Merry Holidays Everyone! My Christmas shopping is finished, the tree is up and decorated, and tomorrow I’m buying a tiny ham (well, tiny is relative – only four pounds!) for Christmas dinner. I am wishing you all a lot of writing time under the tree. Speaking of which…

Thanks Mary for your “three poems before the end of the year” challenge. I’ve now written four! I don’t think I would have done that without the challenge.

I also checkout out a boatload of books from the library. One was Gluck’s new book, A Village Life. I loved it. I thought, while it contained her usual themes “Autumn, Loss, Death, Etc…” (that’s an inside joke for you Gluck fans) it was more romantic and loose than her books have been in some time. The outer landscape of the village mimics the inner landscape of the writer. In particular, her poems about young love seemed touching and nostalgic. Some of the poems seem intensely personal – particularly ” Walking at Night” as she talks about her body being invisible in the summer night as she ages and “At the River” in which she talks about her father drinking wine “with his friend the Holy Ghost.” (Coincidentally, I was listening to Sarah McLachlan’s cover of the “The River” at the time) Liked it a lot.
Still thinking about whether or not I enjoyed The Magicians by Lev Grossman, kind of a Holden-Caulfield-goes-to-Hogwarts-and-then-Narnia novel. I think I would have enjoyed it more without the main character – A “Bright Lights Big City” style ennui-filled narrator. Are contemporary authors not allowed to write characters who are engaged with the world anymore? I had the same problem with The Corrections.
I also got a book of essays by Michael Chabon. And reading Allison Benis White’s Self Portrait with Crayon, which I like a lot so far.
I think there is a connection between reading for fun and writing. Can I get some funding for that study?