I don't get to listen to nearly as much NPR as I used to so I download the podcast for NPR Books to catch up on all of their bookish news. Which probably isn't news any more by the time I listen to it but it's still interesting. Periodically I do have to go through and delete some of them or the sheer number of podcasts I have to listen to overwhelms me but I make sure to keep those that are about books I've read, books I'm interested in reading, or award discussions. Many of them are no more than 4-10 mins which means I can knock off quite a few in one day, especially an errand day, like yesterday, which means a lot of time in the car. It also means I have to spend a lot of time moving from one episode to another which might be a little dangerous for the drivers around me. Sorry, guys!
I'm in the midst of listening to a Terri Gross interview of Mary Karr. Karr has written a new book about writing memoirs (she has written three and teaches a course about writing memoir). Karr has me both fired up to try my hand at it. I think of my life as quite ordinary most of the time but everyone has their own trials and adventures and my life is no exception.
With National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) coming up, I've been thinking a lot about writing lately. Every November I think I'll give NaNoWriMo a shot and then every November I remember that there is already so much going on during the month. I have no idea where I would find that kind of time. With two kids back home there is more cooking to be done, more laundry to be done, more interruptions in my day. And there are books to read and the holidays to get ready for. Still...I have always wanted to be a writer and there are all of these ideas percolating in my head. Maybe everyone on my shopping list will just get a first draft of my first novel for Christmas. Hmmm. This could work!
If you're a podcast listener, what's your favorite bookish podcast that I should add to my playlist?
I love NPR but rarely listen since I now have a home office and so don't have the 40-min commute each way that I used to have. Downloading podcasts is a great idea--I've been listening to audio books on my morning walks lately, but podcasts would be a nice way to get some news in my day.
ReplyDeleteI definitely want to read Circling the Sun, and Terry Gross is such a marvelous interviewer that anybody she talks to sounds interesting!
Maybe you should pick a less busy month than Nov and do your own NaNoWriMo. Frankly, that level of commitment scares me. Even when I used to carve out time to write fiction myself, I could never commit to that level of writing. If you have ideas percolating, I would urge you to find a way to start capturing them--believe me, use it or lose it seems to be the way story ideas work, at least for me.
I keep going back and forth between podcasts. Sometimes, I listen to a few for a few weeks, and then I just stop listening and go back to audiobooks.
ReplyDeleteI would love to do NaNoWriMo this time because I actually have a couple of ideas I want to try out. But of course, this happens when I just had a baby.