Writing About Books (list of quotes) collected by Leanne Dyck

I started reviewing books for this blog in 2012. Recently, I re-read my notes. To celebrate this blog's ninth anniversary, I compiled this list of quotes.

So all together now, let's sing the praises of reading--types the dyslexic. 

photo by ldyck

Writing about Books

'[B]ooks are the nation's most precious possession.' 
Independent People, Halldor Laxness

'[W]hen you handle books all day long every new one is a friend and a temptation.'
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

'A book lives in every person who reads it.' 
Sweep, Jonathan Auxier

'[S]he would not be without guidance, she would not be without love, without faith; she had a good book with her.' 
Cider House Rules, John Irving

'[H]e had made Nan read it a second time. That is the sign that you really love a book.'
Sweep, Jonathan Auxier

'He had found her reading a book, which was a peculiar occupation for a woman who was not a nun.' 
The Pillar of the Earth, Ken Follett

'[P]ublishing a book is like scattering ashes from an urn.'
Sweep, Jonathan Auxier

'She chirps the last bit as if that were all to say about a book:  It's good or it's bad. I like it or I didn't. No discussion of the writing, the themes, the nuances, the structure. Just good or bad. Like a hot dog.' 
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

More...

This morning I took my dog for a walk and inspiration struck. I hope you enjoy the result.

A Poem for November

November did try,

she filled her skies with blue

and let the sun shine

Still people shared poems

about how dull she is

But July told November,

"People need moody days too."

Next Sunday evening...

Book review:  Akin by Emma Donoghue

Maybe I could summarize this novel like this...

"What did you do during the war, Mom?"
"What did you do to end poverty, Son?"

Please click the link to read my review next week.

Writing about Writers (list of quotes) collected by Leanne Dyck

On October 10th this blog will be nine years old. Do you believe it? Nine. To celebrate, I re-read the quotes I gathered since 2012--when I started reviewing books for this blog. I'll offer these quotes in thematic collections over the next three months--including October, including today. Please click on the links provided under each quote to read my book reviews.

"An Autumn Road" photo by ldyck

Writing about Writers

To be a successful writer:  ' "You must have talent. A thick skin. And most important luck... To make luck you must be clever, or blessed." ' The Delusionist, Grant Buday

'I wonder if I'll ever write anything worth anything.' 

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

'What's the point of writing something that no one will ever read? I forget who said that a work of art does not exist without an audience--that it's not enough for it to be made.' 

Motherhood, Sheila Heti

'[N]early everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.' 

The World According to Garp, John Irving

'This is how we go on:  one day at a time, one meal at a time, one pain at a time, one breath at a time... If you write books, you go one page at a time.' Bag of Bones, Stephen King

'As a child I wrote small books which I began with the words The End. I needed to know the end was guaranteed.' 

Bluebeard's Egg, Margaret Atwood

'The writing had burned off all thoughts of the real world, at least temporarily. I think that, in the end, that's what it's for. Good or bad, it passes the time.' Bag of Bones, Stephen King

My teacher 'said that when you are writing a book you have to include some descriptions of things... She also said that I should describe people in the story by mentioning one or two details about them so that people could make a picture of them in their head.' 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon

'When you make your daily bread in the land of make-believe, the line between what is and what seems to be is much finer.' 

Bag of Bones, Stephen King

'Writers are a strange breed. Magpies, scavengers. So fearful of the world they would prefer to describe it than live in it, yet brave to the point of idiocy when in pursuit of inspiration. The real ones will slip their heads into the noose and pull the lever themselves if they think a hanging would make a good tale.' 

The Only Child, Andrew Pyper

'[B]ut in dreams, perhaps everyone is a novelist.' 

Bag of Bones, Stephen King

'Flowers in the Fall' photo by ldyck

Next Sunday evening on this blog... 

23 Book Bloggers
a list of 23 bloggers who review books

If you enjoyed this list of quotes, you'll also enjoy...

