Reading and Writing
Sunday, July 13th, 2008It seems to take less than 3 pages of reading Anne Lamott or Melody Beattie before my own thoughts come pouring out, flooding my fingers to get to the paper, or, in this case, the keyboard. I wonder how many other women, would-be writers or just women with their own private journals, start reading an Anne Lamott book and end up writing their own book instead? If I thought my musings could be half as helpful to other women as Anne’s have been, I would surely do nothing but write. But I don’t know if these musings will help anyone besides me, and, on some level, I don’t suppose it matters. But I’m still vain and I’m still jobless and I still cherish that little girl’s dream of being a Writer, a Writer Whose Books Other People Buy and Read.
How fitting to be reading Anne’s Plan B, with its railing against the Bush presidency, as I’m trying to be figuring out the Plan B for my own life. I bought Plan B last week at Half-Price Books, on the bookstore trip made with the intention of buying Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life. All Rick and Anne have in common, on one level anyway, is that you never seem to run into anyone who has read either of them and been sorry they did it. My dear friend of a lifetime, Mary Ellen, told me she was reading Warren’s book, and that she had given it to her nephew and was considering giving it to her brother. She didn’t suggest I read it, but she did offer to stop at the bookstore on our way back from our thrice weekly infusion of Mexican Food from my favorite Dallas restaurant, El Fenix. (more…)
