I read every night before I got to bed. Every night, even when I am sick, tired, or both. I am usually reading something from my Unread Library, but when I am not up for something new, I turn to favorite passages from a well-thumbed collection of books scattered around the house. A paragraph or two, sometimes more, that gave me pause. A paragraph or two, sometimes more, that made me think, cry, laugh, sigh, rejoice, gasp, cheer, cringe, and pull my hair out in frustration. A paragraph or two, sometimes more, that would make me feel small, and talentless, and insignificant if the joy I get from reading something amazing didn’t always supersede my ego. It always does.
I can’t begrudge an author their undeniable talent, not when it enriches my life so much. Instead, I want to celebrate it by taking those sentences and paragraphs that are too good to read once and share them with you. Along with the passages, I will include pictures, found or taken, that are literal or symbolic interpretations of the text. They are Compositions, a series about the best words, with pictures. A composition within a composition that, hopefully, will inspire you to pick up the original and read it for your own pleasure.
You can laugh; I know it’s kind of nerdy. But I’m still super excited. I don’t imagine my pictures will come close to doing any of the books justice, but it will be fun to try and good for building my photography skills, another goal I had for this year. I’ll be posting my first one soon, hopefully tomorrow if I get an okay from the publisher. I wrote it out over the summer and included my favorite pictures of me and the boys. Actually, some of the only pictures I have of me and the boys. (I need to work on that.) I only had the nerve to show Nicole and Tristan a couple of months ago around my birthday. Consensus: nerdy, but me. Then I decided to scrap the idea, for reasons I already mentioned yesterday.
Last week, when I found out I lost my pictures from last year, I realized those pictures of me and the boys were in the group that were gone. Devastation. Then, I remembered my post from over the summer and sure enough, there they were, hidden in my blog archives. My favorite words with my favorite pictures of us. I considered it a sign. To thine own self be true…even if thineself is a goofball.
oh, i cannot wait for this series! what a fabulous and original idea!
I think this sounds just lovely. Nerdy-schmerdy – if loving books makes you a nerd, then I think the whole WORLD should be nerds. And I don’t know how much work your photography skills need – I already want that 2nd picture above in your post framed and hanging on my wall!
fantastic idea! i look forward to reading the passages that you pick. and it sounds like you found yet another positive of having a blog…emergency picture storage backup. :) i enjoy reading what you write!
Oh! What a cool idea! Even more to look forward to “PaFF”
I am so exciting about this new series! I love to nerd out over good books/articles/anything cerebral. :)
Looking forward to the new series! If loving books is wrong I don’t want to be right!
I think this is a great idea! I love books, lyrics, poetry, any form of the written word, and I think this is a wonderful idea to celebrate it.
I love it. sigh.
I know this will be a fabulous, original, completely creative and inspiring series. I also believe a lot of us that read your smart and witty prose here have a bit of the nerd gene as well;)
Um, I love this idea. LOVE.
If I had a blog I’d totally steal it from you. ;)
Super excited! You know that most of us blog readers are real life readers too? At least, I’m pretty sure that’s the case. We’re all closeted (or not so closeted) nerds.
I would say so, and I would imagine most of the people here read more than the average bear.
Yay! I’m so glad I will be around such great company! :)
I’m so glad you’re finally moving forward with this! It’s going to be great.
I think this is a fantastic idea. I am very much looking forward to seeing your Compositions.
you are awesome
Did you hear that? That was me squeeing with delight over this series. I can’t wait!
That?s more than sesbnlie! That?s a great post!