Book Suggestion| The Ecstacy of Influence by Jonathan Lethem

I don't feel like I have the depth of knowledge to call this blog post a book review. So here is my suggestion for an excellent guide to filling out your reading list.  I am sure I picked out at least five books from his suggestions.  I want to thank him for all the insights he opens up for us to experience.  Jonathan Lethem shares his journey from a child thru a young adult book store clerk and on past middle age.  He has formed strong opinions about writing, critics, and using the work of others to build something new.  That last bit most profoundly for me,  At this point, I am just starting as a blog writer, so I do depend on sharing the work of others. His thoughts on using other people's work to make something new gets comical as he gives an in-depth chronology of where an idea came from.  All I can think of is the lineage of Jesus and the Begetting by so and so and back over oceans of time.

Who can say where an idea began?  The Begetting is hard to follow.  Let alone when an idea gets multiple starts across the world.  I agree with the author that I am all for sharing credit for where I get an idea.  I also feel good about building on what I see and read to find a way to understand it by making it my own.  By way of example of this idea, last week, we had the family in town for Thanksgiving.  We met them at Rincon County park for a beach day.  When I first arrived, a half dozen kids were rinsing off handfuls of shells they had picked up at low tide.  Those shells had a life previously as sea creatures.  Now, what will these shells become?  Shell begets souvenir, begets rock, and so on.  I hope that shell makes it back to the beach; a future mollusk is ready to grow into it.

This book is full of content from his previous work, including reviews and interviews conducted over the years. Although, it will stretch your vocabulary. I would suggest having a thesaurus app on standby.  Also, it is a long read. I took the jindo-dog for a month's worth of morning walks to finish it.