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If you really want to write a book, you're going to have to go through the revision stage anyway. It can take time to get the feel of what you're trying to do, so if the second half is better, go back and revise the first half. Happens all the time.

Flatland? Gulliver's Travels? Utopia?

"Wonderful" appears 25 times in the text of Ulysses. Anyway, the 1961 revision is adequate, and very easily available. I agree that the Gabler should be avoided. I have a copy of the 1932 edition published by Odyssey Press. I prefer it because it was corrected by Joyce and some people...

In real life, people don't usually make long speeches. Their listeners don't put up with it. In addition, long speeches in novels are traditionally used to dump a lot of information on the reader; but in real life, information comes out gradually. So, find ways to get information out...

It's such a specialized book, it can be hard to find exactly the right buyer who would be enthusiastic enough to pay a high price. Some people might be willing to buy it just because it's cool, but you want to reach out to the real aficionado. Some space exploration buffs can be quite...

Though I stand by my earlier post that writing should be work for the writer, not the reader, I will play devil's advocate for a moment. Here are some lines from the Gutenberg Bible, and the same lines from a much later edition: Notice that the first word, Cum, is missing the m, and has...

One word: Foucault.

Lip-syncing to the male voices in opera recordings. Never doing any real cooking. Ever. Reading when I should be doing just about anything else. The rest are not repeatable on an open forum.

Sous-Entendu, by Anne Stevenson Don't think that I don't know that as you talk to me the hand of your mind is inconspicuously taking off my stocking, moving in resourceful blindness up along my thigh. Don't think that I don't know that you know everything I say is a garment.

Two somewhat random suggestions: The Fifties, by Halberstam. The Book on the Bookshelf, by Petroski.

"Who Am I This Time?" by Vonnegut. "To Build a Fire," by London.

Even in the late 1990s, my high school history curriculum was so traditional that when I finally discovered Zinn's book I said, "Omigod, I have to unlearn everything."

Late afternoon. Whatever I need to get done for the day is usually over by then.

I take it, then, that people aren't in the habit of clicking on avatars to take a quick look at profiles. I do it with almost every post. They're helpful, and sometimes amusing.

I read novels much faster than nonfiction. With nonfiction, I'm always stopping to think, or check footnotes, or distract my poor husband with "Listen to this." But when I really get going, it's about 400 words a minute. I think anywhere from 150 to 300 pages is good for one sitting.

Mari Female 25

Heart of Darkness. Use the time you saved by not giving us the courtesy of spelling and punctuation to look up the author. Remember: The rules of writing are to make things easier for the reader, not the writer. You should do the work so we won't have to.

The real-life hotel manager who was the subject of the movie has written his version of events: An Ordinary Man, by Paul Rusesabagina. Here is a radio interview of him: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5324187

It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to...

Happy birthday!