Writing about Writing (list of quotes)

will be published on this blog on Sunday, November 3

Hmm... (list of quotes)
I invite you to select a quote to focus on during December--a challenging month for many.
will be published on this blog on Sunday, December 1

The author-reader contract by Leanne Dyck

The author of the novel promises to entertain. If the author upholds this side of the contract the reader promises to keep reading.

"on a clear day" ldyck

You, as the author, stated your intention on the back of the book. In short, you promised to entertain me. Bookstores and libraries are full of books. Congratulations on getting your book into my hands. I flipped open the book and I read... 

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany. John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany

This opening sentence not only introduces me to the topic of the book--Owen Meany--but also briefly underlines why he is so special--he caused a mother's death and lead the narrator to God. After reading that sentence, I have to read on. 

'A good hook will not only create interest, but also set the mood, tone, atmosphere, and create expectations for the reader.' Read the entire article

'Strong characters draw readers into your plot. This dynamic is called the bond.' James Scott Bell, Plot & Structure

'[M]ake the hook and text integral to each other...I'm not advocating bland hooks; the challenge is to have the provocative hook but at the same time not have the discrepancy.' Noah Lukeman, The First Five Pages:  A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile

More examples of good first lines and why they work.

And wow. After writing and re-reading this article, I, as a writer, feel the pressure to carefully craft my opening sentence, paragraph, chapter, book. Of course, we can't all write like John Irving--but we must be entertaining, we owe it to our readers.

Reading this article will help you write your hook 
Writing a Hook First Line 

My dad and me visiting BC

Next post:  Sunday, March 11 (at approximately 5:00 PM PST)
27 years I was considering a career change; 27 years ago my dad (AJ Willetts) sent me the letter I'm going to share with you. 

"Abby inspiring story" ldyck

Sharing my author journey...

Book Review: Cider House Rules by John Irving

From Life According to Garp to A Prayer for Owen Meany, I've loved John Irving's twisted sense of the world. And so it was only a matter of time until I meet and fell in love with Homer Wells (the protagonist of The Cider House Rules). 

Publishing date:  December 1993
Published by:  The Ballantine Publishing Group (an imprint of Random House)

Buy this book

My attempt to summarize the plot:  Boy is born in orphanage. Boy tries to be adopted -- fails three times. Boy finally leaves orphanage. Boy returns to orphanage.

Homer Wells, twenty-one, breathing in the steam from the hot tea; was waiting for his life to begin (p. 303)

My attempt to summarize what this book is about:  In one word -- waiting. The orphans are waiting to be adopted. Homer is waiting to begin his life. Wally is waiting for the war to start. Dr. Larch is waiting to see what the new board will do to the orphanage. The fruit pickers are waiting to pick apples. Candy is waiting to see if she will become Wally's bride or...

Yet it's so much more. It's a 'big idea' book...

Dr. Larch about Nurse Caroline...

He had heard her say, so many times, that a society that approved of making abortion illegal was a society that approved of violence against women... He had heard her say so many times, that abortions were not only a personal freedom of choice but also a responsibility of the state--to provide them. (p. 473)

Dr. Larch...

Always, in the background of his mind, there was a newborn baby crying... And they were not crying to be born, he knew; the were crying because they were born.

Why The Cider House Rules? What does this book have to say about rules?...

Homer:    "Some rules are good rules... But some rules are just rules. You just got to break them carefully." (p. 467)

Dr. Larch:  "I have no quarrel with anyone at prayer... It's when you start making rules." (p. 472)

Nurse Caroline:  "It's because even a good man can't always be right that we need a society, that we need certain rules -- call them priorities." (p. 473) 

Bottom line:  The Cider House Rules is a feel good book. And in my books, that makes it a perfect December read.

More...

