I’ve added a book to my read list with parantheses. The parantheses mean that while I’ve skimmed it cover to cover and read a good majority of it, I haven’t read every word. So I won’t count it in my total, but I did want to have a record of it. Especially as it’s a library book, so I won’t actually have a copy to refer back to if I forget the title. I’m going to do this with another library book when I’m finished with it as well.
Big Brother, the US version anyway. I have no doubt the British version is better, but I don’t have a lot of interest in assiduously pursuing watching it.
The first Big Brother was interesting. Partly because it was new, probably. New to us, new to those in the house. But mostly because the people there were real. There were people I liked. People I could root for, get behind, and enjoy watching. I could even imagine myself in there.
After that, it was crap. All of the people were young and interested in drinking and sex. Or scheming. There’s only so much scheming you can take before it’s repetitive and snoozealicious. I stopped watching.
I started watching a little bit again when the secret relationships one was on. The twins who hid they were twins, Nakomis and Cowboy being half-siblings, etc. I liked Nakomis, so it was another reason to watch.
This latest Big Brother was All-Stars, so it had potential. Except Chicken George was the only Big Brother 1 candidate. And only he and Nakomis got into the house who I cared about watchhing. It was pretty boring even with them. This person said this, well what if we do this, now play a stupid game because Julie told you to. Whatever.
Nakomis had really cool fire hair though! That was the highlight for me.
Now Nakomis is gone. So. Totally pointless. Even if there might be some opportunity later where we can vote someone back in, I don’t care. Whatever. Let the drinking, scheming sluts do whatever they want. I’m not going to watch.
I got several writing books out of the library. I do have a bit of trouble skimming such books. It’s a book; I should read it straight through! And then be able to add it to my list. This is especially true of short books.
So one of the books I got out was a short book. Probably would only take a couple of hours to read it. And maybe it has some content or ideas that weren’t covered in the other books I read on the subject. So I was fully intending to read Writing a Children’s Book by Pamela Cleaver straight through.
The preface did make me roll my eyes and start to think twice, however.
Please note that throughout the book I use male pronouns for clarity and to avoid clumsiness. If you find this offensive, please feel free to substitute female ones where appropriate.
Now was that really necessary? Since there’s no way you can ‘substitute’ pronouns without great attention and a lot of thought, even in your own thoughts, she’s essentially saying ‘I’m using male pronouns, and if you don’t like it, tough.’
I don’t care what pronouns you’re using. Personally I prefer switching back and forth, whether or not you concern yourself with a 50-50 split on them. I’m unlikely to notice what you’re doing unless it’s pointed out. Why bother to point it out? That’s defensive right from the start.
But if you’re going to point it out, just say which method you chose to use and your reasoning. That’s it. You don’t need to be antagonistic to these imaginary readers who are going to object to it.
How using all male pronouns improves ‘clarity’ and reduces ‘clumsiness’, I have no idea. This is a book first published in 2000 and revised for 2004. Aren’t people over the whole gender pronoun question?
Another book I read, which was written probably about 15 years earlier, was written with different pronouns in alternating chapters. And she made a point of saying so. Is it something about books about writing for children that inspires people to make a point about pronouns? I usually don’t run into this sort of thing in my other reading. Maybe I’m reading the wrong things.
That wasn’t the only problem I had with the book, though. On the same preface page, it says “You can contact Pamela at (ohhhh.. do I include her Email address or not.. spam spam spam…) pamela(censored, lucky her)@yahoo.co.uk if you have any queries about subjects raised in this book. However, Pamela regrets she cannot read your MSS. If you are in need of feedback on your story, why not join a critique group?”
Yahoo address. Giving it in the text of the book. She’d better expect some spam and some weird Emails. Does she really regret that she can’t read your manuscript? Kind of doubt it. It’s a very patronizing thing to say on the first page of the book. Put it in the text somewhere.. ‘Writers seeking feedback on their stories should join critique groups. It’s not a good idea to send your manuscript to other writers uninvited.’ Or, if you must relate it to your Email address, put it at the end in some sort of author’s bio. After the reader, whoever she may be, has gotten to know you and your writing style.
After that, the book reads like some sort of technical publication. They love breaking things up into a billion sections with bullet points and lists. Small doses of that are fine. Sidebars like that are fine. Appendices of checklists like that are fine. It is not fine to make your entire book like that. I started reading it and felt like I was skimming, because it invites skimming. I couldn’t get into the flow of what she was trying to say at all. Skim or skip a bullet point, and you may miss the one bit of new information it was worth reading for.
So I stopped. If she has something new to tell me, she went about it in entirely the wrong way.
I like one of the quotes on the back: “There’s an excellent section on writing nonfiction, a chapter on finding a publisher and a suggested reading list. — Writer’s Bulletin”
Apart from the word “excellent”, that’s just a laundry list itself! I’m surprised it was written in paragraph form and without bullets.
I’ll be thinking twice about trying other books from ‘howtobooks‘ in Oxford, England. Especially if they’re written in the same format.
Manglish doesn’t sound like something very cool. But it is pretty cool. And it’s on an MSN site. Weird.
It’s online manga in Japanese, but when you mouse over it, it gives you the English. I’m not very interested in the manga they have up now, but maybe they’ll have something more interesting in the future.
I’ve been watching Gokusen. It’s a live action drama. The first season/series is 12 approximately 1 hour eps. There’s a second series/season I’m just starting to watch.
It takes place at a school. There’s a class of delinquents, some eccentric faculty, and a teacher who lives a double life as the granddaughter of a yakuza head dude.
I don’t know if I can describe it very well or explain how cool it is. But it’s interesting and it’s funny. If you like the type of movies where a teacher turns a bunch of students around, you’ll like it. If you like school shows in general, you’ll like it. If you like live action Japanese stuff, you’ll like it. If you like watching a chick kick some butt, it’s good for that too.
