The Creative Act

I apologize for the lack of effort I have been putting into the site. I have been very busy, fumbling my way into the ownership of a small bookshop. During this process I have seen many things I thought I ought to write about, and even woke up several times with the urge to write. I did not do it though. I have been tired, my final thoughts at night have not been about how blessed my life is, nor about my wife (now with child as if I didn’t have enough to feel bad about overlooking) but, rather, about lowly and base financial concerns. My first thoughts in the morning are about the store and how to make it more profitable. I wonder how great writers, that we all know were under great financial strain, managed to write anything. As the days have flew past I think they might have become more and more accustomed to their state of affairs and been able to focus on art, I least think I am getting there.

I am still not in a place to write the fiction that I love. I am only in a place to write about it. Therefore I will start writing very regularly about the status of my reading, my habits in reading and some thoughts about what I am reading. I will offer up some juicy quotes that I feel may inspire others to read or write. I hope no one will be offended by my using this space in this way. As always, everyone is invited to post whatever they like, though due to the alck of posts I feel comfortable monopolizing the space.

Let me start by saying I ahve always been a reader. I love reading, even the back of a cereal box if there is nothing else (do you realize how many cereal ingredients are jsut another word for sugar?). I love to read an actual book, not a screen, it is all I can do to sit in front of this screen long enough to write these posts. Some people feel differently, but for me nothing will ever rival the feeling of curling up, legs under me, tea in hand, notebook at my side for quotes or thoughts, with a book in my hand.  Reading slows things down for me, makes them clear and calm, especially when I read poetry. The other hours of my day are chaotic and full of worries. At night I do not seek distraction from life, but beauty, love, thoughts on par with my intellect, and of course, good stories. Books are where I find these things, learn about the past, try to learn to understand other people and places, foreign ideas. I love to talk about what I read and am reading with others, in person so that thoughts can bounce fast and furious and understading can grow. The process of synthesizing what is happening in a book ( to a character, in a characters’ mind, to an idea or theme that is underlying the book)  is a difficult one that I relish.

So for the next while I will be posting pieces about my reading. I just finished Fyodor Dostoesvky’s The Idiot and will be posting about that next. The following post will be my thoughts on Michael Dirda’s Book By Book. I am also reading Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (partway through volume three), and a biography of Old Dusty by Joseph Frank.

Any comments on this project are always welcomed, and if you want to share thoughts about what you are reading feel free to do so, you might even help me decide what to read next.