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Home » Reading » Page 3

Reading

Read Old Books, Write New Books

By Bob Hostetleron November 14, 2018
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C. S. Lewis (maybe you’ve heard of him) famously commended the reading of old books:

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books…. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books (from “On the Reading of Old Books” in God in the Dock).

I love it when C. S. Lewis takes the same view as I do. In particular, I consider the reading of old books to be a helpful—even indispensable—habit for writers. I recommend Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Hemingway, Thoreau and Emerson, Bacon and Shakespeare and Dickens, among many, many others. We can learn so much from such authors and their books.

However, I must add a qualification. Read old books, but do not imitate or absorb every writing technique of those authors.

So much has changed over the years in what people read, what they expect when they read, and what they will tolerate when they read. I offer you just four quick examples:

  1. Brevity

Old books—not all, but many—were often written to be read aloud, in the days before radio and television. Others were serialized and published episodically in weekly or monthly magazines. Those formats permitted longer scenes and sometimes rambling descriptions. Such is no longer the case. Today’s readers expect books to move along at a faster pace than, say, James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans—faster, even, than a novel from twenty-five or fifty years ago.

  1. POV

Modern readers of fiction want to get lost in a book’s fictional setting. Careful attention to “point of view” (that is, whose “head” I’m in when I’m reading a fiction scene) maintains the illusion. A Dickens or Dostoevsky novel may shift point-of-view from one character to another several times in a single scene, but that won’t fly these days. “Head hopping” wasn’t a crime in their day, but it is for modern writers.

  1. Dialogue tags

I opened Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice to a random page. On that page, I saw six dialogue tags: “she repeated,” “he then replied,” “she continued,” “said Darcy,” “repeated Darcy,” “cried Elizabeth.” These days, an editor might strike half—or all—of those tags, for various reasons. First, because they describe the obvious. Also because there’s nothing wrong with “said” (in fact, today’s readers barely read the word; their eyes slide over it except when it helps to identify the speaker). And capable writers use fewer tags nowadays, preferring to tag dialogue with action (He stepped to the window. “What do you mean?”) or even letting the tone or manner of speaking identify the character instead of “he said” or “she interlocuted.”

  1. Historical accuracy

Earlier this year, The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) announced a decision to change the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (named for the author of the popular Little House on the Prairie books) to the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. The ALSC said the reason for the decision was the depiction of racist attitudes in the books. Others expressed dismay at the move, pointing out that the wrongness of the attitudes were also depicted. Nonetheless, it is an illustration of the challenges today’s writers face. The need for integrity and accuracy (historical and otherwise) has never been greater, nor the demand for sensitivity and equanimity. Some words can be implied but may not be used. Some attitudes or actions that may be completely accurate will be thoroughly censured. We can’t know every possible reaction to our words, but we must—particularly as Christian writers—consider our words carefully and seek to enlighten and uplift in a dark and downtrodden world.

These are just a few differences to be noted and observed by those of us who read old books. No doubt this blog’s readers can add a few from your own experience. I hope you will.

 

 

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Category: Craft, Reading, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life, Writing Craft

Two Ways to Think About Your Book

By Dan Balowon July 24, 2018
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Two of the many complexities within book publishing are how often the book buyer and the book reader are different people and how books may sell only in limited locations. Some people read only what someone else buys for them. Some books sell primarily in one city at one retail location. Adults will always be the ones to buy a book for a small child. (A child might latch onto a certain book while …

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Category: Book Business, Marketing, Reading, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Book Business, Marketing, The Publishing Life

In Praise of Memorable Sentences

By Bob Hostetleron June 27, 2018
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In her book, The Writing Life, Annie Dillard tells the story of a well-known writer who was collared by a university student, who asked, “Do you think I could be a writer?” “Well,” the writer said, “I don’t know…. Do you like sentences?” Dillard continues: The writer could see the student’s amazement. Sentences? Do I like sentences? I am twenty years old and do I like sentences? If he had liked …

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Category: Language, Reading, The Writing Life, Writing CraftTag: Language, Reading, Writing Craft

Fakespot

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon June 7, 2018
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As a reader, I enjoy perusing book reviews. I usually start my assessment of a book by reading one-star reviews to see the worst the reviewers think. One-star reviews will tell me the book’s pitfalls and problems, and are less predictable than glowing reviews. I do read across the star rankings, though. The best reviewers across all the rankings provide lots of good information. I cringe when …

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Category: Reading, ReviewsTag: Book reviews, Reading

Why I Read to the End

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 17, 2018
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I am the world’s worst about abandoning novels I read for leisure. I’ll give a book a fair chance, but as soon as I find I don’t like it, I have no compunction about tossing it aside to pursue a different story. And believe me, as a literary agent, I have many books to consider. In any room we spend time in at home, several books stay within reach. Authors must earn my time and effort. So how does …

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Category: Reading, Writing CraftTag: Reading, The Writing Life, Writing Craft

What’s on Your Shelf?

By Steve Laubeon February 12, 2018
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A series of interview questions that dig into my reading life. What’s on your nightstand right now? I am an extremely eclectic reader and have dozens of books waiting for attention. In fiction I’m currently reading Run Program by Scott Meyer a science-fiction story of a newly developed artificial intelligence program that “gets out” of the lab and is now running loose on the Internet – with all …

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Category: Personal, ReadingTag: Books, fiction, Nonfiction, Reading

Read It Twice!

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon November 30, 2017
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I read Gone with the Wind for the first time in the seventh grade. Then I reread it in the eighth grade. Daddy fussed at me for this. “Why are you reading the same book again? You should read something else.” I know he had a point, but I consumed it a second time, all the way to the ambiguous, 1,200-page end. Because. I. Wanted. To. By the way, the unsettling ending is probably one reason why I …

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Category: Craft, ReadingTag: Craft, Reading

The Damaged Reader

By Dan Balowon October 17, 2017
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Not like I am some overly sensitive guy, but often when I hear a sermon in church or some Christian presentation, I cringe when a pastor or speaker might say something to the effect, “Raising a family is the most important thing a married man and woman do in their lives.” I agree it is very important, but I also think about the middle age couple four rows in front of me who had multiple …

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Category: Marketing, Reading, TheologyTag: Audience, The Writing Life, Theology

Don’t Let Anything Happen to That Book

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 5, 2017
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Awhile back I asked everyone to name a book that changed their life. Today I want you to remember a book that means a great deal to you. It doesn’t have to be the same book. My mother will tell me not to let anything happen to Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories. She’s been passing off lots of objects to me for some time. As I write this, I’m cooking dinner in her harvest gold crock pot from …

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Category: Book Review, Personal, ReadingTag: Books, Reading

Confessions of a Book Club Dropout

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon September 14, 2017
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Lots of publishing professionals belong to book clubs. That makes perfect sense, since we read lots of books. Why not meet with a group to discuss them? Awhile ago I joined a book club of Christian women who read general market books I normally don’t read. I thought reading along with them would broaden my horizons. The first month, I couldn’t get through the book although I tried. The nonfiction …

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Category: Book Business, Personal, ReadingTag: Book Clubs, Reading
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