You're The Voice: Bailey on Literature Etiquette
To all of the budding writers, passionate readers and select others who know of the beauty of literature, well, there are a few things to watch out for:
Writer’s block
A condition that even the best of us suffer from. It strikes in broad daylight at the worst possible moments, when we’re on a roll. When we really don’t need it, it comes, leaving us in a blank state. It attacks when our minds are too full of ideas, of quotes-to-come then - BAM! - When we pick up our pencil to continue, we can only stumble on, writing, blindly.
Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policeman or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say? ~Kurt Vonnegut
*Headdesk*
The new craze for face palmers and face bookers… in the literal sense. Many a librarian or book-shop owner would have experienced this as a result of customers and civilians with persistent queries, endless questions and bizarre requests that just drive you up the wall…
“Hi, I’m just looking for this book I read a couple of years ago… I don’t really remember the name or the author… but I do know that it had yellow writing on the front. Do you know where I could get a copy of it?”
It’s okay guys, we aren’t all like that!
Advancing technologies
For many a century books have been the solution; be it to completing assignments, writing history, fulfilling curiosities, communicating with the world, sharing one’s secrets, or searching into the past, they have always been the key; the key to the world of knowledge. It’s slowly becoming a rare talent to be able to read, to be able to read between the lines, to be able to analyse and evaluate the book, and draw to the conclusion that some English teachers take analysis way too far. Nowadays, however, electronic sources are the ones most of us are writing in our bibliographies. Don’t let the book become the dust-collector of the future. That’s the job of trinkets.
The rise of the movie
The adage of books being better than the movies couldn’t possibly be truer. Over the last decade many best-selling books have been quickly followed by money-raking films, destroying – not enhancing, silly! - the famous plots and works of authors that have stimulated the imaginations of many a reader. The people out there who think that the movies are superior in this long-going battle are the ones that we will eventually come face-to-face with. We must all be ready and prepared to defend the beauty of the book. Perhaps a book will knock some sense into them. Or a bookend.
Never judge a book by its movie ~J.W Eagan
- Bailey
