 Wednesday, September 05, 2007
The following entry was written by READ and Writing Magazine's new Associate Editor, Audra Pace.
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a common place thing, but burn burn burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."
 This is my favorite quote from On The Road, so I wanted to jump right to it. If you don't know, 50 years ago today, a book called On The Road was published. It was written by Jack Kerouac, a Beat Generation forerunner. If you don't know about the Beat Generation, quietly read this article, and then pretend you already knew. Play it cool, because that's what most of the Beats spent their time doing ... being cool. Like, real cool daddy-o.
Yeah, they talked like that.
The Beat Generation MVPs include Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, and William Burroughs, among others. One of the reasons Kerouac's On The Road is famous is because it chronicled the impossibly cool goings-on of many members of the beat tribe.
But what were they all about? The Beats were a band of artists and writers who rebelled against strict, traditional American society that immediately followed World War II. They went west, they hitchhiked. They partied hard but they also held all night poetry readings. Much of their writing aligns with transcendentalist ideas about nature and freedom. They were hippies before hippies were hippies.
 On The Road mostly tells the story of Neal Cassady's life, and his hitchhiking travels with Kerouac across Route 6. Cassady's character is named Dean Moriarty, and Kerouac's character is named Sal Paradise. Other Beats show up in the novel, too. Allen Ginsberg is played by a character named Carlo Marx.
Kerouac bought one long, continuous roll of type paper, and typed out the novel without changing pages, indenting paragraphs, or breaking up lines or chapters. What can we say? Beats certainly weren't big on following rules, even grammatical ones. Fortunately for the reader, it was cleaned up by the time it was published in 1957, but the "stream of consciousness" feeling still prevails.In reading On The Road, you actually get inside the main character's head. The story of how On The Road was crafted is fascinating.
So, on the 50th birthday of the release of this novel, I say, check it out. Get in on it, and pretend you've been in on it all along, man.
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Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Well, it's that time again. Most of you are back in school. And if you're not, well, you will be soon. I feel for you, I do. But fear not. There are plenty of reasons to be happy (or at least less sad) about being back in school. We've counted down the top reasons for you.
10. You can start reading your favorite Weekly Reader magazines again. Yay for shameless plugs!
9. Sometimes when you're assigned required reading, you actually discover books you enjoy that you never would have read on your own. Hello, Salinger, Heller, and if we're lucky, Rowling.
8. Only 79 days until Thanksgiving. It really sneaks up on you!
7. Writing assignments become excuses for bragging about what you did all summer. This summer, I went mountain climbing, traveled to Europe, sailed across the Atlantic ...
6. Speaking of writing, it's a lot easier to write notes to your friends or crushes when you're sitting next to them again. Dear John, do you want to go out? Check yes or no.
5. Be honest, you're kind of sick of watching bad reality shows and reruns. It couldn't hurt your brain to actually learn something. For some reason, history and English class seem a lot more entertaining ...
4. This is the year you can become captain of the team, editor of the yearbook, a straight-A student ... anything you want! I'm going to be head cheerleader!
3. Four words: brand new school supplies! If there's anything more satisfying than cracking open a crisp notebook and writing with a new pen, I don't want to know!
2. Cafeteria food almost seems edible after a summer of camp gruel. Mystery meat, I never missed you so much!
1. You can be published on Word. Another shameless plug? Well, it is pretty cool ...
What are your top reasons for being less-sad about going back to school?
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Saturday, September 01, 2007
Two years ago today, WORD was born.
When you break it down into weeks (104), it seems like a lot. Or maybe it doesn't. It's hard to say, really. I'm not going to attempt to add up the days because 365 X 2 is no walk in the park... wait... it's 730. I think. Whatever. Not important.
What is important is that you enjoy your time here. If you're just starting your school year and you have just received your first issue of READ magazine, how did we do? Did you read Bad Blood? It's a story about Jarrod, a kid who swindles an old lady out of a car. Well, it's about much more than that, but it's all in the context.
Or maybe you've just read through your first issue of Writing magazine? How was it? How did you like the article called Help! I Hate Writing! Did it help? We'd love to know.
 Here on WORD, everyone is welcome. This blog is an extension of both READ and Writing magazines. Feel free to stop by any time and leave us a comment under any post. You can browse through the archives to the right and see what we've been up to the last 104 weeks. You can even email us your own writing! Send your poems, short stories, and essays to word@weeklyreader.com. We post a lot of student writing on this board and sometimes, we even publish your writing in our magazines!
So welcome back to school. Stop by our bloggy often. We update it several times a week with author news, interviews, book reviews, and much much more! Let us know if we can help you out in any and all things literary.
Oh yeah, and WORD also has a myspace page at www.myspace.com/wordblog. You, too, could be WORD's friend!
See you soon.
Word. 
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Friday, August 31, 2007
It's Labor Day weekend, and for many of us, that marks the unofficial end of summer and the beginning of the school year. I know that many of you began your school year last week, or even two or three weeks ago, depending on where you live in the country. Different regions start at different times for reasons of climate and local custom. But here in the Northeast, Labor Day traditionally tolls the end of summer vacation.
You might be surprised to know that adults continue to think this way long after they leave school behind. Those of us who work all summer long still can't seem to get used to it. It seems unnatural. Our biorhythms were set during our childhood years and decades of adulthood can't change it.
Summer is for being outdoors, for nonrequired reading, for living off the clock, for experiencing life in ways that the classroom (or the office) don't allow. It's for play and exploration and daydreaming and night sky gazing. Summer is for water--the salty seashore, the crisp mountain lake, the backyard pool, the lawn sprinkler, or even the city fire hydrant if that's what you've got.
Is this what summer's really about, or am I being selective and nostalgic? I know; some of you had to spend summer in school. You had to tackle required summer reading. Maybe you spent long, empty days playing video games and doing nothing much.
Tell us about your summer and what it means to you. Is it a special season that society should value and preserve as time apart from the usual? Or is it just the hottest time of year and nothing more?
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