Raymond Carver

News of publishing’s demise is greatly exaggerated. Wander into any bookstore, be it a so-called Big Box or your local independent bookseller, and you’ll be inundated with more books than you could possibly read in a lifetime. If you’re into technology and pick up an e-reader, then you can download gigabyte after gigabyte of text.  This post begins a weekly offering of links to stories, news, reviews, and opinion from around the publishing world.

My intent is to inspire interest in fiction of all sorts, from mass market paperbacks to the classics, with a bit of poetry tossed in now and again (after all, some of Western Civilization’s greatest stories were told as epic poems). And, to get the most out of this endeavor I want reader’s feedback.

C.S. Lewis described, in An Experiment in Criticism, some reader’s as folks for whom “[s]cenes and characters from books provide them with a sort of iconography by which they interpret or sum up their own experience. They talk to one another about books, often and at length.”

Reading becomes a communal activity when readers gather to discuss the stories that move them, either positively or negatively. Please share, in the comment box below, what authors, books, scenes, and characters provide the “iconography by which [you] interpret or sum up [your] own experience.”

Enjoy.

Short Stories:

News, Reviews and Opinion:

Writing Advice:

If you would like future postings delivered to your email inbox each Friday, then click here and enter your name and email in the section dubbed “Weekly Update”.

– Daniel Crandall