She Treads Softly: winner

Hey! I actually won something!

Nah, it wasn't a spectacular $1,000,000 prize but it was a book from

http://exlibrisbb.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much! I'm excited!

Now, Jane and I have privately wondered if all blogs that offer give aways, if you leave a comment, really do, in fact, give the item away. Or do they just SAY they are giving something away because they want to get a ton of comments or increase their number of readers.

It's nice to see a legitimate contest. I'm feeling very special, sort of like a princess... ok, maybe not a princess, but there was an extra special pizazz in my steps as I vacuumed today.

This should maybe stem back the tide of depressing books I was considering reading, like the current read, The Johnstown Flood.

John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.

She Treads Softly

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

winner

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