Last evening, I attended the Field Tested Books: Live in Chicago set of readings (NYC, Monday!) and had a great time. I’m not the biggest fan of readings depending on the pedigree of the reader or readers at hand and there are certainly some who delve into Freebird jam-band territory¹ but last night’s readings were on point.

The material at hand helps: short, brief, concise narratives held together by a common topic with a relatively similar structure. Easily digestible, easily enjoyed and no wankery.

That said, some writers are born to be writers and not readers. Or rather, public speakers — in the sense that there could be some showmanship involved. Years of live music and good showmanship have spoilt me in that regard. There were some definite highlights though: Bryan Bedell’s delivery and humour, John Tolva’s phoning it in from Ghana, Jonathan Messinger and Wendy McClure as always knows how to close a show down.

Much props and love to the Coudal crew as always.

My photos from the event are here on Flickr, as I field tested the rented Nikon 18-200VR lens (which I am decidedly not fond of) and the noise and blurriness get worse as the light gets super low. Apologies. My prime 28mm f1.8 should have been on deck.

¹ A zinester reading a few years ago scarred me when the reader used a candle to emphasize her point by lighting it then diffusing it. Bleah. ↩

While this is from Stephen King’s On Writing, I think it applies to the digital realm equally as well, especially given that the computer itself provides a variety of distractions in the same place.

If possible, there should be no telephone in your writing room, certainly no TV or videogames for you to fool around with. If there’s a window, draw the curtains or pull down the shades unless it looks out at a blank wall. For any writer, but for the beginning writer in particular, it’s wise to eliminate every possible distraction. If you continue to write, you will begin to filter out these distractions naturally, but at the start it’s best to try and take care of them before you write. I work to loud music — hard-rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns ‘n Roses, and Metallica have always been particular favorites — but for me the music is just another way of shutting the door. It surrounds me, keeps the mundane world out. When you write, you want to get rid of the world, do you not? Of course you do. When you’re writing, you’re creating your own worlds.

Patrick D. gave me a lovely used copy¹ of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle for my birthday a few months ago. It’s a book that has been on my periphery for years now, ever since I was a young teenager but have never gotten around to picking up. I was glad to receive it.

It’s an epic of sorts but moves quickly — despite my limited reading time, I’ve managed to get through the book surprisingly fast, perhaps a testament to the readability of the book. While the characters and stories don’t relate to me in any direct way, something resonates and — perhaps the underdog nature of the main protagonist, Toru Okada.

Anyway, it seems to me that the way most people go on living (I suppose there are a few exceptions), they think that the world of life (or whatever) is this place where everything is (or is supposed to be) basically logical and consistent. ... It’s like when you put instant rice pudding mix in a bowl in the microwave and push the button, and you take the cover off when it rings, and there you’ve got rice pudding. I mean, what happens in between the time when you push the switch and when the microwave rings? You can’t tell what’s going on under the cover. Maybe the instant rice pudding first turns into macaroni cheese in the darkness when nobody’s looking and only then turns back into rice pudding. We think it’s natural to get rice pudding after we put rice pudding mix in the microwave and the bell rings, but to me that’s just a presumption. I would be kind of relieved if, every once in a while, after you put rice pudding mix in the microwave and it rang and you opened the top, you got macaroni cheese.

I’m almost to the end and I know I’ll miss the world this book has created.

¹ I love used books. This is the hardcover edition, with design by Chip Kidd featuring artwork by Chris Ware. ↩

I recently received the first four copies of Rouleur, the gorgeous black and white cycling quarterly put out by the British cycling gods of style, taste and elegance, Rapha.

Rapha has long held my interest — their aesthetic is exactly what I had been looking for in cycling clothing for a long time. However, their prices have caused some controversy, but I say that you’ll pay for quality anyway so while I can’t quite bring myself to buy most of what they sell, I do appreciate quality when I see it.

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