What I have been Reading
The summer has been an opportunity for flexible reading. I decided to focus on the short story, and when the summer began, I was reading connected authors. I have since had a taste of the works of Frank O'Connor, Colm Toibin, Sean O'Faolain (since these are Irish, I had to throw in James Joyce's Dubliners in the mix). I also explored others: Anton Checkov, Alice Munro, Barbara Kingsolver, V.S. Naipaul, T.C. Boyle, Alice Walker...the list goes on. No day was enough for my reading, and I didn't stick with the same author for long, which explains why I was reading up to ten authors at once. This was easy to do because these were short stories. I could easily move from Frank O'Connor to Flannery O'Connor, Barbara Kingsolver to Joyce Carol Oates, Jorge Luis Borges to Doris Lessing and everything in between. I was swimming in short stories, pursuing some aspect of craft that makes this genre interesting. I can't say my pursuit has led to much of anything yet, but I have met some damn good writers. And I can always return to the stories that had immediate appeal, or even those that I abandoned.
Of course, I distracted myself. A world where you read only short stories is impossible, so I managed to sneak in some novel-reading. I couldn't resist the temptation of reading Chielo Zona Eze's novel The Trial of Robert Mugabe, which made me look for my copy of Yvonne Vera's The Stone Virgins and I ended up focusing on the latter (you don't start a Vera book planning to put it down!); by then I had decided to finish Vera first in order to make sense of Part 2 of Eze's Mugabe novel. I finished The Stone Virgins and found myself starting it all over again, because you actually enjoy the way she writes as you read it; there is pleasure in reading her words, in taking in every tiny detail, whether she is descibing a store's veranda, someone's foot, a flower, or the Bulawayo streets--you are not bored; you want it all. I realized I owned all of Vera's books except her very first one, Why Don't You Carve Other Animals, which, in keeping with my Summer 2009 goal, I had to order from Amazon because it is a short story collection!
Vera's collection arrived today, but not alone. I also received my review copies of Christopher Mlalazi's Many Rivers and Ignatius Mabasa's The Man, Shaggy Leopard and Jackal, both of which were published by Lion Press (UK). That's more reading in the few days before I go back to work next week.
This list of books does not come close to cover the works I have read (or touched)this summer, but it demonstrates that there is so much work to read out there, many good authors to follow. Reading is a humbling process, especially for a writer because you get to appreciate the work that goes into a book. That influences the way you approach your own writing, going at it with a can-do spirit because you have been exposed to diverse styles, you have seen it all, and you are aware, as you write, that you are not the first one to attempt story creation, that as you write, thousands others worldwide are also writing, whether they are trying to enter competitions, or are completing stories for BFA/MFA , and other, workshop assignments, or have already gotten a deal whose deadline they are trying to meet. You become aware that there are so many good (and bad) writers out there and you begin to wonder if the number of writers does not exceed that of readers; then you remind yourself that when you stop your own writing for a moment to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Strange Pilgrims , Sean O'Faolain's I Remember! I Remember! or Franz Kafka Metamorphosis and Other Stories, you are playing that role of reader that every writer requires.
It's a great feeling.
Of course, I distracted myself. A world where you read only short stories is impossible, so I managed to sneak in some novel-reading. I couldn't resist the temptation of reading Chielo Zona Eze's novel The Trial of Robert Mugabe, which made me look for my copy of Yvonne Vera's The Stone Virgins and I ended up focusing on the latter (you don't start a Vera book planning to put it down!); by then I had decided to finish Vera first in order to make sense of Part 2 of Eze's Mugabe novel. I finished The Stone Virgins and found myself starting it all over again, because you actually enjoy the way she writes as you read it; there is pleasure in reading her words, in taking in every tiny detail, whether she is descibing a store's veranda, someone's foot, a flower, or the Bulawayo streets--you are not bored; you want it all. I realized I owned all of Vera's books except her very first one, Why Don't You Carve Other Animals, which, in keeping with my Summer 2009 goal, I had to order from Amazon because it is a short story collection!
Vera's collection arrived today, but not alone. I also received my review copies of Christopher Mlalazi's Many Rivers and Ignatius Mabasa's The Man, Shaggy Leopard and Jackal, both of which were published by Lion Press (UK). That's more reading in the few days before I go back to work next week.
This list of books does not come close to cover the works I have read (or touched)this summer, but it demonstrates that there is so much work to read out there, many good authors to follow. Reading is a humbling process, especially for a writer because you get to appreciate the work that goes into a book. That influences the way you approach your own writing, going at it with a can-do spirit because you have been exposed to diverse styles, you have seen it all, and you are aware, as you write, that you are not the first one to attempt story creation, that as you write, thousands others worldwide are also writing, whether they are trying to enter competitions, or are completing stories for BFA/MFA , and other, workshop assignments, or have already gotten a deal whose deadline they are trying to meet. You become aware that there are so many good (and bad) writers out there and you begin to wonder if the number of writers does not exceed that of readers; then you remind yourself that when you stop your own writing for a moment to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Strange Pilgrims , Sean O'Faolain's I Remember! I Remember! or Franz Kafka Metamorphosis and Other Stories, you are playing that role of reader that every writer requires.
It's a great feeling.
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