Jane Austen Tested Prose on Visitors

According to author Eric Burns, any author who truly cares about his work will read it audibly. "The writer will make sure there are no missed beats to distract us from his literary designs."
"He will pick up his typescript,...listen as [the words] ascend from the page, bouncing off the walls of his study and back again, returning to him in what is, in terms of cadence, their natural state."

"I find it necessary," John Steinbeck (1902 -1968) once said of his recitations, "for the sake of the rhythms."

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) regularly held formal presentations in her parlor, serving tea and biscuits.
"As Miss Austen reads to friends and visitors, her eyes flit up, work the room, monitoring the effects of her prose. Is anyone yawning, looking away, scratching an imaginary itch? How many people are leaning forward hanging on the next words?

The author is like a comedian trying out new material on a weeknight at the Improv, sensitive to any nuance that will tell her whether it plays poorly or well."
Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) travelled doing readings, tempering his work based on the mood of the time.

Moliere (1622 - 1673), the French playwright, got an initial reaction to his plays by reciting them to his cook.

Burns' observations leaves one wondering if our modern-day readings afford the author feedback of any kind or are book "signings" and readings simply photo-ops and promotions for books yet to be "tested."

Eric Burns, The Joy of Books, Prometheus Books, 1995.

Your Smile for Today:

"Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away."

~ Tom Clancy, American novelist, (1947 - )

Ian Klepetar leaves an encouraging message everywhere he goes: Save on Gas. Bicycle.

We caught up with Ian in the bookshop. Sweatband securing his long hair in 85 degree heat, he left Tillsonburg this morning ~ and before many people are awake, he had already bicycled to Cayuga. We didn't ask where he eats or sleeps. (He did volunteer that his mother wouldn't approve of his hygiene.) He filled up his water bottle in the bookshop.

Ian and his family, including his Mom, along with a few friends have an impressive program called Bicycle Benefits, advocating the benefits of bicycling. They have enlisted over 750 businesses in less than three years. Ian left Madison, Wisconsin a week ago ~ his destination, Ithica, N.Y. via Fort Erie.

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Sign up with Ian at http://www.bicyclebenefits.org/ Click on Our Team for pictures and profiles.

By the way, Ian's favourite book is Walden, H. D. Thoreau. "Thoreau is good company," he said.

"Critical Mess*," a phrase coined by a New York collector, may describe the habitat of most hopeless book lovers. In that particular collector's case, it was thousands of almanacs, old periodicals and booklets.

Herb Martindale, original owner of The Neat Little Bookshop, left us with only one wise piece of advice, "Don't accept everything that everybody brings to you."

We have stopped giving credit for books that are out of fashion and come a dime-a-dozen. However, being book lovers, a good clean book of any genre seems to deserve shelf-space. So we go on quietly making history on Cayuga Street ~ stepping over boxes and piles of books ~ looking more like the original Neat Little Bookshop everyday. Herb would be proud of us.

*A Splendor of Letters, The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World, Nicholas A. Basbanes.Perennial/HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.

Life ~ Emily Dickenson

~

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
or cool one pain,
or help one fainting robin
onto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

~ Emily Dickinson, American poet (1830 - 1886) Life

Lilacs, Mount Olivet, Ontario. Photo by Lorna

Oil Spill Disperants and How They Work

For fascinating information on oil-spill dispersants being used in the disastrous fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico, visit Nalco website, the leading water treatment company in the world.
http://www.nalco.com/

Photos: Courtesy of James Walker, Ontario, Canada

Your Smile for Today ~

"A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on, you are enriched threefold."

~ Henry Miller, American novelist. (December 26, 1891 - June 7, 1980) Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer