Readiscovery

What I've read and discovered

  • Writing: From EB White to computer era

    I have been reading the book, On Writing Well, by William Zinsser – the 30th anniversary edition, published in 2006. Zinsser begins his introduction with a description of a portrait of the New Yorker contributor EB White that captures the essence of the writer’s craft.

    1–2 minutes

  • Orwell: Why I write

    I was re-reading George Orwell’s famous essay, Politics and the English language, on his birth anniversary three days ago. He was born at Motihari in the eastern Indian state of Bihar on June 25, 1903, and died in London on January 21, 1950, a few months after the publication of…

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  • Nature’s chief masterpiece

    Of all those arts in which the wise excel,Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well. The quote used to appear in a Time magazine ad long ago. Hardly anyone remembers the author, John Sheffield, the Duke of Buckingham (1648-1721), for his poetry, but maybe that is why I love the quote…

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  • Blogs, Whitman, Singapore

    Bloggers, feel free to write on about Singapore on your blogs and personal websites, the Media Development Authority has said on Facebook, clarifying the new rules that apply only to news sites. So words will continue to pour into cyberspace documenting everything on this island until blogging becomes passé and…

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  • The seven ages of language

    Don’t make any conscious effort to improve your vocabulary, says Stephen King in his book, Stephen King: On Writing. Your vocabulary will grow as you read, he adds. And then he says: One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary,…

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  • Updike and Lawrence Durrell

    I love the harmonies of the Beach Boys, the rush of air on the seashore, the heave and swell of waves, the sun going down on a blushing horizon, the full moon in sail on a starry night. And I love writers who can show me all this in sensuous,…

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  • Rabbit Redux: From hot metal to cold type

    From hot metal to cold type to online, newspapers have undergone two revolutions since the Cold War. The news used to come hot off the press, the words set on stone. It was a noisy business.

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  • The Great Gatsby

    What’s behind the enduring appeal of The Great Gatsby? The lives and dreams of its star-crossed lovers? Or the fact that it reads like a dream? Reading it again, I was utterly entranced, such is F Scott Fitzgerald’s gift as a writer. He can show you beautiful people and places…

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  • A man’s reach should exceed his grasp: Browning

    Poor Andrea del Sarto. A successful Italian painter who was overshadowed by his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. We admire the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael while Andrea del Sarto is almost forgotten.  Yet that is what makes him more like most of us. We may not…

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  • Peter Pan and cricket

    Today is the birthday of JM Barrie (May 9, 1860 – June 19, 1937). He is remembered for Peter Pan, but he also invented celebrity cricket, as the BBC once put it.

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