I have to say, I was a little uncertain about picking up The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer. She is a rather polarising personality in creative and musical circles, but I really love her TED talk on this subject – in fact, this book’s genesis can be traced back to it. Well, I’m happy to report it was great. Palmer uses the word ‘audacity’ in the text several time, and it’s her explanation of why it’s so important to her, giving examples, where she’s most successful. By challenging the writers, musicians, anyone reading, to be the adjective, audacious, in their work. What’s the worst that could happen? Nothing. Exactly.
So be brave.
It helped give me a nudge in a few areas and if you need something similar, I highly recommend it. Plus, she can write.
This year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. I figure this is a fitting time to try and finish my Living List goal of reading all of his plays. So I’ve gone back to my Kindle’s The Collected Works of Shakespeare (this isn’t the version I have, but I include the link to a text version, if interested) and I’ve finished The Comedy of Errors and just started Cymbeline. I’ll do a proper post on that once it’s done. So far I’ve only read the plays I’m unfamiliar with, so I’m going slow – but that will change once I hit my old favourites.
Last, I picked up The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan from the library. I did so with a sense of sadness – Keegan was a promising writer who died in a car crash just two days after graduating from Yale, and I found it hard to read this book without the circumstances of its publication also running through my mind. Too hard, in fact. I got halfway and I’m not sure I’ll finish. This isn’t because it’s bad, far from it, but… there isn’t enough to compel me to keep going and I don’t guilt read any more. If I want to stop, I stop. (Who else does this?!) Time will tell with this book.
What are you reading this month?
