The Life-Affirming Experience of Reading

This week I have been reminded time and again of the experience that literature brings to life.

You would think that in this 11th hour of holiday hubbub, shoppers would be frantic to buy whatever books remain on the shelf. But no, the readers who are giving books as gifts are very particular about the gift of language. They are calm and methodical in their quests for the perfect book, patiently listening to my staff about this storyline or that plot twist. . . .

So in our busiest season, I've realized just how much literature has a calming effect. We read so that we can have the life-affirming experience that reading a book brings. And that's why we give the gift of books.

~ Sarah Bagby of Watermark Books, Wichita, Kan., in her store's e-mail newsletter

Are you still giving books as gifts? To yourself?

What are you buying? What are you reading?

Photo: Watermark Books & Cafe, from Watermark's MySpace page. Thanks to the Shelf Awareness newsletter for this story.

The Implausible Miracle of Movies

The world of novels, there's corruption and mediocrity, but in the end it's still a republic of letters.

But film is a tyranny, and the tyrant is money.

The great thing is that, in spite of that, impossibly, some people keep on smuggling out messages of hope from the other side, past the tyrant.

I mean, there shouldn't be one good movie made given the way it's structured, and yet there are many good movies made. That seems to me to be implausible and marvelous at the same time.

~ Richard Flanagan, screenwriter, Australia

The creative process is a miracle. Let the miracle unfold and trust in the magic of creation -- the magic that gets your words onto the page and the magic that gets those pages out into the world.

Don't worry about how the miracle works. Just sit down to write and let it.

Photo -- ABC Local Radio: Jane Munro.
Thanks to Creative Screenwriting magazine's CS Weekly newsletter for the quote.