Reading about Writing
How have I overlooked Lamott and Dillard's brilliant books on writing? They've not only taught me some excellent stuff about how to write, but reminded me that, as a writer, I am not alone. And they made me laugh.
Good Guidance: Picks from “The Daily Stoic”
For focus and discipline, this summer I turned for assistance to “The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living,” by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. Here are four highlights from this great tool.
Talking in Dark Matter
My son is a statistics major, even though his father and I have always been theatre and communications types. We wonder where this math and data inclination came from, but every now and then, something [...]
Self-Help Back in the Day
Taking sides in politics based on how a candidate speaks is nothing new, it turns out. In “Founding Grammars,” Rosemarie Ostler looks at how U.S. politicians used formal or informal language, while regular Americans turned to grammar books to improve their station in life.
Check Out that Figure!
From peliptoton to anaphora, Mark Fortsyth takes us on a delightful tour of the figures of rhetoric and shows how they've added style to writing across the centuries, with quips from Shakespeare Hemingway, John Lennon, and Gertrude Stein, to name just a few.