Friday, July 23, 2010

Mowing Grass and Other Random Things

I've been reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and before I started I finished a Young Adult book. Talk about a difference in writing styles! If anyone ever asks me what "literary" means I tell them I have no idea. I've been in the debate one too many times to even care any more. McCarthy is spoken of everywhere as a literary genius. Maybe he is. I've enjoyed his book on so many different (not better, just different) levels than I enjoyed the Young Adult book. The Young Adult book I couldn't put down. I read it in a day. It was fun and fast and had depth, but The Road...it's like a rich dessert and it's getting hard to swallow at some points. That's not a bad thing. It just means I have to read it slowly.

For me, any writing that makes me feel this way is great (not better than other writing, just greater for me) writing. I don't run across it too often, but when I do it's a treat. If I feel like I want to read the book again to catch more of that dessert I missed the first time around, that's great writing. If it makes me jealous, that's great writing. If it makes me want to stop reading and go write something, that's great writing.

That's all for me, though. You may be different. So there's a thought for Friday. And now for some random.

Don't miss the writing contest going on over at The Clarity of Night!

Don't forget to vote about where the proceeds for our Notes from Underground anthology should go. It's down below on Thursday's post.

Don't forget to check out the fun giveaway on my author site for the release of my novella, Cinders. (Yes, that's a shameless plug)

I'm house/dog sitting for my parents while they're gone for two weeks, and I just mowed the lawn. I haven't mowed grass for years. Oh, the smell. It's the essence of summer. That, and some watermelon. I'm savoring it before the months of snow return. What's your favorite summer thing?

12 comments:

  1. Michelle, I'm not sure I've even mentioned it, but the algae I work with smells like fresh cut grass!

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  2. Davin, that's awesome! It's like summer all year long! Of course, you live in L.A., too. That must help... :)

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  3. Oh yeah, the goal of our lab is to create a perpetual summer. And smog too. We love our smog. :P

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  4. One of my favorite summer things is long motorcycle trips, referred to as "iron butt rides". I even wrote a poem about it once and I hate writing poetry.

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  5. A good book is like a good movie. It transports me on a journey where I forget time. As far as mowing the lawn, I no longer do that, since I have a house to clean.

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  6. A good book makes me want to write. A great book makes afraid I can't write as well as I wish.

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  7. I read THE ROAD because it came highly recommended by several blog friends, but I didn't think I'd like it after all the reviews. But, I loved it. It was the first book in many years I sat down with and didn't get up until I finished it. The style was so different than anything I ever read.

    I like you Michelle; I'm not saying it was "better", but different is intriguing. I think its good to read different styles and genres to pull a writer out of a monotonous mind set. We all get so hung up on genre writing rules, its a valueable lesson (for me at least) to see how other genre's use those rules. And still get published.

    A learning lesson, as well as entertaining. I like having my horizons stretched.

    ........dhole

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  8. I read The Road last month and enjoyed it. It's so stark and yet rich at the same time. Very different.

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  9. I liked The Road as well. I'm a long-time fan of McCarthy's books.

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  10. My favorite summer things are BUGS! Not all of them. Just the fireflies and cicadas.

    And sitting in the shade, reading a book that's so good I WANT to read it slow.

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  11. The smell of tomato plants, and petrichor. Okay, for the record, that one means the smell of warm earth after a brief rainshower. You know it, you love it, you just didn't know the word for it yet. And now you do. You're welcome. :D

    Mark Helprin's work is like dessert for me. Truth.

    And I'm out. See you next week!

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