Eighteen Writers

On March 18 we recorded an episode about the Battle of the Books kickoff and our interview with Ira Marcks (Episode #18, Battle of the Books Kickoff is now available on our website and where you get your podcasts.) When we sat down in the recording studio, it wasn’t clear that we were going to record the Marcks episode; we had several possibilities in our minds.

We started talking about those possibilities, and then Lory said that she woke up that morning with another idea. “What if we talked about a list of eighteen books or eighteen writers?”

We did the Marcks episode, but continued talking about the idea of a list. The conversation moved toward writers rather than books, and we pretty much committed ourselves to doing it. A list of writers – Is this a recommended list, a list of our favorites, a list we admire, something else?

We don’t have answers yet, but I’ve been thinking. That happens regularly. Lory has ideas, and I start thinking about things.

I looked at my lists of books that I’ve read each year since 2002. I have older lists, but I’m not sure where they are right now. It was fun and exciting reading those lists. And, they got me thinking even more. I put together a long list of writers. I didn’t try to sort them or prioritize them, but ideas were rolling through my mind. What should it take to get on the list? I was kind of thinking that I had to have read at least two books by an author to get them in, but there are writers I haven’t read that I know I want to. Should they be in the mix? Should we group writers? Are there multiple lists?

Other ideas popped up. Looking at reading patterns, seeing writers I returned to frequently, looking at dominoes or one thing leading to another, all got me thinking about different ways of talking about reading.

I don’t know where this is all going, but I know it has me thinking. More to come.