Mostly Anecdotal

It began listening to NPR’s “Talk of the Nation”, the day’s guest was Francine Prose author of “Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them.” I headed for the bookstore but by the time I arrived I’d forgotten the title. The author’s name too, had slipped away.

“I don’t know the author’s name,” I said, “but the book is a new one on writing, something like if you can read you can write. I’ve already looked in the section on writing; I didn’t find it.”

“Right,” he said.

“I remember. I’m pretty sure the title is if ‘You Can Read You Can Write’, “I said.

He spoke the title as he typed it into his computer, nothing.

“Hmm, I’m certain that I typed it correctly,” he said.

I was leaning across the desk watching the screen as he typed. He spoke the words again, more slowly this time and typed, “If You Can Read You Can Write,” the same list of books appeared on his screen. He was disappointed. He tried a few other search terms with no luck.

“I heard about it on NPR,” I said.

He lighted up. He punched a few keys, and a list of NPR programs appeared.

“What program was it,” he said, foreseeing a quick resolution to my question.

“Talk of the Nation,” I said.

“All Things Considered,” “Diane Rehms,” he scanned the list; his smile vanished. “No ‘Talk of the Nation’,” he said.

I tried to help, “well maybe they discussed it on Diane Rehms,” I said. He checked, his smile did not return.

He sighed, his fingers still hovering over the keys. He wouldn’t would he? He typed, If you can read, but you could see his heart wasn’t in it.

“Just a guess,” I said, “but if you type that again you’ll get the same result,” undeterred, he finished and the computer dutifully spit out the same list as before. He started to type again. If you can write you can, but stopped and turned to me.

“Do you know the author?” he said.

“No,” I said.

“I suppose I’ll have to look it up on the Internet when I get home,” I said.

“Good idea,” he said, “then you can call me and I can order it for you. We can have it here in four days.”

“Right,” I said.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.