There ain’t, I am reliably informed, no accounting for taste. But from time to time I come across something that I have heard lauded for years and years, and my… Read more One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor →
I run a small museum. It’s a museum on the history of the book, and of bookbinding, and one of the things we talk about when talking about the book… Read more A Set of Dickens on the Whatnot →
Olympic figure skating is one of those things. I never mean to watch, and then, somehow, there I am and five hours have passed and it’s late and my head is full of salchows and axels and spangles. There are a lot of brilliant technicians out there on the ice, and they’re riveting to watch, but the ones I love are the performers. Anent this, I was directed to Jason Brown’s 2014 performance at the US National Championships. He’s not just good–he is a brilliant performer, and more than that,… Read more Did You See What I Did There? →
Okay: raise your hands. When you were younger (say, teen- to young-adulthood) how many of you read pretty much everything? Finished even the rotten books because they were… well, they… Read more Reading (In)Discriminately →
Sherwood Smith wrote on Saturday in the BVC blog about revisiting classics that were foisted on you as a teen and discovering that they were really pretty good (as always with… Read more Reading for Fun and Points →
One last thing about reading to an audience: bring a big box of graceful resignation. Because sometimes, no matter how wonderful your work is, no one shows up. Or, perhaps… Read more Crickets: The Art of Reading to an Audience →
Do you need to read accented speech with an accent? Let’s think about it. Dick Van Dyke is appearing in the new Mary Poppins film–not, blessedly, as Bert the Sweep,… Read more ‘Ow’s that, Guv’nor?: The Art of Reading to an Audience →
The first reading I ever went to was by a well known writer of whose work I was a huge fan. There were three readers (I think it was in a bookstore). I found the first reader un-compelling–he read in a subdued, almost monotone voice, and I couldn’t focus on the words–let alone the story. The next participant was not much more inspiring, but I was there for reader no. 3, so I waited patiently. And then it was the third reader’s turn. And she read in the same dry,… Read more Modulation: The Art of Reading to an Audience →
