"Above all, a well-imagined story is organized around extraordinary human behaviors and unexpected and startling events, which help illuminate the commonplace and the ordinary."

Tim O’Brien describes the essence of storytelling. (via 1st BOOKS)

February reading list

January was slow going, and February’s not looking too good, either. It’s been a busy time at work, and I’ve been trying (not so successfully, sadly) to get more writing done. That being said, here’s where I stand:

Fiction

• Annabel Scheme — finished!
• Tainaron — finished!
• NEW The Things They Carried — in progress
• The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
• What is the What
• Best Stories from the Indian Classics
• And You Shall Know Our Velocity!
• Love in the Ruins

Nonfiction

• The Portable MFA in Creative Writing — finished!
• Sickness Unto Death — in progress
• Writing Down the Bones — in progress
• The Artful Edit

Extra: I received the first issue of my Oxford American subscription, and love it!

So that’s three books in progress at the same time, which isn’t really all that unusual for me. Also I had to add The Things They Carried for a class I’m taking, making that the third time I’ve had to read the book as an assigned text. O’Brien is fine with me, but could a professor assign In the Lake of the Woods instead? That would be great.