2/4/08

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Short Works by Mark Twain
I just finished reading the short story Esquimau Maiden's Romance which was much shorter than the title short story The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg. My suspicion is that esquimau means eskimo. Anyway, the story is about an eskimo maiden who is rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams--her father is as rich as Vanderbilt because he has over 20 fishhooks. When she introduces her love to her family, her father starts showing off his wealth, displaying all the fine fishhooks for him to see. That night it is discovered that one of the hooks is missing and the young man is accused of theft.

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing
This is probably the shortest adult book I'll ever read. One of my favorite pieces of advice is to not write the parts that readers are just going to skip.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

for the mark twain book is it from your library? sounds interesting.

shave ice said...

It's a book I picked out 2 Christmases ago using a gift certificate to Citylights in SF :o)