Books Books Books

When I go to a used book store the first place that is sought out is the section on writing. There is usually something that can be useful. Lately I am finding that most of the books shelved are also on my bookcase at home. I am getting a nice collection of books on writing. In fact there are so many novels that I can run my own mini library if needed. Yes you would need to sign them out thank you very much.

Topics that I have books on:

-Two high school English books

-How to get a literary agent

-How to get your book published without an agent

-How to write for children

-How to write short stories

-How to get published

-How to write query letters/cover letters

-Every edition of Writer’s Digest for the past two years

-Writer’s Market for the last two years

-Children’s Market

The list goes on. I can not be alone on this right? The ones that I gravitate to and are within easy reach are:

-Story Engineering

-Stephen King On Writing

-Hook

-The Elements of Style

-Write Where You Are: How to Use Writing to Make Sense of Your Life

-The Essential Writer’s Companion

-MLA Handbook

There are so many books that one can get overwhelmed. Especially if you are just starting out. The fact I had to get a new bookcase just for these books said it all. Hopefully among the volumes of books you come across there will be useful information that you can apply to your own writings. If there are books out there that has helped you, let me know. What’s one more book, right?

Boring Books

For the longest time one of my most annoying habits was to finish a book once I started it. No matter how bad it was written it would be read from beginning to end. It was a tick that drove me nuts. I was not obligated to finish it if it did not suit me so what propelled me to finish every single book I started remained a mystery.

This is how it has been for as long as I can remember. My love for books started the minute I learned how to read. Even to date our house is filled to the brim with books on all topics imaginable. We could probably open up a mini library or a book mobile at best if we wanted to. The thought of throwing a book away well it is just not done. I will swap it with someone else, give it to a used book store or to the library before that will ever happens.

My love of books is why I am a part of two book clubs. One that is run out of a local library by one of the librarians and one run by me for my women’s group. I can read books without bringing them home to keep was one of my first thoughts. This gave me a whole new world of books that I would never have thought to pick up to read.

Then it happened. The librarian picked a book that was just oh my gosh horrible. Every time I picked it up my body would cringe for it knew this was going to be a struggle. Deciding to not finish it was hard for me and the guilt of not reading it from beginning to end filled my insides from top to bottom. Getting to the meeting it turned out a few ladies had not read the book either for the same reason. But they did not have the same tick I did about finishing books.

It happened again only this time with the book club I ran. The book had all the praises and high reviews and the synopsis made it sound just awesome. It was not. I struggled again for the second time in a week as another book did not get read completely. This patterned soon enough repeated itself over the next few months.

For that I am grateful. Finally the annoyances and guilt that came with reading a boring book was getting nipped in the bud. While I hated to not finish each and every book I picked up I did not beat myself up for it like in the past

Freedom is a sweet word and it comes with so many different meaning. Thank you boring books of the world, thank you for being out there and helping me get rid of this frustrating habit.