Literary Safari

I’m a creature of habit and making lists is at the top of my “habit list.” My day does not go right unless I sit down in the morning and make a list of goals, things to do, and even, places to go. My father used to make lists too. After his death, I found yellow legal notepad after yellow legal notepad filled with numbered lists of his daily goals. I’m sure that if he were alive today for me to ask him what he liked best about his list-making (apart from the direction it gave him), he would answer, “Crossing out things!”

There’s also something lyrical about lists, the way one line flows into the other, creating a rhythm and space in which to find yourself. I suppose that’s what attracted me to the anthology of original children’s list poems, Falling Down the Page, edited by Georgia Heard (Roaring Brook Press, 2009).

Inspired by Walt Whitman’s classic list poem Song of Myself, this collection of original poems highlights a variety of styles, all of which are tied together by the common themes of school and the everyday experiences of the school year. Featured authors include Jane Yolen (“In My Desk”), Marilyn Singer (“In My Hand”), Eileen Spinelli (“Creativity”),  Bobbi Katz (“Things to Do If You are the Sun”), and one of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye (“Words in My Pillow”).  The poems span a range of moods — lighthearted, serious, thoughtful, funny, and whimsical. There’s something for every type of kid here.

Besides my fascination with lists, there was also something about the size of the book that I found extremely appealing. Laid out vertically at 5×10 inches, its topsy-turvy text, curvy font treatment of titles, and offbeat design are a visual invitation to readers to think differently — outside of the standard horizontal box of our minds — and to sit down and invent our own list poems.

I recently wrote a piece, “Summer School: Play with Words” for Kahani magazine (forthcoming in the Summer 2009 issue). Building upon my previous advice at A+ Advice for Parents, it offers ideas for wordplay exercises. I wish I’d come across Heard’s anthology earlier so that I could have also recommended it to readers. Oh well; better late than never. If you have school age children, why not sit down with them and write a list poem this summer? Or, you could do what I did after earlier today, after re-reading Falling Down the Page: sit down with your own pencil and sheet of paper and see what emerges.

Below the fold is my little list poem inspired by the cloudy skies we’ve had in NYC of late.

(more…)

Irritating words. Clichés. Trite expressions. We hear them all the time and sometimes, we are also guilty of using them in our own writing and conversations.

Here, from Oxford University is a list of top 10 “most irritating phrases.” [see full story]

1 – At the end of the day
2 – Fairly unique
3 – I personally
4 – At this moment in time
5 – With all due respect
6 – Absolutely
7 – It’s a nightmare
8 – Shouldn’t of
9 – 24/7
10 – It’s not rocket science

And, here at Paper Cuts, the NYT literary blog is a list of the “seven deadly words of book reviewing”:

1 – poignant
2 – compelling
3 – intriguing
4 – eschew
5 – craft (used as a verb)
6 – muse (used as a verb)
7 – lyrical

And, so, off I go in search of a better substitute for “compelling” which is often a word that is part of my first draft reviews because I think it’s better than “fascinating” … which, somehow, just does not cut the mustard either!!

Your most irritating phrases?

When summer rolls around, I find myself asking friends more than ever, “What are you reading right now?”

Meena recently forwarded me this list of “1,000 Books You Must Read Before You Die” culled from editor Peter Boxall’s 2006 book of the same name. It’s organized by century — pre-1700s to 2000’s — and was compiled with the help of over 100 literary critics worldwide.

As I skimmed my list, all I could think was “Wowie, I sure have my work cut out for me!”

If the list of 1,001 leaves you feeling overwhelmed too, The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books  might be an easier starting point. Editor J. Peter Zane asked 125 writers to “provide a list, ranked, in order, of what you consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time.”  Authors featured include Joyce Carol Oates, Sherman Alexie, Alexander McCall Smith, Russell Banks, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Gordon, Michael Chabon, and Carl Hiaasen.

I was particularly interested in the Top Ten fiction picks of the (handful of) multicultural authors featured in this anthology.  What books have influenced their work over the years?  A look at Sandra Cisneros, Edwidge Danticat, Sherman Alexie, and Chitra Divakaruni’s picks follows, below the fold.

I’m going to pick up a book from each of these lists — most likely something I’ve never heard of — and try to get to it this summer. What about you? What are you reading this summer?

(more…)