Monday, October 16, 2006

Splash du Jour: Monday

Part of a reader's job is to find out why certain writers endure. This may require some rewiring, unhooking the connection that makes you think you have to have an opinion about a book and reconnecting that wire to whatever terminal lets you see reading as something that might move or delight you. You will do yourself a disservice if you confine your reading to the rising star whose six-figure, two-book contract might seem to indicate where your own work should be heading. I'm not saying you shouldn't read such writers, some of whom are excellent and deserving of celebrity. I'm only pointing out that they represent the dot at the end of the long, glorious, complex sentence in which literature has been written.
-- Francine Prose, in Reading Like A Writer

Have a great Monday!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I liked this book very much -- I'm glad to see this bit repeated; I've been thinking quite a bit lately about why I read what I read and people like Prose are helpful in figuring that out.