On Words and Business

There are at least 30 books in a pile in my living room, new to me but still unread.

Yet, I’ve gone back to my paperback bookshelf and started rereading all my Dick Francis books. I was introduced to the books of Francis, a former steeplechase jockey, in high school. And I’ve read almost every one of his books (about 30 of them, incidentally) at least twice.

Everything I know about steeplechasing and horses I learned from his books.

Reading his work is like visiting a trusted old friend. Perhaps that’s why they’ve bumped other books temporarily off my reading list.

Life Entrepreneurs

A book about “ordinary people who integrate their life, work, and purpose through distinctively entrepreneurial behavior…”

I’m putting it on the top of my priority list. Although, to repeat something I heard recently, right now my priority list is all top, with nothin’ under it.

If you’ve read the book, let me know your thoughts…

Ahhh…now that Memorial Day has passed, a reader’s thoughts turn to a list (or pile, as you prefer) of books to read for the summer.

Starting off my summer is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson. This book is, as described on the back cover, laugh-out-loud funny. The woman who sat next to me on the plane yesterday can attest to my occasional and, I would imagine, startling outbursts of laughter. This man is a literary genius.

A little taste

“The slowest place of all in my corner of the youthful firmament was the large cracked-leather dental chair of Dr. D. K. Brewster, our spooky, cadaverous dentist, while waiting for him to assemble his instruments and get down to business. There time didn’t move forward at all. It just hung.

“Dr. Brewster was the most unnerving dentist in America. He was, for one thing, about 108 years old and had more than a hint of Parkinsonism in his wobbly hands. Nothing about him inspired confidence. He was perennially surprised by the power of his own equipment. ‘Whoa!‘ he’d say as he briefly enlivened some screaming device or other. ‘You could do some damage with that, I bet.’

“Worse still, he didn’t believe in novocaine…”

Rejection and failure are part of running a business. But so is success! Freelance Switch has a great entry today on how to make sure you celebrate your successes.

This article is especially meaningful to me, as I approach the deadline for the submission of the manuscript for my first book. I’m still too ensconced in the writing to let myself imagine the day a box of my books arrives. (But I can’t wait!)

For today and as many days to come as we can make it happen, let’s only think of, and talk about, our successes.

Let’s talk about books for the moment…

Writers write to be read.

If you watch the film version of a book, even one that follows the book closely, you didn’t read the book.

But if you listen to a book on tape (let’s say unabridged), can you say read it? If someone reads the book to you, can you say you read it?

So…what do you call it when you listened to a book (that someone read to you, or you got on CD, or listened to as a podcast, for example), but you never actually picked up the book and looked at the words on the page?

As media evolves and the nature of intaking and absorbing information changes, will this become a larger question? And what effect might this have on literacy?

As the new year begins, I just have to share…One of the most exciting things that happened to me last year was signing a contract to write a book: Going Coastal Boston, a guidebook about activities on the shores and islands of Boston Harbor. It’s modeled on, and published by the same folks who brought you, Going Coastal New York.

This year, I’m looking forward to finishing the research and writing, and seeing the book in print.

And even though I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, per se, this year I’ve decided to start work on another book. My goal for this month is to decide on the topic. The only downside I’ve found to being a writer is having too many good ideas to choose from. Then having to prioritize. How do you choose among all your children?