What Did You Read, What Did You Write?

Dear Everyone, 

I want to share the reading and writing suggestions our community members shared in the previous week’s Writing Talks meeting.  

I asked, what did you read, what did you write, many people shared the books they read, which I promptly added to my to-read list. It turns out that we spent the summer reading, because only one participant shared her writing practice. You may remember Emel from when she taught us about the Writer’s Persona. Here she is with more good ideas:

“I recommend pouring out whatever is on your mind first thing every morning onto three A4-sized pages by hand. This practice is called "The Morning Pages," and it was invented by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way. In her The Artist’s Way Workbook, Cameron mentions that she has been writing her Morning Pages for the past thirty-five years!

I have only been practicing the Morning Pages for about six months. Writing them first thing in the morning gives me clarity for the day ahead. It allows me to set the tone for the next sixteen hours while releasing any resentment or negative energy that may have lingered overnight.

I also practice another tool suggested by Julia Cameron: the Artist’s Date. Unlike the Morning Pages, which require daily commitment, the Artist’s Date only asks for two hours of your time once a week. During this time, you take yourself on a date. The key rule is that you must go alone—no friends or family allowed. Want to know why? Grab a copy of The Artist’s Way Workbook or read my blog to learn more!”

Now for our booklist:

Lu:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light by Kim Cho-yeop

Kevin:

Seven Empty Houses and Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin

Karolina:

Where the Past Begins - Memory and Imagination and Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

熊燕:

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

“Deep-Holes” from Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro

减减: 

“The Pole” from The Pole and Other Stories by J. M. Coetzee

Nazlı: 

It has been a reading summer for me too, and I read or reread many great books all of which I recommend. 

On The Move and Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales by Oliver Sacks

Both of these are wonderful starting points if you wish to read Oliver Sacks. On the Move is Sacks’s autobiography that he published only months before he passed away, and it allows us to be intimate witnesses to an extraordinary mind, an extraordinary man, and his extraordinary life. Everything in Its Place is a posthumous collection of essays that did not appear in any of Sacks’s books before, and it gives the opportunity to dip in and out of Sacks’s expertise, curiosity, and worldview while educating us on many topics, ranging from the history of chemistry to the types of ferns that survive in the city. 

And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?: A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks by Lawrence Weschler 

Weschler is often called Sacks’s Boswell, and while I confess not finishing The Biography Life of Samuel Johnson, I can attest that is true. Weschler has started out as Sacks’s profiler for The New Yorker, but ended up becoming one of his closest friends, and both his geniality and his brilliance come off the page. If you love Oliver Sacks, you must read this book. 

Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me by Bill Hayes

Insomniac City is a different kind of book on Sacks, written by his boyfriend Bill Hayes. Hayes brings together his memories of moving the New York, his photography, and his life with Oliver Sacks. I confess I was most interested in the parts about Oliver Sacks, but the book was inviting, tender, and thoughtful, and I read it in one sitting. 

Solaris by Stanisław Lem

I recommended Everything in Its Place to a childhood friend, and he wrote back saying he was reading it alongside Solaris by Stanisław Lem. I decided to do the same, and not only Solaris was a great read, but it was fantastic to think about consciousness from sci-fi and neuroscience perspectives at the same time.

Theogony by Hesiod

Speaking of books read in one sitting, Theogony is a super short book, or rather a long poem that talks about the Greek gods. As I was reading Emily Wilson’s introduction to her new translation of The Iliad, I snuck this book on the side. 

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

Another very short book that I wanted to revisit was Bluets by Maggie Nelson. I read it soon after it came out and then proceeded to forget about it, except for its structure. A book-length essay in the form of a numbered list. Studying the structure of Bluets did inspire me as it made me think about different shapes and forms for essays and stories and creative restrictions such as only writing about the color blue. It made me ask, How would I recreate my own lists, my own narrative out of my chosen color?

Dear Life by Alice Munro

And naturally, in preparation for the upcoming classes, I returned to Alice Munro by rereading one of my favorite books of hers, Dear Life. For me, if a writer’s last book is as good, or in some matters, better than her previous work, that is something to celebrate. It shows that the writer has strived and achieved to improve herself until her very last day of writing. Also, rereading shows us how we’ve changed since the time we last read the book, and I always enjoy the opportunity to sit down and reflect on what has changed in me as a person, reader, and writer. 

I currently reading a LOT more of Alice Munro, so I couldn’t get around to finishing the following books that I started over the summer. I wanted to include them all the same, because I found each and every one of them fun, interesting, exciting books that I do want to share with you. 

Uncle Tungsten and Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks

Sweat: A History of Exercise by Bill Hayes

Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science by Renée Bergland

Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Pádraig Ó Tuama

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Were you not able to join us for the Writing Talks? You may still share your reading and writing suggestions in the comments. I look forward to reading them!

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