I like typewriters. I want to own a red one someday. Here is a page of amazing vintage typewriters. As far as I know, no famous writers used these typewriters. Still, pretty!

Link via Boing Boing

~ Joy

Just a reminder we have a meeting next Thursday, September 6. Bring in your attempts to be empathetic with your character so we can judge your efforts. Also don’t forget that we have a second critique workshop on September 20th for the essay. Lets send the revised essay around via e-mail on September 13 so we have a chance to read it.

Schedule for September:

September 6: Meeting

September 13: Send revised essay to WPs via e-mail

September 20: Workshop second draft of essay

One more thing: I will be gone on September 20 on my cross-country trip across the U.S. Can someone else host the meeting that week?

~ Joy

MtvU – the MTV channel for college campuses – chose John Ashbery as its poet laureate. At first, it sounded like a well-meaning attempt that would accomplish little. However, I was less cynical after reading about the contest associated with the new appointment. A contest with a real prize!

In another first, mtvU will help sponsor a poetry contest for college students. The winner, chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, will have a book published next year by HarperCollins as part of the National Poetry Series. – via the New York Times

I am glad that I haven’t heard too many snotty reactions to this. Remember when people pooped their diapers about Oprah’s book club? Like suddenly a book isn’t a real piece of literature anymore because people are actually reading it. Of course, I only say that because I am too naive to comprehend Oprah’s nefarious plan to control what America reads.

Introducing new audiences to art is a good thing. (Now if the way you introduce it is to chop it to bits and mess with it until it’s unrecognizable and bland, that’s another story …)

–Marcia

Better late than never:

Last week, the WPs had a meeting. We read a few things we have been working on and talked about writing. Then we did the prompt:

Following Joy’s meditations on the use of empathy in writing–that is, empathy of the writer for characters even if the writer does not agree with the character’s actions–we each chose a behavior we tend to be judgmental about (or a person we know in real life who hurts/upsets us) and wrote for 20 minutes from the point of view of a character who believes in or adopted that behavior. The object was to convincingly get into the character’s head without being condescending or skirting the real reasons why the character might believe the whatever the thing is.

At the next meeting (September 6), we’re going to bring in versions of the prompt and read them for each other. We will judge each other’s ability to have empathy for our character.  It should be interesting.

One in four Americans polled by the Associated Press-Ispos said they didn’t read any books at all last year. Not even one?

“I just get sleepy when I read,” said Richard Bustos of Dallas, Texas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool. – via CNN

So read a book already! And if a whole book makes you sleepy, there’s always DailyLit – a service that will e-mail you small chunks of public domain books each day.

Word Pirates,

I feel you need to know which Jane Austen heroine I am. Here are the results:

:: L I Z Z Y ::

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

Take the Quiz here!
Rock! Intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. Which one are you?

~ Joy

There is something intimidating and off-putting about writing in a journal for me. I am a type to get obsessed with how nice the book of paper looks and whether or not I am using a good pen or crossing things out and making the page look ugly. Also, I begin to focus on what the point of it is if it’s stuff in my brain I don’t know what to do with or don’t care to do anything with — which is often the case for journaling. I am not the type to want a record of my own thoughts for its own sake.

Gretchen Rubin posted about her one-sentence journal — just a series of single sentences, not too scary. She added to that with another idea suggested by a reader: a while-people-are-boarding-the-plane journal.
There are many moments in our lives where we could jot down some ideas or thoughts, but don’t. For people like me who have a hard time with the concept of a traditional journal, a running notebook with ideas and stray sentences could work better … as long as it wasn’t some bossy thing I always had to write in. I do what I want.
For instance a “journal” filled with random thoughts from when I was:

• Waiting at the DMV, dentist/doctor office or mechanic
• Watching something on TV because I was bored
• Waiting for someone else to get out of the shower
• Doing laundry at the Laundromat
• Having trouble sleeping because of a cold or flu
• Doing anything else that doesn’t require my attention

–Marcia

A writer for The Guardian judges the books on the Booker list by their covers. Pretty funny, although I’m pretty sure one of the Word Pirates could have done a better job with this concept. Some highlights:

Edward Docx - Self Help
Docx, if cover photos are anything to go by, is good looking and not that much older than me. He is also, I read on the back “fiendishly clever”. Even if I enjoy this book, reading it will be painful.

Indra Sinha - Animal’s People
The story of an Indian child mutilated by an explosion at an American chemical factory, with the tagline “I used to be human once …” First impressions suggest that Animal’s People will be emotionally draining, while an appendix of “Khaufpuri” words in the back pages words implies that it could also be hard work.

~ Joy

I’ve never actually seen a bookmobile in real life, but I like the idea. Reading is important, blah blah children society. OK, now I can get to the awesome part: bookmules and bookcamels! Children! Excited about books! All right, no more exclamation points.
About bookmules in remote areas of Venezuela:

Anyone who was not out working the fields - tending the celery that is the main crop here - was waiting for our arrival. The 23 children at the little school were very excited.

“Bibilomu-u-u-u-las,” they shouted as the bags of books were unstrapped. They dived in eagerly, keen to grab the best titles and within minutes were being read to by Christina and Juana, two of the project leaders.

“Spreading the joy of reading is our main aim,” Christina Vieras told me. (read entire story on BBC website)

About bookcamels:

The actual Camel Bookmobile brings books to semi-nomadic people in Northeastern Kenya who live with the most minimal of possessions, suffering from chronic poverty and periodic drought. I visited the region during a period of drought and made several hours-long walks through the African bush with the bookmobile. I cannot describe how moving it was to see the people, particularly children, crowding around as the traveling librarians set up straw mats under an acacia tree and spread out the books. The excitement is palpable. (get more details, including how to donate books, from Masha Hamilton)

Links via Kevin Kelly

Last night, the Word Pirates did a critique of our personal essays. We got through all 8 essays and even managed to fit in a reading of Sarah Vowell’s essay The First Thanksgiving, for inspiration.

Next, we are going to edit the essays based on the criticisms. On September 20, we will have a second critique on them. They should be close to finished by then, and we can get down to the nitty-gritty.

Here’s the schedule for upcoming meetings:

• August 16
• September 6
• September 20
• October 4
• October 18
• November 1
• November 15
• December 6

~ Joy