Lee Lamothe Night Table Recommendations
by McNally Robinson - Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:10am
When I'm writing well I don't read much and so for the past year I have a stack of books waiting to be started or finished. And because I write late into the night and get up very early, I don't have a night-table; in fact I don't often use a bed. I unroll a sleeping bag on the floor of my office with the cats so my wife can sleep through the night. A lot of books get read not at home, but in various places as I travel.
I like to read far above my weight. It shows me what writing can be when its done right.
I'm also working - or although "working" is hardly the word; "easing", perhaps - my way through The Longest Silence, by . (Vintage Books 2001; 280pp) McGuane is an American novelist, horseman, and fisherman. A lot of my characters wind up in nature - usually where they're murdered or something - and McGuane essays a great sense of man and the nature around him. A perfect book about the perfect sport and past-time, fishing.
Because I'm filling my spare, non-commercial, writing time on a surrealistic crime novel, I'm getting my mind right by reading Dada in Paris, by and Mad Love by . Reading about surrealism - or viewing collage or paintings or sculptures - I think "breaks" the mind's logic and all sorts of unexpected possibilities emerge.
A Rage for Rock Gardening by is a quirky little book about things I have absolutely no interest in. (Short Books, 2002; 118pp) But Rage is a perfect example of how a great writer can do much with little. The story of Reginald Farrer, a strange man who practiced gardening, writing and collecting plants in the early 1900s was bought as a gift I never gave, once I idly read it. An adventure story, a time-and-place yarn, and a neat little examination of a man who survived a life that didn't mean him well.
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is a journalist and novelist. He is the author of Global Mafia, Criminal Acts II, Angels, Mobsters and Narco-terrorists, as well as the bestsellers Bloodlines: The Rise and Fall of the Mafia's Royal Family, The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto and The Last Thief, a novel. He lives in Toronto. His most recent book is the terrifically tense The Finger's Twist (Ravenstone Press, 2009) with Free Form Jazz waiting in the wings.
When I'm writing well I don't read much and so for the past year I have a stack of books waiting to be started or finished. And because I write late into the night and get up very early, I don't have a night-table; in fact I don't often use a bed. I unroll a sleeping bag on the floor of my office with the cats so my wife can sleep through the night. A lot of books get read not at home, but in various places as I travel.
I like to read far above my weight. It shows me what writing can be when its done right.
Right now I'm re-reading for easily the tenth time Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris, by . (Cardinal Books, 1990; 209pp) Liebling, a journalist, gourmet, and writer in the thirties, is I think what Hemingway would be if he wasn't so caught up in being Hemingway. Liebling is expert at channeling a time and a place and, for any writer, that's a great thing. I buy Between Meals three or four at a time as I find them used and give them as gifts to friends of like mind.
I'm also working - or although "working" is hardly the word; "easing", perhaps - my way through The Longest Silence, by . (Vintage Books 2001; 280pp) McGuane is an American novelist, horseman, and fisherman. A lot of my characters wind up in nature - usually where they're murdered or something - and McGuane essays a great sense of man and the nature around him. A perfect book about the perfect sport and past-time, fishing.
Because I'm filling my spare, non-commercial, writing time on a surrealistic crime novel, I'm getting my mind right by reading Dada in Paris, by and Mad Love by . Reading about surrealism - or viewing collage or paintings or sculptures - I think "breaks" the mind's logic and all sorts of unexpected possibilities emerge.
A Rage for Rock Gardening by is a quirky little book about things I have absolutely no interest in. (Short Books, 2002; 118pp) But Rage is a perfect example of how a great writer can do much with little. The story of Reginald Farrer, a strange man who practiced gardening, writing and collecting plants in the early 1900s was bought as a gift I never gave, once I idly read it. An adventure story, a time-and-place yarn, and a neat little examination of a man who survived a life that didn't mean him well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
is a journalist and novelist. He is the author of Global Mafia, Criminal Acts II, Angels, Mobsters and Narco-terrorists, as well as the bestsellers Bloodlines: The Rise and Fall of the Mafia's Royal Family, The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto and The Last Thief, a novel. He lives in Toronto. His most recent book is the terrifically tense The Finger's Twist (Ravenstone Press, 2009) with Free Form Jazz waiting in the wings.
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