Now that I'm reading more, i decided to alternate my reading selections between content and style.
My content choices are to help me learn something about a topic. The last content read was The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers. My current content read is Under the Banner of Heaven.
In between the two was my read for style. These selections are of notably good writers either in nonfiction or fiction or even books on how to write better. (Of course, the content selections may be by great writers as well).
My first style selection was a book by Susan Orlean suggested by my friend and expert advice giver. The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup is a collection of profiles Orlean wrote mostly for the New Yorker.
Technically, she always has a paragraph where she describes the way her protagonist looks, usually listing details. She has a gift for listing, sometimes listing activities the protagonist participates in to further paint a picture of their life.
She also uses mystery as a hook in the opening paragraph. She'll make a pronouncement that seems to make no sense like the intro to her profile of Colin Duffy, a ten-year-old boy. "If Colin Duffy and I were to get married, we would have matching superhero notebooks. We would wear shorts, big sneakers, and long, baggy T-shirts depicting famous athletes every single day, even in the winter." Throughout the essay, these mysteries are explained.
She explains in her introduction to the book that she often spends days or weeks with a person to do her reporting. My one wish for this book is that she put this kind of detail and reflection on writing the piece at the front of each essay so that I, a person reading her for style, could understand the challenges or techniques she used to write the essay.
Overall, a great read that I finished in a week!
My content choices are to help me learn something about a topic. The last content read was The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers. My current content read is Under the Banner of Heaven.
In between the two was my read for style. These selections are of notably good writers either in nonfiction or fiction or even books on how to write better. (Of course, the content selections may be by great writers as well).
My first style selection was a book by Susan Orlean suggested by my friend and expert advice giver. The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup is a collection of profiles Orlean wrote mostly for the New Yorker.
Technically, she always has a paragraph where she describes the way her protagonist looks, usually listing details. She has a gift for listing, sometimes listing activities the protagonist participates in to further paint a picture of their life.
She also uses mystery as a hook in the opening paragraph. She'll make a pronouncement that seems to make no sense like the intro to her profile of Colin Duffy, a ten-year-old boy. "If Colin Duffy and I were to get married, we would have matching superhero notebooks. We would wear shorts, big sneakers, and long, baggy T-shirts depicting famous athletes every single day, even in the winter." Throughout the essay, these mysteries are explained.
She explains in her introduction to the book that she often spends days or weeks with a person to do her reporting. My one wish for this book is that she put this kind of detail and reflection on writing the piece at the front of each essay so that I, a person reading her for style, could understand the challenges or techniques she used to write the essay.
Overall, a great read that I finished in a week!
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