“When you get inside a literary novel you feel that the author, more often than not, just doesn't know enough about things. They haven't been around enough - novelists never go anywhere. Once I discovered true books about real things - books like 'How To Run a Company' - I stopped reading novels.” KnowsFeelsBookRealEnoughRunningReadingCompanyNovelHavensNovelistsReal ThingsReading Novels Author:Peter York
“We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we work slowly and consistently. Anthony Trollope, the nineteenth-century writer who managed to be a prolific novelist while also revolutionizing the British postal system, observed, “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” Over the long run, the unglamorous habit of frequency fosters both productivity and creativity.” IfsLongRunningCan DoCreativityCenturyHabitPeriodsBeatsTasksBritishProductivityNovelistsLabourLong RunsConsistentlyUnderestimateFrequencyNineteenth CenturyOverestimateDaily Tasks Author:Gretchen Rubin
“Today the crime novelist has one advantage denied to writers of 'straight' or 'literary' novels. Unlike them he can range over all levels of society, for crime can easily breach the barriers that exist in our stratified society. Because of these barriers the modern literary novel, unlike its 19th-century predecessors, is often confined to the horizontal, dealing only with one class. But crime runs through society from top to bottom, and so the crime novelist can present a fuller picture of the way we live now.” WayBookRunningTodayLanguageLevelsClassNovelModernCenturyCrimeAdvantageBottomRangeNovelistsBarriersDeniedConfined19th CenturyPredecessorsBreachHorizontal Book:Life & Letters: The Spectator Columns Source: Life & Letters: The Spectator Columns