Approximately five minutes ago I crossed the finish line in my novel writing project. As of 2:40 this afternoon, the final word tally is 50,173. How does it feel? Wonderful! Wonderful that I actually did it. Wonderful that it’s over.

 … finish reading Crossing the Finish Line

Out of curiosity, I checked to see how many blogs I’d written in 2009. Only ninety-eight, including this one. That’s an average of one every three or four days, certainly down from when I started over five years ago.

For

 … finish reading Writing a Novel

So how did I spend part of my weekend? I got hooked on a Nicholas Sparks’ novel and read its entire 211 pages cover to cover in a couple sittings. Not that this is hard to do. Sparks is a

 … finish reading Nicholas Sparks

I was in our local independent bookstore when The Reader caught my eye. I’d read the novel when it first came out, and it impressed me. But somewhere along the corridor of time between that first reading and now, I

 … finish reading The Reader

Yesterday was a partial travel day, as I returned from NYC to my own office in Michigan. To pass the time between airline flights in various airports, I bought both Time magazine and Newsweek. I had a book with me,

 … finish reading Time

Earl and his cronies email back and forth a lot, mostly with jokes or political humor or support for the NRA. I’ve asked him to filter what he forwards to me, as I don’t believe recycled jokes or partisan politics

 … finish reading Word Play

I’m not really into nonfiction. Contemporary, often discardable, novels are more my genre for pleasure reading. However, I recently had the occasion to read two nonfiction books back to back. They were The Open Road: The Global Journey of the

 … finish reading Nonfiction

News coverage — whether it be print media, television, or the Internet — is filled with lists. There are the ten top grossing movies, the one hundred best places to live, the dozen unspoiled vacation spots, the thirty best universities

 … finish reading Lists