On Tuesday evening December 1st, I, like all the other members of the audience, rested comfortably in palm of Mr. Irving's hand. He charmed us; he enlightened us; he made us laugh; he made us think. What was of most interest to me was what he said about how he writes. Here's what I heard...
-his books are ending driven. He doesn't begin a project until he has written the ending and several sentences leading up to it.
-he writes with his audience in mind; he believes in characters; he believes in plot.
-momentum for the story comes from his interest in creating challenges for his characters
-he wants to create characters that his readers will fall in like/love with and worry about.
-his writing is influenced by very old sources -- Shakespeare and 19th century novels
-he always writes about what he fears will happen
-he didn't become a full-time author until his fourth novel.
He asked us, "What type of practice does a doctor or lawyer have if they only practice two hours a day?"
By the time he wrote Cider House Rules (his 6th novel), he had learnt how to write 8 hours a day/seven days a week. He said that the key to writing a well-crafted book is to write slowly.

Next post:  Christa got an education when she submitted her story to a publisher. Now she has some advice for you.

Sharing my author journey...

Me:  Last week, I was thrilled to receive a rejection letter.
You:  You were what? Thrilled? Why?
Me:  I'll explain...

Book review: The World According to Garp by John Irving

Buy this book

Back of the book blurb:  Journey through four generations, across two continents with the astonishing family of T.S. Garp -- the famous bastard son of a belligerent mother -- who loves, lusts, labors, and triumphs in a world of assassins, wrestlers, rapists, feminist fanatics, transsexual football players, tantalizing teen-age babysitters, adoring children and a wayward wife.

My husband told me,  "Oh, yeah, I read that book in high school."

"Your teacher assigned it?"

"No, I read it by myself."

"What's it about?"

"Read it and find out."

So that's what I did...

John Irving has an educated view of society's treatment of women -- sexism, the feminist movement of the 1960s, men's physical abuse of women.

the blurb John Wolf (Garp's publisher) writers for Garp's book could be used to describe John Irving's The World According to Garp. 

'The women's movement has at last exhibited a significant influence on a significant male writer... the first in-depth study, by a man of the peculiarly male neurotic presence many women are made to suffer.' (p. 476)

Helen (Garp's once girlfriend, then wife) seems to be the driving force behind Garp's desire to be a writer.

Helen:  ' "If I marry anybody. I'll marry a writer."...
It was that afternoon... [that] T.S. Garp decided he was going to be a writer.' (p. 89)

Learning to write for someone else seems to me to be like losing weight for someone -- a recipe for unhappiness. He'll only like me if I'm thin -- he'll only like me if I'm a writer -- he'll only like me if I'm something or someone I'm not. 

Why alter yourself for someone else? What's so wonderful about him that it's worth that major change just to measure up to his desire.

Garp doesn't force Helen to change in any way. She continues to have the upper hand in their relationship -- passing judgement over his talent. 

It wouldn't take me too long to start to feel bitter. 

And it takes so much time, devoted time, to learn how to be a good writer; too much time simply to please someone else.  

'Garp did not write faster than anyone else, or more he simply worked with the idea of completion in mind.' (p. 223)

I can't think of a single person who reads books the way Garp does -- over and over again, twenty or thirty times. 
How boring. 
Maybe. 
But he's not reading to be entertained. He's reading to study the craft.

I wonder if The Life According to Garp is one of the first books that speak out against the abuse suffered by the LGBT community?

In The World According to Garp, we meet head-on the "truth" each newly released author must face. Your characters, your plot come through you. They are part of who you are. They are a snapshot of a time in your life. A personal (at times extremely personal) postcard sent by you to the world.

'If the truth suited the story he would reveal it without embarrassment.' (p. 271)

An author doesn't want the world to love their novel because if the world does it's just a yawn fest. Instead, you want controversy -- controversy leads to debate; debate leads to publicity; publicity leads to sales.

The final chapter of The World According to Garp is like a phone call that stretches on too long -- the news has been shared, the bond has been deepened but enough is enough, already. Was the editor on holidays?

'[N]early everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.' (p. 170)

What others said...

The World According to Garp (1978)

The World According to Garp

Between the Covers book review of The World According to Garp

Robin Williams on playing Garp in the movie.

The Original Theatrical Trailer

Friday's guest:  we will celebrate Winter Solstice with my friend Gail Woodward

Sharing my author journey...