Writing has made me a better reader, probably like gardening makes some people more healthy eaters. I'm barely better at turning a phrase than I am at dragging a rake, but I plow through the process every day. I've heard writing described as the ultimate vanity of the self-absorbed, and I can see why that might be true. What possesses anyone to believe others might care to read what they think?
Perhaps the vainest English writer ever was Oscar Wilde. His turns of a phrase are legendary, and are so ingrained in the culture of communication most people don't realize when they are paraphrasing him.
My cut-and-paste exercise if 2011 is this:
Share the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde every day for a year. Why?
Because quotation, as Oscar himself once pointed out,
is a serviceable substitute for wit.
Wild About Oscar
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