What to Read This Weekend: A Mother’s Secrets, Presentation Zen, and Writing Well
Author: Susan Cain
Hi everyone,
Here are this weekend’s reading suggestions:
1. “Sharing Her Secrets“: Beautifully written New York Times essay by Katie Roiphe, about her mother’s bohemian youth in mid-century New York. (Hat tip to Delia Lloyd of the always amusing Real Delia blog.)
2. Presentation Zen blog, by Garr Reynolds: Presentation Zen was the first thing to get me excited, really excited, about public speaking. Drawing on Japanese design principles, Reynolds turns presentations from a source of anxiety into a grand creative project. Check it out.
3. On Writing Well: Excerpts from the seminal book by William Zinsser. If you like to write non-fiction, Zinsser will improve your game, FOR SURE.
Have a wonderful weekend!
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Dear Susan:
This just reminded me of a one page story we had to write in our French class without any passive verbs such as ‘je suis’ and ‘j’ai’. The teacher told us it would take at least 5 to 6 hours to do this as we French people have a tendency to use the same passive verbs on a continual basis. Well, being a teenager back then, I wanted nothing more than to prove him wrong…
Well, to make a long story short, it took me 7 hours… but I got an A and he read it in front of the class.
I now have the utmost respect for writers, and the writing exercise the teacher put us through made me understand what writer’s block consists of.
I sooooooo respect the time and thought you put into your blogs and I can’t wait to read your book and never again will I be flippant about writing.
To all the writers of the world, thank you for your time and effort.
Danielle
Thanks, Danielle! My English teacher made us doing something similar, I think in eighth grade. I’ve never looked at the verb “to be” the same way again.