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Thomas’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Thomas’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Thomas Allbaugh’s Followers (25)
865 books
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20 friends
182,190 books
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1,160 friends
277 books
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38 friends
808 books
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98 friends
2,502 books
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59 friends
1,167 books
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13 friends
649 books
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84 friends
1,705 books
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43 friends
More friends…
Thomas Allbaugh
Goodreads Author
Website
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Member Since
March 2011
URL
https://www.goodreads.com/tallbaugh
More books by Thomas Allbaugh…
For My Latest Blog
Friends, I’ve had technical difficulties over the last two years with keeping my website functional. Help is on the way. But till then, here is my latest Substack post–fyi. I hope you enjoy it. And subscribe, if you can.
Thomas’s Recent Updates
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Thomas
is on page 20 of 124 of Water, Water
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is on page 18 of 124 of Water, Water
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| The poems here move from old to new. They vary in form, type, and mood, they often rhyme and are always metrical, and they are provocatively arranged in sections titled "Mystery," Place," "Remembrance," "Imagination," "Songs," "Stories," and "Love." ...more | |
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| Emily Wilson's introduction and translation are wonderful. The language is highly readable and seems to render some of the cliches of the original. The world captured here is an ancient one that seems to be built around the value of xenia, or hospita ...more | |
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| The first section of this memoir concerned with the author's becoming sick and then struggling to overcome her illness is detailed and vivid. There is a strong story here of personal struggle and of the attempt to keep relationships alive through all ...more | |
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| This is a lively (almost said heady) brew, a great mix of evocative poems ("Map of the Lost Empire"), song lyrics, and a sequence of poems about a train to the land of the dead. There is also a very moving and rich "ballad" of the poet's great-grandf ...more | |
“I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do not read in the first place.”
― The Writing Life
― The Writing Life
“Now lend me your ears. Here is Creative Writing 101:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.”
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1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.”
―
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Marc, O'Connor and Cheever sound like an interesting combination. Saunders has a new book of short stories out that is great also.
This year I have been teaching lots of O'Connor and Cheever: I hope to continue this trend. I like George Saunders, so I had better read that book.
