Wine, the most delightful of drinks, whether we owe it to Noah, who planted the vine, or to Bacchus, who pressed juice from the grape, goes back to the childhood of the world. — Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), French lawyer, politician and author of The Physiology of Taste.
With BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™ off to a bright start, pairing quality wines with quality books, I find myself reflecting on the place of wine in literature. As far back as antiquity, wine is referenced on clay tablets and papyrus, even before the invention of paper or digital books. Clearly, wine’s potency is not limited to its level of alcohol. Whether part of the action, used as an adjective or offered as a metaphor for something else – success, romantic intoxication, life itself – wine and literature always pair well together. Fortunately for us, a wealth of literature over the centuries was made more interesting and enjoyable for the wine we read about as well as the wine we drink. See how many of these you know:
Frolic Wine — Anacreon Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon — Li Po The Soul of Wine — Charles Baudelaire I Bring an Unaccustomed Wine — Emily Dickinson Ulysses — James Joyce A Moveable Feast — Ernest Hemingway Ode to Wine — Pablo Neruda Taste — Roald Dahl A Long Finish – Michael Dibdin A Debt to Pleasure — John Lanchester
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Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read. ― Francis Bacon
I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines. ― Oliver Goldsmith
Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know. ― John Keats
“Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing. ― Ernest Hemingway
Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle. ― Paulo Coelho
E.L. Doctorow, master of the historical novel who mixed fact and fiction to bring history to life, died at age 84 earlier this month. Reading announcements of his passing, I learned something very interesting about the author of such mammoth best sellers as The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1975), Billy Bathgate (1989) and The March (2005). Doctorow said he never plotted out his novels in advance. “It’s like driving a car at night,” he said of writing. “You can never see further than your headlights, but you make the whole trip that way.”
In other words, Doctorow, acclaimed for historical novels that relied so heavily on facts, was a highly intuitive writer. I, too, am an intuitive writer. Despite being advised in workshops and through articles how important it is to prepare an outline before starting a long story, any skeleton I try to build collapses under the weight of characters and events as they are fleshed out. The phenomenon of characters coming alive for an author and taking off in unexpected directions is not uncommon. I hear that from writers all the time and it mirrors my experiences.
Doctorow’s words are very comforting for writers like me. It proves that lectures, workshops and tutorials about the writing craft are like shoes at a shoe shop. You will be offered many. Like seeking a good pair of shoes, you should try on different ideas and suggestions to see which ones fit best because the path from the idea of a book to the finished work is long and challenging. You never really know where the path will lead, “but you make the whole trip that way.”
Shared wisdom from the master of the historical novel, E. L. Doctorow:
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.
Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.
Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
When you’re writing a book, you don’t really think about it critically. You don’t want to know too well what you’re doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it. The book is constructed as a conversation, with someone doing most of the talking and someone doing most of the listening.
A physical book is great technology if you think about it. Once it’s produced it doesn’t use up any energy, and if you take decent care of it, it will last forever. That’s a considerable technological achievement.
A book is not complete until it’s read. The reader’s mind flows through sentences as through a circuit – it illuminates them and brings them to life.
My darling daughter’s birthday is in August. A lot of my relatives and friends have August birthdays. My curiosity about this apparent birthday boom led me to research which months are most popular for birthdays; they are September, August and July, in that order. Actually, once you do the math, it’s really about which months are most popular for baby making. Not surprisingly, winter weather and holidays lend themselves to cozying up with someone and letting nature take its course.
This blog post is about “b”s. Not about the bird and the bees, but about birthdays. Birthdays are such potent symbols in our lives, for good or ill, for celebration or sadness. Birthdays represent, in a single day, the connection between yesterday and tomorrow. Farewell and hello. What a great source of inspiration for memorable literature. Here is a list of books where a birthday lays the groundwork or becomes the catalyst for a great story:
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins The Three Sisters – Anton Chekhov The Fellowship of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien The Birthday Party – Harold Pinter Wise Children – Angela Carter Atonement – Ian McEwan Bel Canto – Ann Patchett The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst
Want to treat a child to a good birthday-themed book? Consider one of these:
A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond Happy Birthday, Moon – Frank Asch Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday – Mélanie Watt Mr. Badger and the Big Surprise – Leigh Hobbs The Secret Birthday Message – Eric Carle
For those of you reading this on your birthday, Happy Birthday. And to the rest, a very Happy Un-Birthday!
BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™ is delighted to welcome NY Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster to a book signing and wine tasting at TASTE Food & Wine, 1506 W. Jarvis Avenue, Chicago, from 5-8 p.m. on August 20th to celebrate her newest book, The Best of Enemies, published by NAL on August 4, 2015.
Jen’s books, including Bitter is the New Black, The Tao of Martha and I Regret Nothing, received rave reviews from The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, InStyle and many more.
The Best of Enemies is told from the alternating perspectives of two women who define the term “frenemies”. It is a story of friendship, rivalry, road trips, and the glue that holds it all together—a mutual friend. Books will be available for purchase and signing. On-site book sales will be handled by The Book Cellar.
Reflecting the road trip aspect of The Best of Enemies, the wines to be featured are quality bi-coastal selections: “a voluptuous California chardonnay and a scintillating New York riesling,” announced wine maven Phoebe Snowe, owner of TASTE Food & Wine. Both selections, and others, will be available for sale.
