Books Begin from the Simplest Things

 

E.L. Doctorow wrote books that could be described as many things, but seldom as simple. Yet he was the first to admit that the ideas for his novels could often be seeded from the simplest of things.

“An image, sound, idea,” he elaborated when I met him at a book festival years ago. “You explore it and see where it goes. It’s not a rational thing, to write a book.”

He wrote City of God, for example, when he saw the image of a cross on the top of a synagogue.

“A novel, among other things, is a mixture of opinions.” Doctorow is an expert at mixing those opinions in an interesting way

Check out Doctorow’s City of God on Goodreads here.

Celebrate Books Capitol Style

The National Book Festival in Washington DC is early this year! This weekend, join lit lovers from across the nation on the National Mall for the 2014 Library of Congress National Book Festival. The celebration takes place on this Friday, August 29.

Featured authors and poets include E.L. Doctorow, Claire Messud, Alice McDermott, Lisa See, Billy Collins, and Baltimore’s own Elisabeth Dahl, a previous featured author at the Lit and Art Reading Series.  

This year there are even special evening events on movie adaptations, poetry, graphic novels, and Mexican literary legends.

Learn more and get the full schedule at the Library of Congress website.

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest