Box 101 (Continued)

Here are some of the other books stored in Box 101.

THE GREAT GAME: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (1982), by Peter Hopkirk. This is Wilhelm’s book. I wonder how it made its way into Box 101. Maybe I should put it on the shelf in my library and read it when I finish DUST OF EMPIRE.

THERE IS NO ZOO IN ZOOLOGY: and Other Beastly Mispronunciations (1988), by Charles Harrington Elster. The author dictates the preferred pronunciation for words from accoutrement, through banal, formidable, mauve, and traverse, to (of course) zoology.

THE WRITING LIFE (1989), by Annie Dillard. I like Dillard’s lucid style.

WRITING IN GENERAL AND THE SHORT STORY IN PARTICULAR: An Informal Textbook (1977), by Rust Hills. This book is intended to guide the writer as he pens the Great American Novel. But I like it because it guides the reader as she tries to remember all the things to keep in mind when doing a close reading of fiction. There are many short chapters with titles like these: “Fixed Action vs Moving Action,” “Epiphany as a Literary Term,” “Foreshadowing and Suspense,” “Motivation,” “Pattern in Plot,” and “The Focusing Power of Point of View.” An excellent little book.