Books

The Strangest Secret

You know, I have never really thought about my goals. And I know now that to be successful you should have clearly defined goals. But it certainly wasn’t something obvious to me for a very long time.

I’ve just read “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale. It’s very short, you can get it for $1 on Amazon or listen to it for free. Don’t be surprised by the quality, it’s from the year 1956:

“People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going,” says Earl Nightingale. And then, “Plant your goal in your mind. It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make in your entire life.”

I know a lot of people hate these kinds of motivational speeches or so-called self-help books. Maybe because this is all obvious to them. To me, however, a lot of that stuff feels new. My family has never talked about settings goals. When I was in high school, and then at university, no teacher ever said anything about goals. I don’t remember my friends talking about it either. I didn’t even know that I was going through my life without any direction — I wasn’t thinking about it at all. I only found out about it later, from books, and YouTube, and blogs. I wish I had access to all those things years ago.

Conformity — people acting like everyone else, without knowing why or where they are going.
—Earl Nightingale

If you don’t have a goal, if you feel aimless — “The Strangest Secret” might be good for you.

Annihilation and foreshadowing

A friend lent me a book, “Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer, and I’ve read it today. While I was reading, I kept thinking, “This is a book that makes you want to be a writer”. The book is strange — which is the best kind of book. And the ending doesn’t explain anything at all — which is the best kind of ending.

One of the things I love in books and movies is: foreshadowing, which is: hinting at future events.

It’s a neat device to keep a reader hooked. I like when authors use that. I hadn’t realized what a powerful tool foreshadowing was until I tried reading “Pet Sematary” by Stephen King. I didn’t like it, nothing was happening, I was about to put it down and never finish it — which is always a tough choice because I feel compelled to finish books once I start reading them — but then, in the middle of the happiest, most carefree chapter:

And Gage, who now had less than two months to live, laughed shrilly and joyously.

I had to keep reading. I don’t remember that much of the book, and yet that one line stuck with me.

But no book did better work of foreshadowing than my favorite, “Little, Big”:

In later years he would wonder, sometimes idly, sometimes in anguish, whether having once entered here he had ever again truly left; but at the time he just mounted to where she stood, (…)

This is when Smoky arrives at Alice’s home for the first time, and they are about to get married. I kept reading with that word — anguish — on my mind.

Back to “Annihilation”. In the first paragraph we already get:

Looking out over the untroubled landscape, I do not believe any of us could yet see the threat.

And a few pages later:

I would tell you the names of the other three, if it mattered, but only the surveyor would last more than the next day or two.

The book kept doing that — alluding to what was about to happen, never giving too much away. I knew I was being manipulated. I didn’t mind.

I checked VanderMeer’s wikipedia page to see what else he has written, and in the personal life section I read:

When VanderMeer was 20, he read Angela Carter‘s novel The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, which he has said “blew the back of my head off, rewired my brain: I had never encountered prose like that before, never such passion and boldness on the page.”

I’ve never heard of Angela Carter so then I checked her page and from there I wandered to an article about her which was written by someone deeply affected by her works. I read the whole article, decided that she was a writer whose books I wanted to read, and only then did I scroll back to the top to see who wrote it — and it was Jeff VanderMeer. She made an impact on him — he read and puzzled over all her books to try to learn what made her such a unique writer.

Now, I would love to read “The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman”, but I don’t want to spend my days reading books. I am adding it to my to-read list for now, but if “I had never encountered prose like that before, never such passion and boldness on the page” is not intriguing praise, I don’t know what is. I suspect I am more likely to read it sooner rather than later.

“Show Your Work” – Book Notes

Today, I’ve read “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon.

I wish I had read it years ago. If I did, maybe I would have started my blog earlier than I did.

The core message in the book is to not work in secrecy, to instead share ideas, bits and pieces of work, what you are learning.

Here are a few highlights:

“The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.
“Become a documentarian of what you do.”
“Being open and honest about what you like is the best way to connect with people who like those things, too.”
“The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others”

I recommend this book to anyone who creates things but is afraid of showing them to people. Or who would like to write a blog or post on Instagram but think they don’t have anything worth sharing.

Related articles that I’ve read recently:

“irrelevant type design”

I was reading Seth Godin’s blog archive at random and came upon a post titled “Judging a book by its cover”. Here’s a quote:

You can always tell the jacket designer is in trouble when the cover uses irrelevant type design to get the project over with.

As an example he used George Orwell’s “1984” book cover:

That reminded me of my favorite book, “Little, Big” by John Crowley. The paperback cover is this:

But the cover for the Kindle edition is just a typography design, and it’s even worse than the cover of “1984”.

That’s the lowest effort cover that I have seen.

It could have been a popular book but the publisher just keeps shooting themself in the foot with those covers.

The most incredible book you have never heard of

My favorite book of all time is “Little, Big” by John Crowley. I bet you haven’t heard of it. I have never met anyone who read it or even heard about it. And that’s crazy! The book is so weird and unique and amazing that it should be as popular as, say, “Game of Thrones”. Yet, no one knows about it. I blame the cover — look at this:

It’s like the publisher doesn’t want to sell the book. The cover brings to mind those Jane Austen’s or Bronte’s novels about a heroine living in the victorian era and trying to get married. It’s completely not what this book is about. Though, it is a love story. In part.

The book’s genre is, I think, magical realism. It can remind you about “One Hundred Years of Solitude” in places but it’s very different.

On one hand, I want to recommend this book to everyone. It’s a beautiful story, I loved it, it’s a book like no other, I want more people to know about it. On the other hand, the story is strange and difficult. And then there’s the ending — I think I still haven’t processed what actually happened there. It makes me feel like I recommend something I don’t understand.

Try it, read a chapter or two. I knew from the first chapter that I wanted to read the whole book.

Don’t let the dead fish fool you

My favorite book from childhood is “Summer Lake” though I have it in Polish. There’s a dead fish on the cover, but other than that, the book really is lovely.

Brigitte Schleusing - Sommersee (Letnie jezioro/ Summer Lake) — Brigitte Schleusing – Sommersee (Letnie jezioro/ Summer Lake)

Or at least I think this was my favorite when I was a child. Maybe I had another book that I loved more, but I forgot about it?

Anyway, this book is wonderful, it has everything a good children’s book needs: beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, lots of details, nearly no text so you can invent your own stories, little animals, tiny yellow ducklings.

The drawing that I like most is on the last page. Do you see the fish net full of flowers? It’s magical.

It’s been out of print for years, but you might still find it.

I’ve been browsing children’s books lately because my brother and I will be drawing our own book this Christmas when we meet at our mom’s house. The previous Christmases we made games.

“On Writing Well” – Book Notes

I’ve read “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser a few times already, but I’ve reread it these past few days. Now that I am writing a blog, I want to write it well. And the book is full of useful advice.

Here are a few highlights so that I can always keep them on hand:

SIMPLICITY

Strip every sentence to its cleanest components, remove words that don’t serve any purpose, e.g.:

“Are you experiencing any pain?” → “Does it hurt?”
“A personal friend of mine” → “A friend”

AUDIENCE

Write for yourself, write as you talk, write to enjoy yourself, don’t give a damn what the reader might think, don’t be timid or evasive.

USAGE

Be careful with words.

As an example, here are two ways of using the word “too”:

Wrong: “too” is a substitute for “very” (clutters the sentence): “His health is not too good”, “He didn’t feel too much like going shopping.”
Good: when sardonic or humorous use: “He was not too happy when she ignored him.”

LEAD

The most important sentence in any article is the first one. Nudge curiosity, keep the reader inquisitive.

Good lead examples:

“I’ve often wondered what goes into a hot dog. Now I know and I wish I didn’t.”
When in doubt start with a story, like so:
“At some point rather early in the spring of 1947, a Bedouin boy called Muhammed the Wolf was minding some goats near a cliff on the western shore of the Dead Sea.”

Bad lead examples:

Future archeologist: “When some future archaeologist stumbles on the remains of our civilization, what will he make of the jukebox?”
Visitor from Mars: “If a creature from Mars landed on our planet he would be amazed to see hordes of scantily clad earthlings lying on the sand barbecuing their skins.”
The cute event that just happened to happen: “one day not long ago” or “recent Saturday”.
“Have in common”: “What did Joseph Stalin and (…) Akira Kurosawa have in common? They all loved Westerns.”

ENDING

The last sentence of each paragraph should have an extra twist.“Make the reader smile and you have him for at least one more paragraph.”

“The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.”

“Bring the story to full circle – to strike at the end an echo of a note that was at the beginning.”

People should come away wanting to hear [the writer] again.

VERBS

Better use active and be precise e.g. don’t say “he stepped down”, choose “retired” or “was fired”.

ADVERBS

Most are unnecessary.

ADJECTIVES

Also usually unnecessary. Make the adjectives do the work, don’t use them as decoration, only use when they convey important information.

LITTLE QUALIFIERS

Remove! “A bit”, “a little”, “sort of” “kind of”, “rather”, “quite”, “very”, “too”, “pretty much”, “in a sense”.

PERIOD

Short sentences are better.

EXCLAMATION POINT

Don’t use often.

“Don’t use to notify the reader that you are making a joke “it never occurred to me that the water pistol might be loaded!” Readers are annoyed by your reminder that this was a comical moment. They are also robbed of the pleasure of finding it funny on their own.”

SEMICOLON

Slows pace, use rarely. Usually to add thought at the end of a sentence.

DASH

Use in 2 ways:

Amplify or justify: “We decided to keep going — it was only 100 miles more and we could get there in time for dinner.”
Set apart a thought: “She told me to get in the car—she had been after me all summer to have a haircut—and we drove silently into town.”

MOOD CHANGERS

Use “but” or “yet” at the beginning of a sentence. “However“ is weaker than “but”. Clear confusion with “later” or “now”.

CONTRACTIONS

Use them, style will be warmer: “won’t”, “can’t”.

THAT AND WHICH

Always use “that” unless it makes your meaning ambiguous. If your sentence needs a coma to achieve its precise meaning it probably needs “which.”

“Take the shoes that are in the closet.” – Take the shoes that are in the closet, not the ones under the bed.
“Take the shoes, which are in the closet.” – Only one pair of shoes is under discussion; the “which” usage tells you where they are.”

CONCEPT NOUNS (nouns that express a concept)

Bad writing. Example: “the common reaction is incredulous laughter”, better: “most people just laugh with disbelief”

OVERSTATEMENT

Don’t!

“The room looked as if an atomic bomb had gone off there”

CREDIBILITY

Don’t inflate incidents or make bogus statements

PARAGRAPHS

Keep them short.

Don’t over-explain or put a value on a fact before the reader encounters the fact. Don’t use: “surprisingly”, “predictably”, “of course”.

INTERVIEWS

Quote people instead of writing about them.

Bad: “Mr. Smith said that he liked to go downtown once a week and have lunch with some of his old friends.”

Good: “I usually like to go downtown once a week,” Mr. Smith said, “and have lunch with some of my old friends.”

Details! When writing about people details matter.

WRITING ABOUT PLACES

Don’t write about everything, choose something different, that the reader might not know.

Eliminate facts that are known e.g. “beach scattered by rocks“ and “occasionally a seagull flew over”.

“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time” – William Zinsser

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