Why we read:

Ann Patchett, on writing:

That's the way I work.

I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down.

- Ann Patchett.

Behind every stack of books is a flood of knowledge:

Behind every stack of books is a flood of knowledge.

Graham Greene, on writing:

A story has no beginning or end:

arbitrarily one chooses that moment from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

- Graham Greene.

P. D. James, on words:

Increase your word power.

Words are the raw material of our craft.

- P. D. James.

Larry L. King, on writing:

Write.

Rewrite.

When not writing or rewriting, read.

I know of no shortcuts.

- Larry L. King.

Ruth Rendell, on reading:

Some say life is the thing,

but I prefer reading.

- Ruth Rendell.

C. S. Lewis, on writing:

You can make anything by writing.

- C. S. Lewis.

Lisa Gardner, on reading:

I still read romance, and I read suspense. I read them both. And part of it is, I like stories with strong characters, and I like stories where there's closure at the end. And I like stories where there's hope. That's a kind of empowerment. I think romance novels are very empowering, and I think suspense novels are, too.

- Lisa Gardner.

World Photography Day - August 19 (quotes & books):

World Photography Day

August 19

You’re not trying to capture reality. You’re trying to capture a photograph of reality.

– Stanley Kubrick.

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

– Dorothea Lange.

Whatever happens in front of the lens stays. What’s captured during the encounter is all that exists.

– Gregory Heisler.

I think photography is a universal language as far as storytelling goes, and I think that’s what it’s most successful at.

– Mary Mattingly.

It’s amazing how photography can capture just a split second of something exquisite.

– Kiera Cass.

Recommended reading:

Eye on America

Photographs by Michael Ruetz.

Introduction by William Least Heat Moon.

New York Graphic Society book.

Published by Little, Brown and Company.

Published 1984.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0821215736

Description:

85 color illustrations, including 7 panoramic foldouts.

“America,” writes William Least Heat Moon in his introduction, “is yet a place to test a vision or to find a vision of whatever kind.”

Eye on America is the stunning embodiment of one such vision – a celebration of this nation’s unsurpassed beauty, its contrasts and ironies. Michael Ruetz, highly regarded in Europe for his photojournalism and photographic books, spent two years on a solitary odyssey, traversing the United States. From Pemaquid, Maine, to the volcanic slopes of Maui, he captured the scope and grandeur of the country for this collection of images, which includes seven panoramic foldouts.

Eye on America stands well apart from the run of photographic books, not only because of Ruetz’s superb technique, but because of the unusual camera he uses. This Technorama camera is capable of encompassing hundred-degree views without distortion. In Eye on America, cities – Boston, New York, Atlanta, Saint Louis, and Houston among them – unfold in sweeps of skyline. Juztaposed with these glowing human monuments are expanses yet untamed – the Grand Canyon, Bruce Canyon, the Oregon coast, Point Lobos, and Death Valley. Through subltle and striking light effects, Ruetz transforms the familiar into visions at once mysterious and new. As William Least Heat Moon comments:

“Michael Ruetz almost creates this beauty within the camera; he catches a casting of light, or he backs away from his subject until the breadth of view minimizes specifics and turns even the jarring details of a city into concordance. With the particular softened, the universal comes forward, and with it, Ruetz hopes, the timeless.”

A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005

by Annie Leibovitz.

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Published 2009.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 081297963X

ISBN-13: 978-0812979633

Description:

“Annie Leibovitz’s photographic memoir of the past fifteen years in her life captures powerful, intimate moments…. She juxtaposes the most personal against the full-color flash of celebrities and the grandeur of the natural landscape against the bloody horror of war. A Photographer’s Life is a testament to a life lived large – and in full embrace.” – More magazine.

“Her fans may be astonished both by the range of the work and the unstudied, everyday quality of some of the images–a family day at the beach, a newborn in the delivery room.” – Newsweek.

“A revelation.” – Boston Sunday Globe.

“Startling.” – Washington Post.

Time Frames: City Pictures

By Michael Spano.

Photography by Michael Spano.

Introduction by Susan Kismaric.

Published by powerHouse Books.