Click on video to see the cute promo video introducing BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™.
I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth. — Ovid
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. – William Shakespeare
God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well. — Voltaire
The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been. – Madeleine L’Engle
Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! — Dr. Seuss
What does summer bring to mind for you? What does it look and feel like? How does it smell and taste? What changes from the other seasons does it provoke in you and others? How would you convey those thoughts and feelings to someone who never shared your experience? How would you bring the season to life that would make others experience summer in a new way? Here’s a list of books that successfully use summer as a setting, a catalyst, a symbol or even a character:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee The Dangerous Summer – Ernest Hemingway Summer Sisters – Judy Blume Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver Atonement – Ian McEwan Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann
Find a sunny beach, a shade tree, a crisp mountaintop or a soft meadow; any place that speaks of summer to you. Take along a great summer book and experience the season anew.
For many readers, summer books should be selected like summer wines: light, bright, crisp, and refreshing. And fun, fun, fun! One author delivers this time and again: NY Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster. Her books include Bitter is the New Black, The Tao of Martha and I Regret Nothing, which received rave reviews from The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, InStyle and many more.
BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™ is delighted to welcome Jen to a book signing and wine tasting at TASTE Food & Wine, 1506 W. Jarvis Avenue, Chicago, from 5-8 p.m. on August 20th to celebrate her newest book, The Best of Enemies, published by NAL on August 4, 2015.
The Best of Enemies is told from the alternating perspectives of two women who define the term “frenemies”. It is a story of friendship, rivalry, road trips, and the glue that holds it all together—a mutual friend. Books will be available for purchase and signing. On-site book sales will be handled by The Book Cellar.
Reflecting the road trip aspect of The Best of Enemies, the wines to be featured are quality bi-coastal selections: “a voluptuous California chardonnay and a scintillating New York riesling,” announced wine maven Phoebe Snowe, owner of TASTE Food & Wine. Both selections, and others, will be available for sale.
I came thisclose to disaster last year while compiling the photo images to be used in Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power. After selecting images from Romina Power’s collection that best carried her memoir forward, expediency required pulling several of the images from the internet where they had migrated over the years.
All of the photos looked perfectly fine to me on my computer screen. As I got ready to provide them to the print production people, one of my tech people caught me just in time and asked, “Have you checked the resolution of these photos?”
“What do you mean, ‘resolution’?” I asked. “They look fine to me.” Uh-oh! Had I not been pulled back from the brink, the handsome collector’s quality limited first edition of this very special book would have been a disaster!
When you go from screen to print, funny things happen. Here’s what I learned — and what you need to know, if you plan to print photo images from digital images you see on the internet or are provided to you: Resolution, printing capabilities, moiré and even paper quality can enhance or disgrace your book. Be prepared!
Pixels (short for picture elements) are tiny dots that make the digital photo images you see on your computer screen. Most monitors have hundreds of thousands, or often millions, of pixels.
Resolution refers to the number of pixels per inch (PPI) in a digital photo. The PPI is noted as one number and yields the image pixel height and width, e.g. for a 5″ by 7″ photo with a PPI of 300 yields an image of 1,500 pixels by 2,100 pixels. Images found on the internet typically have a PPI of 72, resulting in poor print quality. Generally, the higher the PPI the better the reproduction print quality.
The quality of an image also depends on the printer. DPI (dots per inch) refers to the resolution printers produce on paper. Higher quality printers mean higher production costs but they are worth the investment if your book includes photos. Rather than try to figure the mathematical formula that you need for your photo images, ask to see samples of print work before you choose your book’s publisher. Your eyes will likely tell you what is acceptable.
Another potential problem is moiré, an effect that looks like wavy stripes or a crisscross pattern. It can occur during photography or during printing. It can be avoided during photography by using certain lenses but if it appears when printed, there is a Photoshop technique that can correct it – if it is caught in time.
Paper quality affects not only the life of a book but the quality of its photos. Increasingly, publishers are producing books on groundwood, once used primarily for throwaway publications like newspapers and advertisements. Although the cost of paper constitutes only 3% of a book’s cost, it has become a popular way for publishers to shave expenses and remain competitive. For a more enduring book, one with crisper photos, use archival paper. If the book’s photos are important, consider using glossy paper instead of more porous matte sheets where spreading ink will decrease clarity.
Whether your book is self-published or published traditionally, it is your baby. Bring it up well.
My tech team carefully reviewed each of the approximately 90 photos in Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power. They photoshopped when necessary (it was often necessary) to enhance the crispness of the images and to remove moiré wherever it showed up. We went the extra step of having the photos presented in three sections on glossy paper. The result was that many of the photos that had appeared in the bestselling 1998 Italian edition of the book look even better in the 2014 centennial edition. For more information about Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power, contact Tyrone Power First Edition.
If you missed the wonderful launch of BOOKS ‘n’ BOTTLES™ last month, you have another chance to be part of the fun on Thursday, August 20th, when we host NY Times best-selling author Jen Lancaster and feature her hilarious new book, The Best of Enemies. The fun begins at 5 p.m. at TASTE Food & Wine, 1506 West Jarvis, Chicago. Another delicious tasting will pair fascinating wines with elements of the featured book and author. Reservations are not necessary. Cheers!
