Beach Reading 2

We're off for another beach vacation this week, so I thought I'd share with you once again what I'll be bringing with me.  Amazingly enough I haven't actually finished all the books I brought with me last time.  I tend to set books aside when I get distracted by something else and sometimes it takes me a while to get get back to them.

This time we're trying to pack light so I'm being very realistic about what I can (will) read in a week full of hiking, snorkeling and other beachy activities.

I've still (yes still) been picking my way through Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.  This book is amazing and I don't want it to end.  I pick it up and read a little any time I need to be inspired.  But if I just go ahead and finish it I can always just go back and read it again.

 

I've actually bought Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants before another beach trip a few years ago.   It happened, however, to be the same trip that I started reading the Twilight series so you can guess what happened with that.  I've never gotten around to reading it since.  

I chose Water for Elephants because I was recently tipped off that it is being made into a movie.  I've heard great things about the book so I figured I should hurry up and get on the wagon.  Check out the trailer:

Of course, I'll be bringing a few issues out of my big stack of unread Sun Magazines.  All the short stories, poems and interviews make for great beach reading (I highly recommend checking out The Sun at www.thesunmagazine.org.

By the way, if you want to know more about where I'll be spending my vacation go to www.maho.org.

See you in a couple weeks!

Keep it Personal

If you read this blog you probably know that I write for a local blog here in Portland but did you know that I write two other personal blogs in addition to this one?  In addition to my love for all things reading and writing, I have a small passion for all things domestic.  On These Good Ideas I share (you guessed it) good ideas about all things that are happy and helpful for everyday life.  I share everything from new recipes to DIY projects to art and music finds.  The blog functions as a way for me to keep track of the things I want to remember and share them with others at the same time.  Multiple passions in life have a way of intermingling, don't they?  I have this little passion for design, but I notice that my design choices are often informed by my love of books and writing.  I am really into bookcases and decorating with books.  I also love to see pictures of typewriters and similar writing and reading inspired art.  Check out this picture I recently bought from 20X200.com:

I love this photo and I can't wait to frame it and hang it right over my writing desk.  Anywho, lately I've been thinking about personal writing.  I have most recently started a third blog, this time with my husband.  We are beginning the process of searching for a new home and (we hope) diving into the world of homeownership.  I do most of the actual writing for the blog and I've been working on keeping it really personal.  It is, after all, directly about my personal life.  I've come to realize that personal writing is not something that happens just because you decide to do it.  Really personal writing is something that you have to come into; it is a response to an emotional state that you have to find a way to get yourself into.  You have to really feel something about your subject or else it will come out dry and boring.  For most purposes I use free-writing to try to get into the right state of mind.  I find that if I write long enough, and more importantly without pressure to write certain things or in a certain way, I can usually get to the right place.  For blogging purposes, however, I've found a different tactic.  I find it really helps to imagine that I'm writing to someone.  Not a general audience but a specific person, anyone who might be reading and try to imagine what I would say to him or what I would write to him if he were the only one who was going to read it.  For the new blog I imagine that I am writing to my mother.  We live on opposite sides of the country and since she can't be here to help with the house search the blog is a great way to keep her up to date.  I definitely notice that when I stay in the mindset of writing to her my posts are shorter, clearer and easier to read.  I don't ramble as much, I just tell her what I think she would want to know and I write it just like I would write it to her.  I've been transferring this tactic over to my other blogs too and I hope it makes a difference.  Let me know what you think!