Charlotte, Editor-in-Chief: “The Writing Life” by Annie Dillard
I love Annie Dillard. “The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet. Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading — that is a good life.” She recommends locking oneself in a small dark room to stoke creativity. It reminded me of Ramsey burning the midnight oil in the newsroom, writing upon request a short story about toucans and suicide.
Varun, News Exec: “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
I first read it as a part of my junior year English class in high school. After recently buying a personal copy, I have been re-reading with renewed vigor and murky memories of the ending. Stream of consciousness is a fascinating writing style and I encourage you to take a trip to London in June 1923.
Emma, News Exec: “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck
I’ve been reading John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden.” He once called it “the first book,” a meditation on the fundamental aspects of human nature and of good and evil — and it feels that way. The story moves through generations, sweeping from the east coast to California’s Salinas Valley. I’m only about halfway through, but I’m struck by how Steinbeck writes his characters, filled with both cruelty and tenderness, their contradictions painfully human.
Kent, Production Exec: “A Tune Beyond Us: A Collection of Poetry” edited by Myra Cohn Livingston
Last night before going to bed, I read a few poems from my favorite poetry anthology. I found this book at the library a few months ago, and I’ve been keeping it at my bedside table and reading poems from it regularly. Some of my favorites include a French poet imagining the feelings of animals, an Italian poet evoking the magic of the fair, an American poet writing of flying saucers and a Japanese poet writing of the snow falling. I love what Myra Cohn Livingston writes in her editor’s note: “Poetry is a place where we are not expected to define or analyze or answer questions. We can simply laugh or cry or wonder — or turn the page until we find a poem that sings the tune we wish to hear.”
Eli, Opinion Editor: “Capital Volume I” by Karl Marx
I’m reading this for a Gov seminar, and I really encourage everyone to give it a shot. The best part of any good political theory is that you don’t have to agree with all of it to see its strengths and learn something. Although Marx’s most controversial and well known ideas are about violent revolution and the creation of a new state, “Capital” is principally a set of observations about the system in which we live. Even if you see things in a different way than he does — which I certainly do, at times — it’s always good to examine the status quo.
Ramsey, Opinion Editor: Some pages of Zaina Arafat’s “You Exist Too Much”
The last thing I read were a few snippets here and there from Zaina Arafat’s debut novel “You Exist Too Much.” I had the pleasure of introducing her here in a talk at Collis Common Ground for Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month, and I found her in-person to be a wonderful speaker and approachable person. The passages from her novel that I read were very… sensual. Definitely fun to read. I really liked how she signed my copy after I asked her for advice about being a writer — “My advice is persist!”
