Starving for a good read

Luis Gomez is starving for a good read.

"Day after day," writes Luis, "I catch myself visiting the same news web sites, the Seattle P-I, the Seattle Times, the LA Times, the NY Times, the Washington Post, etc. I'm a journalist."

Luis covers education, police and is the Latino beat reporter at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin in southeast Washington "and almost by default I'm drawn to newspaper-style readings.

"I probably spend more time reading stories online rather than getting  in my car, warming it up, drive up to the nearest book/mag store, walk in the door, pick out a good magazine and find that I am reading the same material I could otherwise be reading from my computer.

"Long story short, I can't seem to find the right venue (or web site) where I could find a great read. And I don't mean just a well-written piece of work. I mean something that inspires me and recharges my  battery after a day's work of puns, euphemisms, synonyms, clarifications, etceteras, etc.

"I'm bored, Chip.”

Luis, I feel your brain pain. Your question offered an opportunity to throw down some thoughts on the topic, ever mindful of Saul Bellow's definition that "a writer is a reader moved to emulation."

Here's my top of the head list of reading possibilities:

Poetry. The other day, Tom French of the St. Pete Times said reading poetry is one of the ways that makes our mutual friend Anne Hull of The Washington Post such a lyrical writer. I recently heard Billy Collins, the former poet laureate speak at a conference and discuss and read poetry on our local NPR station. Great stuff. I also admire the Irish poet Eavan Boland.

If you haven't subscribed to The New Yorker, you're missing a weekly treat. At least check out the web site on Mondays when they post free selections from the current print issue.

This week's trove includes reviews of two books on the history and psychology of happiness, a short story by John Updike, and a probe by Jane Mayer into a quixotic effort by Pentagon insiders to ward off Abu Ghraib-style torture of detainees.

Slate.com is always rich with good material, especially when it's press critic Jack Shafer at the keyboard.

Have you seen Arts and Letters Daily? It's a portal for essays, books and opinion that' can take you to places you may not have visited.   

Here's another idea. Re-read favorite books.  That would take me back to novels such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Youngblood Hawke," by Herman Wouk, the book that sent me down the writing path at age 12.

As writers we must read twice, first as a reader,then as a writer. The second stage is when we identify the writer's strategies so we might apply them to our own work. If memory serves, The late Shelby Foote used to try to read the multi-volume "Remembrance of Things Past" by Marcel Proust. If there's a book you like, consider reading everything by that author. What you'll find is that every  writer has his/her ups and downs, which can be a comfort when you're convinced your latest story's a bomb.

Pursue your passions. Last year I was fixated on reading about the brain, which led me to my favorite book on the brain and its status as an ever-evolving organ capable of transformation: "The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force," by Jeffrey Schwartz, a neuropsychiatrist influenced by Buddhism and Sharon Begley, science columnist for The Wall Street Journal, whose prose makes it palatable for the lay reader.

I also like books about memory (especially since I can feel mine fading as each day passes) such as Daniel Scatters "The Seven Sins of Memory."

I love to read interviews with writers. My current favorite is "The New New Journalism: Conversions with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on their Craft," by Robert S. Boynton. Full of inspiration and tips from the likes of Susan Orlean, Ted Conover, Leon Dash et al.

Of course, I'd be remiss not to suggest "Best Newspaper Writing," edited by my colleague Aly Colón, published by Poynter and Congressional Quarterly Press. Here's a purchasing link for the 2005 edition.

And if you'll forgive the plug, "America's Best Newspaper Writing," an anthology of the best of 25 years of " Best Newspaper Writing," edited by Roy Peter Clark and me, has just been published in a second edition by Bedford/St. Martin's Press.

I was going to stop there but this weekend my brother Jeff raved so much about 'The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry that I’m just a credit card swipe away from adding it to my reading list.

There's so much great reading out there; if you've gotten this far, please feel free to add to the pile.

Luis and I will take all the help we can get.

Comments

[Ken Fuson]

Chip, I think the writer is on to something. What we need is a Web page called something like "Great Reads." Not necessarily six-part series, but just a place where somebody can find the great newspaper stories -- short and small -- as easily as we can find the latest gossip on Romenesko.
Anybody know of such a Web site? Here's a vaccuum for some techno-savvy newspaper lover to fill.

[David Harris-Gershon]

Just stumbled, tripped, fell face-first into your blog. I like the view.

[Icess Fernandez]

Might I make a suggestion. Cristina Garcia's "Dreaming in Cuban." I've been talking about that book alot lately only because it reminds me of chocolate cake - rich and feeds the writers soul. It's lyrical but straight to the point. I'm completely in love with it. Try that one...
by the way Garcia was a reporter for Time magazine.

[cathy grossman]

Read plays! Every few years I re-read "Oedipus Rex." It cures me of blaming tight space for my own failings. For fun, I hold dear the Brian Hooker translation of "Cyrano de Bergerac" -- all sweepy/weepy and poetic.

[Margaret]

Best idea: proceed directly to the Classics. Nothing gave me a better creative wind-up than recently reading the 800-page David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Now on to Dostoevsky's The Idiot.

At work, in journalism, I skip accross many stones. Most of us do. But with these books, I plunge into deep waters, and am greatly stirred.

Other recent favorites: Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. Classics, all, but so point on in revealing the human condition. So little that's new that can measure to these.

[Doyle]

Just had a similar conversation with some writers on gangrey.com. Several people posted their must have book lists for journalists. Thought everyone might be interested in reading the posts.

Brave Men. Somebody Told Me. New New Journalism. The Last American Man. The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup. What A Time It Was. The Electric Kool-Aide Acid Test.

Fame and Obscurity. The Art of Fact. The Orchid Thief. In Cold Blood. No Country for Old Men. Off Ramp: Adventures and Heartache in the American Elsewhere. Playing for Keeps. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. The Best American Sports Writing 1995. Joe Gould's Secret.

Dispatches. Piecework. Work and Other Sins. On Writing Well.

Sports Illustrated - Fifty Years of Great Writing. City Room. A Moveable Feast. Friday Night Lights.

On newspapers: News Is A Verb

[Susan]

Couldn't add to this list if I wanted to but I do want to thank you Chip, (and your readers) for the great suggestions. I knew from the very first post it would be inspirational.

[Joanna]

I love the idea of a web site devoted to great newspaper journalism. Could I compile the section on JR Moehringer and Lisa Pollak? (And Tom Haines, if you include a section on travel writers?) When I taught writing and journalism, I used to tell students to read Penelope Fitzgerald (esp. The Blue Flower), Alice Munro, Annie Proulx (love her use of verbs!) and Norman MacLean's "A River Runs Through It." I'm a Greek girl with no idea about fly fishing, but "River" has a closing passage that always moves me to tears.

[Harris Salat]

Read Barry Lopez: "About This Life," "Crossing Open Ground," "Vintage Lopez," "Arctic Dreams." I read and reread and reread Lopez. Also, find his essay "My Horse."

[Becky]

I read the New Yorker every week and try to keep up with Harpers, the Atlantic and Entertainment Weekly, which has some great writers.
Since I write about crime and court I like reading crime novels -- you can learn a lot about good dialogue from writers like Patricia Cornwell and Elmore Leonard.
And I re-read my favorite books, especially Catch-22, my all-time favorite.

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