On my shelf is something I used to do on my website where every week I would share some books I was reading. Now On My Shelf is going to be a weekly video show where I not only talk about the books that are inspiring me, but also music, movies, tv shows, things I’m learning and projects I’m working on. Subscribe to keep up with me!
On my shelf this week:
How to Make a Living as a Writer, by James Scott Bell
Isaac Assimov collection (fantasy)
Blogging for Writers: How Authors and Writers Build Successful Blogs, by Robin Houghton
Best quotes so far:
“Someone who knows how to think strategically, can calculate odds, and takes risks at the right time will win more often than the average player who depends mostly on the rolling bones.”
James Scott Bell
“Writing what you are passionate about is a good thing. But if you want to make a living at it you have to sell enough to bring in a profit. And that means objectively analyzing the marketplace.”
James Scott Bell
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
On my shelf this week:
The Invasion, by K.A. Applegate
Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell
Beginnings, Middles & Ends, by Nancy Kress
Best quotes so far:
“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
Rainbow Rowell
“He made her feel like more than the sum of her parts.”
Rainbow Rowell
“The first time he’d held her hand, it felt so good that it crowded out all the bad things. It felt better than anything had ever hurt.”
Rainbow Rowell
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
The Imaginary, by A.F. Harrold
Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down, by Dave Barry
Fiction Unboxed, by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant and David Wright (not pictured—because it’s an ebook)
This week I’m reading a sci-fi novel by one of the masters (and, sadly, have never read the Ender series) and an interesting kid-lit book by a new author. I’m studying the craft of humor columnist Dave Barry and the writing prowess of Platt, Truant and Wright, who produce a billion words a week (not really, but they’re fiction writing machines). Great stuff this week.
Best quotes so far:
“Perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.”
Orson Scott Card
“Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf.”
Orson Scott Card
“Every year, hundreds of thousands of people try their hand at this demanding profession (humor columnist). After a few months, almost all of them have given up and gone back to the ninth grade.”
Dave Barry
“Today’s beauty ideal, strictly enforced by the media, is a person with the same level of body fat as a paper clip.”
Dave Barry
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
On my shelf this week:
Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie
Let’s Get Invisible, by R.L. Stine
Heads You Lose, by R.L. Stine
The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani
How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card
This week I’m reading a phenomenal audio book because it’s read by Jim Dale, the same guy who read all the Harry Potter books. It’s very entertaining. My boys are super obsessed with R.L. Stine, so I’m reading a couple of Goosebump stories with the 8- and 6-year-old. A fantasy adventure (because the best way to learn to write is to read) and a handbook on writing science fiction and fantasy by a master of the genre top the list. Good stuff this week!
Best quotes so far:
“…You believe that the kind of story you want to tell might be best received by the science fiction and fantasy audience. I hope you’re right, because in many ways this is the best audience in the world to write for. They’re open-minded and intelligent. They want to think as well as feel, understand as well as dream. Above all, they want to be led into places that no one has ever visited before. It’s a privilege to tell stories to these readers, and an honour when they applaud the tale you tell.”
Orson Scott Card
“Science fiction is about what could be but isn’t; fantasy is about what couldn’t be.”
Orson Scott Card
…and my personal favorite:
“The novelty and freshness you’ll bring to the field won’t come from the new ideas you think up. Truly new ideas are rare, and usually turn out to be variations on old themes anyway. No, your freshness will come from the way you think, from the person you are; it will inevitably show up in your writing, provided you don’t mask it with heavy-handed formulas or clichés.”
Orson Scott Card
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
On my shelf this week:
Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church, by Rachel Held Evans
Peaceful Parents, Happy Siblings: How to Stop Fighting and Raise Friends for Life, by Dr. Laura Markham
Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee
This week I’ve got all brand new books on my shelf: the newest from Evans (which is VERY good), the latest parenting book from Markham (which is also VERY good) and the controversial novel from Lee (controversial because some say it shouldn’t have been published, others say it was okay).
Best quotes so far:
“We all long for someone to tell us who we are. The great struggle of the Christian life is to take God’s name for us, to believe we are beloved and to believe that is enough.”
Rachel Held Evans
“We millennials have been advertised to our entire lives, so we can smell b.s. from a mile away. The church is the last place we want to be sold another product, the last place we want to be entertained.”
Rachel Held Evans
“When parents have a better relationship with their children, those children have happier relationships with each other. When parents have more negative and punitive relationships with each child, the children behave more aggressively and selfishly with each other.
Dr. Laura Markham
“Children learn what they live.”
Dr. Laura Markham
“The way you discipline your child becomes her model for working out inter-personal problems.”
Dr. Laura Markham
“Children need love the most when they deserve it the least.”
Dr. Laura Markham
“A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.”
Harper Lee
“Don’t you study about other folks’s business till you take care of your own.”
Harper Lee
Read any of these? Tell us what you thought.
