24 April 2007

my favorite book

someday, when i am well-off and have a big house in the thick of the woods, i'll have a sitting room with fine furniture and a glowing fireplace. i'll entertain guests, watch dan clean his rifle collection, read in the sunshine, and keep a stack of these paperbacks in that butter-cream colored room. i will give them out one by one {accompanied with a Prismacolor pencil for the marking} tied up in silk ribbons to all our guests {for the keeping, along with the candies from the porcelain bowl on the oak hutch}. well i can dream, but for now i should tell you..

this book will change your life. pick it up. start reading. let the words introduce themselves {slowly begin to breathe them in} and let them settle inside you. you will be better for it. i landed upon this book three years ago and have ever since been praising the wonder within it's covers.



If You Want To Write, A book about art, independence and spirit by Brenda Ueland


"Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his true self and not the self he thinks he should be.. if you speak or write from yourself you cannot help being original.

By painting the sky, Van Gogh was really able to see it and adore it better than if he had just looked at it. In the same way (as I would tell my class), you will never know what your husband looks like unless you try to draw him, and you will never understand him unless you try to write his story.

..that creative power is in all of you if you give it just a little time; if you believe in it a little bit and watch it come quietly into you; if you do not keep it out by always hurrying and feeling guilty in those times when you should be lazy and happy. Or if you do not keep the creative power away by telling yourself that worst of lies - that you haven't any.

...remember always that the true self is never a fixed thing... Do not try to be consistent, for what is true to you today may not be true at all tomorrow, because you see a better truth.

...thousands and thousands of people, all people, have the same light in them, have their own creative power in them, if they would only come to see it, respect it and let it out."

- Excerpts by Brenda Ueland If You Want To Write

14 comments:

amreta said...

Beautiful book, great content...I think there's a little writer in each of us, and we need a book like this to guide this little writer to show up. Thanks for the beautiful post!

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful. Thanks.

rachel @ blackeiffel said...

Sounds like a great book - I want to read it - the excerpts were inspirational and lovely - thanks for posting.

Quelly said...

Wow --Your writing leading up to the picture of the book would have made me want to read my kitchen-aide warrantee. You sold me, I am going to add that book to my short list.

I hope you get that room of your dreams.

Travelin'Oma said...

Thanks to m.writes I read this book a while ago. It is inspiring, and made me feel unique and qualified to write. I second the motion.

katherine said...

Though I know you have many adoring readers, I feel as though this post was especially for me.

Thanks!

Regina said...

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Beautiful words- I need to read them...

Robin said...

That is really beautiful. I definitely want to read this book.

love.boxes said...

I want to be invited to the someday party. In the mean time, I will pick this up and read it. Thanks Marta. :)

I love to read the books that are still very meaningful to people even though years have passed, they still remember the passages. Mine is Gilead by Marilyn Robinson... "There are a thousand, thousand reasons to live this life, and every one is sufficient."

Anonymous said...

As a lapsed creative writer, this book sounds really wonderful and makes me want to try to draw in a way I haven't wanted to since I was a kid. That's a really special thing.

Anonymous said...

Just so you know, I read The Girl with a Pearl Earring at your request and I was completely spellbound! Loved every page. I just ordered 5 copies of this little beauty on Amazon! Love books like this, and your taste in great reads! Thanks :)

marta said...

i thought, hey if i love this book so much, you might too.

and yes, The Girl with a Pearl Earring is another favorite book that i could go on & on about. i love the descriptive details, so precise that you are in the scene yourself. (read it first, then see the movie with cutiepie Colin Firth.)

ali said...

I want!

ladyluck3819 said...

I found your blog by chance, looking for a photo of Audrey Hepburn.
You have a very nice blog and I hope your dreams can become true.

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