The Inspiration List

I have a stack of books at home that I checked out from the library and I need to get to.

I'm trying to feed myself a healthy diet of good inspiration.

Here's what's on my desk these days:

The Fosse Biography - It's over 500 pages, I think.  I shouldn't balk at that.  I read The Circle by Dave Eggers a few months ago and raced through it.  It was terrific.  And I think the bio on Fosse should be fantastic.  I just need to get to it.  I have checked it out of the library for a second time.  I have a bio on Robert Altman that I've read several times and I love.  Fosse's also a character who I need to be familiar with as I work on research for this advertising play I'll be working on at some point.

Sam Shephard: Seven Plays - I've read a few of his plays.  I think he's a brilliant playwright and I remember he was one of the few contemporary American playwrights my mentor gave me to read when I was in college.  I don't think I've read enough of his work.  So this collection, which seemed unopened at my Mom's local library, is worth my time and I don't think that anyone will be looking for it as I try and make my way through it.

Shirley MacLaine wrote a new book called What If - This is a book that I can skip through and read bits and pieces of.  It's not demanding, but probably full of insight.  So I'll read what I want to and then return it back to the library.  I like hearing what women in their 70s have to say.  There's a story there.

William Blake: The Complete Poems - I also checked this out from the library to read the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience for this play that I just finished.  That play actually has a lot to do with Experience and Innocence structurally.  And there are things that are repeated from the different vantage points of Innocence and Experience, even though in my play we go from Experience to Innocence.  So it's more of a touch stone and an idea that is similar rather than something I need to adapt or redraft.  I'll be returning this to the library on my next visit.  But literary inspiration is always a good thing, whether or not it actually inspires something.  People like to know when you're thinking.

Tom Stoppard - I think I checked out both Travesties and The Invention of Love, two plays I haven't read.  I have read Arcadia and Rosencranz and Gildenstern Are Dead.  I might have read other plays of his.  Oh, I read The Real Thing.  So I wanted to read more and those are the two plays of his that were at this library.

I have a lot to read.  I also have a few other books I bought a little while ago.  There's a lot of reading to do.  And it seems that I always find an excuse to get on Facebook, Twitter, Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, Deadline or any number of websites.  I am in a constantly search to take in more and more information.

I am grateful that I am not stopping.
I am grateful that having all of these things to read has translated in a lot of projects I want to work on.
I am grateful to be in a constantly flow of inspiration.
I am grateful that my brain is working.
I am grateful that I am hungry for knowledge.