Published 2002.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1576871401

ISBN-13: 978-1576871409

Description:

Time Frames, Michael Spano’s long-awaited first monograph, is an exploration of spatial and temporal dimensions in photography framed by the backdrop of New York City. Divided into five chapters, each employing a distinctive technical process. Time Frames showcase a wonderful, typically disjointed way of looking at life in New York City. Panoramas captures interacting urbanites moving through elongated frames as the lens of an extremely wide field camera pans during exposure. Grids captures eight moments on a single negative as Spano moves through a sequence of events, pre-determinedly exposing one small portion of the negative every four seconds. Portraits focuses on individual inhabitants transformed from their settings through the solarization and blurring of forms into atmospheric otherworlds. Multi-Exposures matches solarizations with multiple perspectives. These single-negative layered compositions arrange and compress selected intervals of time and space into one image. Diptychs fuses two distinct moments onto one negative, in which the scale, focal planes, and perspectives shift and ultimately compose a dual image of urban spaces.

The Here and Now: The Photography of Sam Jones

By Sam Jones.

Published by It Books.

Published 2007.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0061348120

ISBN-13: 978-0061348129

Description:

“Sam Jones has a unique ability in this age of insane celebrity idolatry to humanize these people who often seem entirely estranged from the world the rest of us live in. This book is about celebrity, yes, but its also about one artist’s ability to use fame to create something uniquely delightful.” – David Granger, Editor in Chief, Esquire, from the Foreward.

Portraits

By John Hedgecoe.

Published by Collins & Brown.

Published 2000.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 185585726X

ISBN-13: 978-1855857261

Description:

For the past four decades John Hedgecoe has been taking pictures of the leading figures in the worlds of art, literature, science and politics – from Winston Churchill to Mary Quant. His technical skill and unerring ability to capture the essence of the sitter in a single frame have brought him tremendous critical acclaim.

This comprehensive portfolio brings together an impressive collection of John Hedgecoe’s portraits, featuring an eclectic mix of personalities from all avenues of life. These masterful photographs reflect his wide-ranging career, from the early days on Queen magazine to his years as Professor of Photography at the Royal College of Art in London.

Accompanied by short anecdotes that offer an entertaining insight into the special relationship that exists between the photographer and his subject, Portraits is a revealing portfolio and an illuminating read.

Wally Lamb, on writing:

I like to be surprised.

The best writing is when it defies me, when it starts going a different way than I had planned.

- Wally Lamb.

Lisa Scottoline, on writing:

The truth is that every writer,

whether it's fiction or nonfiction,

is trying to write something truly original and that's what I think I'm doing.

- Lisa Scottoline.

The Laughing Heart, by Charles Bukowski:

The Laughing Heart

by Charles Bukowski

Your life is your life.

Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

Be on the watch.

There are ways out.

There is light somewhere.

It may not be much light but

it beats the darkness.

Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances.

Know them.

Take them.

You can’t beat death,

but you can beat death in life, sometimes.

And the more often you learn to do it,

the more light there will be.

Your life is your life.

Know it while you have it.

You are marvelous.

The gods wait to delight

in you.

Charles Bukowski, on writing:

In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.

Maybe I'll write a novel, I thought.

And then I did.

- Charles Bukowski.

Introvert insight:

Introverts are word economists in a society suffering from verbal diarrhea.

– Michaela Chung.

I’m self-sufficient.
I spend a lot of time on my own and I shut off quite easily.
When I communicate, I communicate 900 per cent, then I shut off, which scares people sometimes.

– Bjork.
 
Though introverts are drained by interaction, we can take immense pleasure in watching the scene around us.

– Laurie Helgoe.

I'll read my books and I'll drink coffee and I'll listen to music, and I'll bolt the door.

– J. D. Salinger.

Ann Patchett, on books:

That's important to me, to recommend books.

- Ann Patchett.

World Honey Bee Day – Third Saturday in August:

World Honey Bee Day

Third Saturday in August

#WorldHoneyBeeDay

Concerned about our loss of bees, Morgan Freeman converted his 124-acre Mississippi ranch into a bee refuge. He hired gardeners, filled acres with clover, planted hundreds of flowering trees, purchased 26 hives, and has turned himself into a beekeeper.

Ray Bradbury, on writing:

Find out what your hero or heroine wants,

and when he or she wakes up in the morning,

just follow him or her all day.

- Ray Bradbury.

Cynthia Rylant, on reading:

I learned to write from authors.

I didn't know any, but I read their books.

- Cynthia Rylant.

Margaret Atwood, on writing:

Writing is alone, but I don't think it's lonely.

Ask any writer if they feel lonely when they're writing their book, and I think they'll say no.

– Margaret Atwood.