I am happily in the middle of reading several books right now. In one book in particular, I am making extremely slow progress. This is because I come across a thought every few pages that gets me contemplating my approach to my own creative pursuits. The book I am referring to is the 25th anniversary edition of The Gift by Lewis Hyde.
I knew nothing about this book or its cult following when I bought it. I was simply shopping for a gift certificate Christmas present in my local independent bookstore in December when, as usual, I found myself drawn to the table of new paperbacks. It is very difficult for me to resist the urge to buy a book in a good bookstore. For this reason, Strand bookstore in New York is a dangerously tempting place for me to enter.
I think it's too early in my reading of The Gift to give a thorough review of it, so for now I will say that I am intermittently enjoying it greatly and will provide a link to some other folks' thoughts on the book:
Re-Gifting by Dwight Garner in the New York Times Online
Why did I pick up this book and buy it, with no prior knowledge of its existence? I couldn't resist the praise on its cover, including Margaret Atwood's assessment that The Gift is "The best book I know of for talented but unacknowledged creators. A masterpiece."
(p.s.: My apologies for the lack of proper italics in this post - I am having difficulties with my Safari browser.)
2 comments:
I'd never heard of it, either... but I went onto the amazon page and see it's also endorsed by David Foster Wallace, and Jonathan Lethem (whose book of essays 'the disappointment artist' I'm currently reading). Should I get it? I think I'm going to get it.
Thanks for the tip!
I've hit kind of a road block with it...so now I am skipping around...there's good stuff here and there, and maybe the trick is not to force yourself to read it straight through.
I also picked it up for the Jonathan Lethem endorsement! I had read Motherless Brooklyn years ago, and I am also, funnily enough, in the middle of The Disappointment Artist now...weird...
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