Saturday, July 18, 2015

Moment of Zen: Reading and Writing



I have been very busy this past week, but there are two things that have made me very happy this week: reading and writing (two out of three of the 3 R's isn't bad, but not arithmetic please).
First, I have been reading Go Set the Watchman by Harper Lee, and whereas there seems to be a lot of unflattering reviews of the book, I find them misplaced.  In fact, I'm not so sure some of the readers even read the book, and if they had, they already made up their mind before they read it that they wouldn't like it.  I still have about 100 pages to go, but so far I am loving the book, and I think it is an important piece of history.  No matter what you think of the book, it captures the nuances of changes in the South in the 1950s, but more on that when I finish the book.
Also, I have been writing.  A few weeks ago, at the encouragement of friends, I began writing a novel.  I'd tried to write one several years ago, but life got in the way and I never finished it.  However,  this book is one that I have had in my head for a while and thought that it needed to come out.  So I put pen to paper, or more accurately fingers to keyboard, and I began writing.  I will also talk more about that in the future as well.

4 comments:

Susan said...

Excellent news on both fronts, Joe. Looking forward to your thoughts when you have finished GSAW, and especially since you have lived so close to the story's setting. Also, congratulations and good luck with the start of a your creative endeavor. :)

Michael Dodd said...

I am glad to hear you are writing a novel! May I recommend that you consider the National Novel Writing Month program to help motivate you? That is really in November, but they have lots of useful tips at their website nanowrimo.org.

Anonymous said...

Awesome. I love your blog and can't wait to read your novel �� Hope things are going well on the job front.

Anonymous said...

That was supposed to be a winky smile.