Writers Series

I went to the Richard Rubin reading last night and to perfectly honest, I'm not a fan of his. I'm not really sure what it is about him, but he's just not my cup of tea. Sometimes, I get the feeling that he's trying a little too hard to write "authorly" or something. I know that's not true, but there's just something about his style that I dislike. I'm not saying that there weren't any merits to speak about Richard Rubin, there were. He brought a levity to his reading and made the reading very conversational. He was a great reader, kept a great pace and spoke clearly. The only slight problem I had with his speaking would be when he paused to take a drink. It wasn't anything big, but it just left an awkward silence. I have weird pet peeves.

Moving onto Rubin's actually stories, although I might not like the writing, the stories themselves were actually rather interesting. I know that nonfiction is about real life, but I found that the characters aren't always that engaging because people feeling that they don't have to develop them any since they are real people. Rubin's characters were not like that. They all had their own quirks and characteristics. I also enjoyed his side stories that he told, especially his one story about the odd things written at Grant's grave.