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Bookcrossing and the Imitation of Christ
Dec. 15th, 2004 08:19 amDr Hyde's Orthodontic Emporium is a wonderful place. There are television screens in the ceiling above each dentist chair and a small room with Nintendos. Most of the clients are teenagers and all the staff have wonderful teeth.
Which is good, because they are always smiling.
A happy place, and even if I do no more than sit in the waiting room and drain my credit card, I feel uplifted. The big prize comes whenever my son smiles, because he has a mouthful of straight teeth instead of the rather bizarre collection he had a few years back.
Dr Hyde has a happy personalty. Every now and then you meet someone who has some inner source of happiness welling up, and you cannot help but love them. There are fun to be around, they smile, they love their fellow human beings. They twinkle. Dr Hyde twinkles and he tries to select staff who twinkle as well.
His waiting room, always good for a themed release of Jaws, displays a curiosity. Dr Hyde is obviously a pretty committed Christian, and there are always a few religious books in the waiting room, and a religious poster or two. Nothing blatant, nothing to upset the teenagers, but there it is.
While I waited with my son, I looked around for something to read. The Imitation of Christ was one of the books that caught my eye and I scorned the table full of car and health and fitness and lifestyle magazines in favour of this mediaeval masterpiece. A week ago I knew nothing of it, today I read it with keen interest.
I used the title in Manly Books as part of a throwaway line about cats, one of the far too infrequent uses of humour. Serendipity, I suppose.
Calissa mentioned, at the Meetup last night, that she had read most of my book, and pointed out a line she had enjoyed. "Lawyers attract silk ties like I attract books." One I enjoyed. I must go through the text and explore the possibilities. Heaven knows I had little enough time for humour when I was writing the thing and my brain would protest at times - oh no, it's hard enough getting my story straight, I've got to be funny as well?
Well, it needs to be entertaining or nobody will want to read it. Ann and Scott need to be funny in themselves, Chuck can be funny because he's so pathetic, so laughable, and the others can do funny things. Ann in particular needs to be worked on - she's a bubbly kind of person, but there seems to be little reason for her to be so. And that's because I was too busy writing to get her down right.
Rewriting is going to be difficult. Try as I might, it always looks forced. I repeat myself, I interrupt the flow of the thing.
I may have to start from scratch rather than insert new material into old. At least I know where I'm going and what my characters should be like.
The Bookcrossing Meetup was stellar. We had 18 all told, including one chap who didn't enjoy himself and left early. Lord knows why - all you had to do was sit back and look at the happy, animated faces to know that it was a fun community.
My Bookcrossing Friends journal did the rounds, and everyone was kind enough to write a few words. Organiser Scott's contribution was a study in minimalism, but very welcome nonetheless. I really only had eyes for SUJIE, who had come all the way from Sabah in Borneo just to meet me. And CoffeeBron. We're having a picnic lunch in the Botanic Gardens at noon tomorrow. I think we're to meet at the entrance to the Rainforest gully. I'd best arrive early in case it's somewhere else.
I was good. Only brought one book home. Skip-Dot released her entire collection of Ian Rankin and I thought I'd best snaffle one of the two left over at the end of the night. Since Special-K introduced me to crime novels I've been all but obsessed. Currently working my way through Sue Grafton and I have a satisfying mountain of Michael Connelly and Stephen Leather to last me into my dotage.
The journal is off to London tomorrow. Thanks Yokospungeon!
And that probably means that I've only got a week to finish off my entries for the ABC in Sydney. A month ago now and I'm only up to the first night of the three day convention.
Email from DD. Her tour group has only six, including the manager of the general store at Berrima just up the road, a couple of lesbians from Melbourne, and an experienced traveller from London. She crawled thirty metres through the tunnels of Cu Chi and ate raw tapioca, apparently a staple of the Viet Cong. Odd to think that the Vietnam War is ancient history to her. Glad she's enjoying herself. No word on books released - I would have left one in the tunnel!
And that brings me around to a comment someone made last night about my life being Bookcrossing. I said the same myself some months back, but she was right. I love the serendipity, the links, the intermingling of Internet and real world. And the ever-present expectation that the mailbox will chime with a report from a book wandering the world. Some of my fictional Ann's books will be left in Vietnam - I wonder how they will fare?
