The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.
The Questionless Books Interview: Literary Photographer John W. MacDonald
Submitted by gmurray on November 6, 2010 - 12:33pm
Inspired by the Proust Questionnaire, The Questionless Books Interview gets a host of lit-types (authors, editors, publishers, publicists, designers, booksellers, readers, bloggers, journalists, etc.) to finish a bunch of statements about the state of literature and the "future of books".
John loves to photograph (bookish) people and his photographs have been published in various books, newspapers and magazines. His latest work can be seen on-line here: http://weblog.johnwmacdonald.com
I am a... photographer
I am known to... some people
I do this in... various places
I do this because... it's enjoyable
I do this when... I go out
The way I do this is... click, click and sometimes click again
At its core, a Writer is... somewhere between f/5.6 to f/8
As opposed to an Author, who is... f/1.4
A Writer is responsible for... writing
As opposed to an Author, who is responsible for... authoring
At its core, Publishing is... a dream
As opposed to Editing, which is... a chore
A Publisher should always... pay for author photos
As opposed to an Editor, who should always... be necessary
A Manuscript that's ready to be read by others is... not a book
As opposed to a Book that's ready to be ready by others, which [was]... a manuscript
A Manuscript should always be... legible
As opposed to a Book, which should always be... edited.
At its core, Bookselling is... useful
As opposed to Book Marketing, which is... futile
The smallest unit of narrative is... the sound of one page turning
To be a Book a thing must be... in book form
The biggest reason to be scared of the future is... the past
The biggest reason to anticipate the future is... the past
In the future we will all... die
At his/her core, a Reader is... to be appreciated
