A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger
"Miss Carpenter. Please. I know my business," the young man said. "You just keep your eyes open for any bananafish. This is a perfect day for bananafish."
I was about ten years old (too young) when I read this for the first time. At that age I was accustomed to banal stories about clever grasshoppers and friendly bears.
I'm sure my jaw literally dropped when I got to the end-- but I also realized how powerful a story could be. I'll never forget that first time.
They're kind of vague on what they mean when they say "AI." Are they asking a chatbot for a synonym, or feeding it a prompt and sitting back while it creates a manuscript from whole cloth?
Either way, it's none of my business. There's no prize to be won, the gains are all personal. For the first in my life, my teacher's words ring true: "You're only cheating yourself."
They are both well written, and when I'm in the middle of either book I'm completely absorbed in its world. In that moment, I'm not thinking about realism at all.
It's only when I put the book down that questions like that come up.
Archy and Mehitabel
Archy and Mehitabel are two inimitable characters — a philosophical cockroach who types out free verse correspondence by dive-bombing the keys and an insouciant feline dancer out to take life for all it is worth, ever the lady and “toujours gai.” Created by Don Marquis and popularized in the New Yor...
The full text of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis has been made available by the University of Nebraska, HERE.
My wife reminded me that The Answer Is… Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek is really good, too.
Recommended Memoirs
Do you like books that make you laugh or books that make you cry? No matter your literary preferences, we bet there’s at least one memoir here that you’ll love.
PureWow.com has a nice list of recommended memoirs online HERE.
My list would have included pop star Moby's two books, Porcelain and Then It Fell Apart. The first was better than the second, but they're both well written.
Please add your own recommendations in the comments.
What Software / Apps Do You Guys Use?
I found a nice little freeware app for iOS. All it does is count syllables, but just having it on my phone reminds me that I can take a break and write a little haiku: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/haiku-poems-made-simple/id1227312972
I was wondering what apps and programs you guys use in your creative writing pursuits?
Typically your work belongs to the person who pays you for it. So it seems to me that if it's paid for by the public, then it's owned by the public.
I always check there first. I like it that they offer their books in several different formats, some that aren't available at Project Gutenberg.
I'd recommend The Bhagavad Gita. You don't have to be of the Hindu faith to get something out of it, it's enough just to see it as a different way to view things.
My favorite translation is by Ranchor Prime, because his version is organized into parables instead of a line-by-line analysis, but there is also a nice public domain version at Project Gutenberg, HERE.
The Delight of the Unexpected
I recently read Harold by Steven Wright, and I loved it. I enjoyed reading a book where I honestly could not predict what would happen in the next paragraph, yet it still coalesced into a coherent whole.
The only other author I know who could write like that was Richard Brautigan, and I was hoping the community could recommend some other authors to try.