Still here

No I haven't given up blogging, but I was gone part of the week last week and when I got back I had a bunch of stuff to do. So I just put off blogging for a few more days. But now I'm back. Not that I have anything amazing to say, but I've found a few things of interest.

I went to my local library Saturday and checked out a book by Simon Winchester called The River at the Center of the World. It's about the Yangtze River in China. So far, it's pretty good. It combines several things I like in a travel book: a leisurely pace, a sense of the place and its people, an engaging narrator with an openness to what the experience will bring. The first book by Winchester that I read was his excellent book about the Oxford English Dictionary, The Professor and the Madman. I think I'm going to enjoy this one, too.

I also bought a book this weekend: The Sound on the Page by Ben Yagoda. Yagoda talks to writers about style and voice and so far it's good.

There's some good quotes over at The Mechanic & the Muse (Chip Scanlon, of the Poynter Institue, writes about writing here). Since there are several things, I'd just suggest you scroll down page and enjoy.