Monthly Archives: December 2006

There should be time to look back at 2006!

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Today is the last day of 2006. Happy New Year!

As I sat the church today, I concluded that it would be a good time to
reflect on this past year. Alas, I won't be able to do so
comprehensively today. I'm under pressure to keep working on my book
(that is, to keep looking forward) today. I will take next month
(January 2007) as a transition time in which to look back and to look
forward.

Bird by Bird

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Serendipitiously, Laura had in her backpack my copy of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
I remember it to be an entertaining and inspiring guide for writers the
first time I read it over five years ago. Now I'm re-reading Bird by Bird
as I embark on my time of joyful trial and write my first book. The
most memorable phrase from the book is "shitty first drafts," one I use
with relish to describe the first round of chapters that emerge from my
computer. I'm not overly concerned with my dismal prose since I'm just
trying to get all my thoughts down on paper. Now if I don't move
quickly to fixing up the words into serviceable text as my first
deadline approaches, the holiday relaxation will begin to wear thin!

Notelets for 2006.12.02

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The East Is West: The Best Chinese Restaurants in Southern California - New York Times:

    THERE are probably more Chinese in Los Angeles
    than in any metropolitan area outside of China. (The same very likely
    could be said of Mexicans, Iranians, Koreans, Japanese and more, which
    is what makes Los Angeles the best international eating city in the
    world.) Fifty years ago, most Chinese immigrants were concentrated in a
    typical downtown Chinatown, which still exists, but more as a relic
    than a vibrant community.

100 Notable Books of the Year - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times.

Berkeley poet Lerner writes from heartland:

    It can be challenging to convince students that
    reading and writing are inextricable, that writing is just a very
    intense form of reading, as Wallace Stevens said.

Rebecca Loudon: Wallace Stevens once said that the act of writing poetry was actually a very intense form of reading.

What's the actual Wallace Stevens quote?