If It's Not One Thing It's Another

 It's so much easier to read other people's work and be amazed or delighted or aghast than it is to sit down and write something. Anything, just about. To engage in informed insightful discussions with writer cronies about the merits and otherwise of something we have all just read, how affirming. Perhaps accompanied by herbal tea. Or sherry.

So much more civilized than writing and sharing and afterward saying, "It's you now, OK, I guess.  That part near the end's pretty good, I think. Maybe."

And, reading often opens up possibilities for our own writing. Such a recent reading experience for me has been Suppose a Sentence by Brian Dillon, a book of essays about the pleasures and intrigues of selected single sentences from published books. I had hoped and anticipated it would be mostly about old friends. You know, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" and so forth. It wasn't. Some of the authors, let alone the sentences, I have barely heard of. I was disappointed.

But.

After reading through the book's entries, I found myself intermittently captivated. So much so that, one thought led to another and I decided to write a review of the book. A few more thoughts led me to what appears to be an eccentric online book review site. We'll see what they think of my pwn eccentric approach.

But, here's the thing.

I'm genuinely excited about this. Who could have guessed? This is not something I would ever have attempted without reading Suppose a Sentence. And an added instance of enthusiasm for my own writing work.

So.

Added to the usual advice to developing writers such as I am of "Keep Writing" I feel confident to add "Keep Reading."