Comments on: Literary Lies: The Five Things You Really Mean When You Say “It’s On My List”

By: 10 Non-Fatalistic, Real-Life Tips for Freelance Writers « Alaina Mabaso's Blog

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 03:19:45 +0000

[...] Literary Lies: The Five Things You Really Mean When You Say, “It’s On My List” [...]

By: Alaina Mabaso

Alaina Mabaso — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 17:03:53 +0000

Fabulous.

At this point I am planning never to retire, partly because I can’t imagine giving up writing, and partly because I don’t see how I can ever save up enough money to quit working for the last twenty years of my life or so.

Good luck with W&P. I’ve never read it either.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:34:24 +0000

No. 4 accurately describes my estranged relationship with Tolstoy’s “War & Peace”. Only instead of the phrase ‘It’s on my list’ I’ve opted for the much more time-friendly ‘I’m saving it for my retirement’. At least then when I do reach that age most of the people I’ve said that to will have forgotten by that point…

By: Alaina Mabaso

Alaina Mabaso — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 03:30:44 +0000

Yes – I always say that I never really learned anything about English grammar until I learned Latin. So it could be that your Spanish and Portuguese adventures have improved your English grammar – or just that you’re a smart dude who knows his way around punctuation.

By: Bron

Bron — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 01:27:00 +0000

I can't believe I placed the question mark correctly. Maybe learning new languages helped my English grammatical intuition. Enjoyed the dreadlock photos and descriptions, by the way.

By: Alaina Mabaso

Alaina Mabaso — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:36:54 +0000

SACRILEGE! Very few things could entice me to give away books: trading them for new books, worthwhile charity, or if it’s a book I hate. I find that even if a book has been sitting around for years, I never know when I am seized by the desire to read (or re-read) that particular book. I will lend books, though.

Congrats on escaping the book-hoarding affliction that plagues so many of us.

By: Roz Warren

Roz Warren — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:30:17 +0000

Great post! I recently gave away most of the books I’d kept on my shelves for years with the intention of eventually getting around to reading them. It felt very good. And I don’t miss a single one of them.

By: Alaina Mabaso

Alaina Mabaso — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:19:44 +0000

Bron, that falls under “thanks for the recommendation!”

You’ve placed the question mark correctly. The quotation itself is not a question, but it’s forming a question as part of a larger phrase, thus, question mark outside of the quotation marks. I am happy to discuss this further with you once you’re back in the country.

By: Bron

Bron — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:09:59 +0000

Am I allowed to say, “Gee I would love to put that book on my reading list, but I don´t have a reading list, and I find it overbearing when people try to push their favorite books on me”?

And while I´m here, where is the question mark actually supposed to go in a sentence like the above?? I´ve always wondered about this. Thank you.

By: Alaina Mabaso

Alaina Mabaso — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 01:00:05 +0000

When your Mom sticks around you know you’ve made it!