Which is good, because they are always smiling.
A happy place, and even if I do no more than sit in the waiting room and drain my credit card, I feel uplifted. The big prize comes whenever my son smiles, because he has a mouthful of straight teeth instead of the rather bizarre collection he had a few years back.
Dr Hyde has a happy personalty. Every now and then you meet someone who has some inner source of happiness welling up, and you cannot help but love them. There are fun to be around, they smile, they love their fellow human beings. They twinkle. Dr Hyde twinkles and he tries to select staff who twinkle as well.
His waiting room, always good for a themed release of Jaws, displays a curiosity. Dr Hyde is obviously a pretty committed Christian, and there are always a few religious books in the waiting room, and a religious poster or two. Nothing blatant, nothing to upset the teenagers, but there it is.
While I waited with my son, I looked around for something to read. The Imitation of Christ was one of the books that caught my eye and I scorned the table full of car and health and fitness and lifestyle magazines in favour of this mediaeval masterpiece. A week ago I knew nothing of it, today I read it with keen interest.
I used the title in Manly Books as part of a throwaway line about cats, one of the far too infrequent uses of humour. Serendipity, I suppose.
Calissa mentioned, at the Meetup last night, that she had read most of my book, and pointed out a line she had enjoyed. "Lawyers attract silk ties like I attract books." One I enjoyed. I must go through the text and explore the possibilities. Heaven knows I had little enough time for humour when I was writing the thing and my brain would protest at times - oh no, it's hard enough getting my story straight, I've got to be funny as well?
Well, it needs to be entertaining or nobody will want to read it. Ann and Scott need to be funny in themselves, Chuck can be funny because he's so pathetic, so laughable, and the others can do funny things. Ann in particular needs to be worked on - she's a bubbly kind of person, but there seems to be little reason for her to be so. And that's because I was too busy writing to get her down right.
Rewriting is going to be difficult. Try as I might, it always looks forced. I repeat myself, I interrupt the flow of the thing.
I may have to start from scratch rather than insert new material into old. At least I know where I'm going and what my characters should be like.
The Bookcrossing Meetup was stellar. We had 18 all told, including one chap who didn't enjoy himself and left early. Lord knows why - all you had to do was sit back and look at the happy, animated faces to know that it was a fun community.
My Bookcrossing Friends journal did the rounds, and everyone was kind enough to write a few words. Organiser Scott's contribution was a study in minimalism, but very welcome nonetheless. I really only had eyes for SUJIE, who had come all the way from Sabah in Borneo just to meet me. And CoffeeBron. We're having a picnic lunch in the Botanic Gardens at noon tomorrow. I think we're to meet at the entrance to the Rainforest gully. I'd best arrive early in case it's somewhere else.
I was good. Only brought one book home. Skip-Dot released her entire collection of Ian Rankin and I thought I'd best snaffle one of the two left over at the end of the night. Since Special-K introduced me to crime novels I've been all but obsessed. Currently working my way through Sue Grafton and I have a satisfying mountain of Michael Connelly and Stephen Leather to last me into my dotage.
The journal is off to London tomorrow. Thanks Yokospungeon!
And that probably means that I've only got a week to finish off my entries for the ABC in Sydney. A month ago now and I'm only up to the first night of the three day convention.
Email from DD. Her tour group has only six, including the manager of the general store at Berrima just up the road, a couple of lesbians from Melbourne, and an experienced traveller from London. She crawled thirty metres through the tunnels of Cu Chi and ate raw tapioca, apparently a staple of the Viet Cong. Odd to think that the Vietnam War is ancient history to her. Glad she's enjoying herself. No word on books released - I would have left one in the tunnel!
And that brings me around to a comment someone made last night about my life being Bookcrossing. I said the same myself some months back, but she was right. I love the serendipity, the links, the intermingling of Internet and real world. And the ever-present expectation that the mailbox will chime with a report from a book wandering the world. Some of my fictional Ann's books will be left in Vietnam - I wonder how they will fare?
