchemical thing going on there. It's the kind of place that creates Slimer from the Ghostbusters, ya know!
Btw, I think I like the title of that first book you showed. Alchemy is one of the subjects that tickles my fancy. Ok, I'm off to find the book on the internet. I do hope it's good.
Thanks for sharing your stuff, and have a great day!
Cheers,
Ryhen
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You got that right
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McCoy's book looks wonderful. Thank you for the suggestion.
PS I keep a clean desk.
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I think you would enjoy it. Perhaps you could share your secrets for keeping a clean desk?
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My friend also suggested me for that book. I am too lazy to read books like that.
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