William Zinsser:

Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.

From the archive:

Rare is the book that causes one to consider -- ponder? appraise? examine? inspect? contemplate? -- one's every word.

Simple & Direct, a classic text on the craft of writing by the educator Jacques Barzun, does so -- with style.

On Writing Well

David Denby on the Oscars.

... a disorderly exploitation of disorder, a kind of visual salad of glowing rotten fruit, constantly tossed ...

Curious Cases

Susan Reynolds on the author of Elsewhere, USA:

Conley is riddled with nostalgia for his grandparents' lifestyle.

Reynolds asks:

When did managing "data streams" replace good, old-fashioned conversation at the dinner table?

'Elsewhere U.S.A.' by Dalton Conley

Lorrie Moore, on Updike:

And his nonfiction! Even when his essays included a harsh criticism, he politely coiled it, tucked it inside, part snake, part rose, and the reader would feel the bite sprung silkily only at the end — in a balletic allegiance to both generosity and candor. Self-knowledge and self-forgiveness bestowed their own empiricism: he knew too what it was to create weak art.

Moore's Self-Help, by the way, is great.

The Complete Updike

Verlyn Klinkenborg:

I like Updike’s nonfiction best, especially the volumes of criticism that added up like sand in a river delta. Reading those books, you never know what you’re going to find. The reason is this: No matter what Updike’s books accomplished, he was, above all, a maker of sentences, one of the very best. You can read him for his books, but it’s better to read him for his sentences, any one of which — anywhere — can rise up to startle you with its wry perfection.

Appreciation: John Updike

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Muspy

Virginia Heffernan:

I’m not sure he’s developing an appreciation for books. But he is learning how to enrich his solitude, and that is one of the most intensely pleasurable aspects of literacy.

From last year's best-of:

One of the greatest compliments I have ever given anyone I dated is that being with him was like being alone.

Recently, Robert Darnton:

How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? Would we not prefer a world in which an immense corpus of digitized books is accessible, even at a high price, to one in which it did not exist?

Last year, Alberto Manguel:

For the last seven years, I’ve lived in an old stone presbytery in France, south of the Loire Valley, in a village of fewer than 10 houses. I chose the place because next to the 15th-century house itself was a barn, partly torn down centuries ago, large enough to accommodate my library of some 30,000 books, assembled over six itinerant decades. I knew that once the books found their place, I would find mine.

Click and Jane

As recommended by Roy Blount, Jr.

This off-the-wall feature about legendary Nashville record producer/performer/artist Cowboy Jack Clement tells the story of his amazing career via home movies featuring longtime friends Bono, Johnny Cash, Jack Clement, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dolly Parton, John Prine, Porter Wagoner, Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville, Dylan Robertson, and Brenna Sanchez.

Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement's Home Movies

Roy Blount, Jr. writes:

Whenever I hear a new hit song these days I wonder, is anybody getting any simple pleasure, or pain, out of life? Everything’s jacked up to a level of ecstasy or outrage people couldn’t live with if they knew what they were feeling. In country music, it used to be that the performers’ hair was unreal but their songs were down to earth. Now their hair looks more or less natural but their songs are bouffant wigs.

From last year, a thread about Blount's latest book:

After forty years of making a living using words in every medium, print or electronic, except greeting cards, Roy Blount Jr. still can’t get over his ABCs. In Alphabet Juice, he celebrates the juju, the sonic and kinetic energies of letters and their combinations. Blount does not prescribe proper English. The franchise he claims is “over the counter” and concentrates more on questions such as these: Did you know that both mammal and matter derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you wince?

Back to Blount on Cowboy Jack Clement:

Maybe the Recession will bring us back to basics. “Whatever may be wrong with the world,” Clement has said, “at least it has some good things to eat.”

Recently, Tim wrote:

In my attempt to find some meaning in life I've taken to reading lots of food blogs.

Calvin Trillin:

It has become possible to eat in Singapore for days at a time without ever entering a conventional restaurant.

Tim again:

Calvin Trillin is a food writing god.

Jack, Johnny, and something only pigs can do

These two ladies have everything under control.

See also, Nick Burns:

"I can't get this stupid email attachment to open at all."

Nick: "It's the email that's stupid, not you, right?"

Fran & Freba