"Write now is good."

Books and their places

My favorite books of childhood, "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis and any Nancy Drew mystery, left such an indelible impression on me, that I can remember exactly where I was when I read most of them. That's why the idea behind "Field-Tested Books," a new book by Coudal Partners featuring more than 50 authors and their essays, resonates so strongly with me. From the introduction by Jim Coudal:

We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it.

We’ve been trying for over six years now, and frankly, we’re not getting any closer to a definitive answer. We know, without a doubt, that book and place do affect each other, and that they are bound as a single experience in our memories...

My memories quickly surfaced as I thought of books I've read, how old I was, where I was. Certain books— their stories, themes and characters—became so important to me at different points in my life. I felt inspired to write an essay based on the "Field-Tested Books" idea. Then I read this:

We’re also interested in more stories about a “certain book read in a certain place.” Email us here with 300-500 words about a book you read somewhere. We’ll select some for publication in our growing collection and send those authors a copy of The Field-Tested Books Book and some other stuff too...

This is the third volume of "Field-Tested Books," and there will be another one in the near futures (which looks like 2-3 years based on these editions' timeframe).

Which books do you associate strongly with a place? If you'd like a writing assignment, take on Jim Coudal's offer and write a 300-500 word piece about one. If you write one and post it to your blog, come back and leave a link, and I'll feature all in an upcoming post.

Yes, I'll be writing one, too. Now if I can just narrow down my book choice.

You may purchase "FTB" here. (Found via Swissmiss)

UPDATE: Rachel Levy at The Slow-Cooked Sentence has posted her essay about Jane Eyre. Definitely click over for a read!

Writing tips for travelers

Photo: suitcase collection by Supercapacity

Travel provides fertile ground for the writer's mind. It breaks our outmoded patterns, creates new movement within, and offers fun and adventure. Follow these tips if you want to maximize travel's effects on your wordiness:

1. Designate a notebook solely for your trip. Treat it as your own travel guide in the making.

2. Write freely and often.

3. Observe. Look. Listen. Get your eyes out of the guide books; focus on what you see and what you are experiencing. Treasure your own takes on your travel.

4. Listen to your subconscious. Do you find yourself writing down things that don't make sense? Is your written voice taking on a different tone? Unfamiliar parts of your creative mind are waking up — welcome this change.

5. Preserve the details. Write down back routes you've followed, places you've stayed, people you've met, what you've eaten, ways you've gotten "un-lost". As your trip memories lose their freshness, you'll be glad that you've recorded so much, to inspire future writing, to give travel recommendations, and to plan more trips.

6. Invite others to write. If you're traveling with friends, pass your notebook around regularly and let travel companions write you a message and record their own trip observations. Encourage their own travel journaling, and write in their notebooks. You'll love looking back on these shared scribblings when the trip is over.

7. Write home, even to yourself. I'm a prolific postcard writer when I travel. My family and friends can always count on a getting a quick jot from me from somewhere along the route. Drop a couple of postcards to your own address. You'll have the stamp and postmark as souvenirs; these are fun to add to your travel journal when you get home. They also provide frozen snapshots of you (and your imagination...) at different points along the trip — priceless.

What are your tips?

Mysterious, travelling postcards

This map tracks the postcards currently in transit for the Postcrossing project.

If you'd like to receive a postcard from a random place on earth, sign up. It's easy to participate:

1. register to get a login
2. obtain an address and a postcard ID
3. mail the postcard
4. wait to receive a postcard from another postcrosser
5. register the postcard ID of the card you have received
6. go to 2

There's no cost to play (except for the postcard and postage fees), and more than 500,000 postcards have been registered in the project as having been sent and received.

I love thinking about all the stories behind these postcards.

Found at Moleskinerie.

Cloud appreciation: What a storm chaser sees

The site Extreme Instability is the photographic diary of a professional storm chaser.

As a proud, card-carrying member of The Cloud Appreciation Society, I marvel at what he's captured. The above image is taken from a recent series he shot of a supercell storm above Bucklin, Kansas, U.S.

The site features video and a moment-to-moment journal of his many storm-chasing experiences. This guy has gotten quite close to a multitude of tornadoes — if you've never experienced one first-hand, the site's images and stories will replicate how terrifying it is for you.

UPDATE: Mike Hollingshead of Extreme Instability is working on a book with another storm chaser. Mike states: "It should be out by mid-summer (wild guess). It's mostly just a photography book, with some text. It's through Thames and Hudson in London."

Google Books' map function — wow.

Do you know about Google Books? It's in beta, but it already does something that no online other book search function does:

It provides an interactive map of ALL places mentioned in the book.

How many places are mentioned in "Around the World in 80 Days"? This map will show you (see image above).

Where does the action take place in "War and Peace"? From looking at its map, all over Europe and into the Middle East.

The adventures in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"? They take place in a much more global sense than I'd remembered.

Here's how to find these illuminating maps using Google Books:

1. Go to Google Books.
2. Type the book's title in the "Search books" field.
3. Click on which version of the book you want from the list that Google Books provides.
4. On the right-hand side of the page, there will be a "Summary" of the book. Underneath the shortened summary is a link for "More about this book". Click on the "More about this book" link.
5. On the book's summary page, you'll find:

- Selected pages
- Related books
- References from other books
- References from scholarly works
- Key terms, and
* Places mentioned in the book

6. Gaze in wonder at the map. Bonus: If you click on any of the red Google map pinpoints, a dialog window will appear which tells you what page (and sometimes a quotation from the passage) in the book this precise place is mentioned.

Type in a few favorite book titles, and see what you get.

Now if Google figures out how to produce these maps for science fiction and fantasy books, I will be beyond impressed.

Found via NOTCOT.

Note: I tried to find "Siddharta" by Herman Hesse, but it was not part of Google's database, though it did provide a link for me to find it in other libraries. Perhaps this is why it's in beta — they're still working to complete the book database.