Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling

Hey everyone I'm back. It's been far, far, far too long since I've updated or posted here. Anyway, this is less of a book and more of a commencement speech that she did put into print, like the Make Good Art Speech by Neil Gaiman that I reviewed a while back

As I mentioned this is a commencement (graduation, whatever you want to call it) speech that Rowling did for Harvard University. The subtitle of her address is "The fringe benefits of failure and the importance of imagination."

When I found this book at Coles I'm not going to lie I had hit a bit of a writer's block and was sort of actively avoiding writing at all costs and I thought maybe it would give me some inspiration, and it did...it' inspired me to read Harry Potter again, not quite the effect I was going for but it works. I was going to re-read the series anyway (for probably the millionth time, instead of reading the precariously stacked piles of books by my bed). But I read it through and she makes a lot of good points.

For Example, that achievable goals are the first step to self improvement and that failure is, first and foremost, a stripping away of the essential.

In her Harvard commencement address she is eloquent and inspiring and here, to close this post I think I will echo her sentiments,

If there is something that you want to do in life, do it. If you want to become an artist or a writer of a musician or an actor, cartoonist, animator, director, take your pick, but go out there and do it. Especially if you are in school (or work) and that thing is all you can think about doing, all you do in your off hours, if you're failing classes because you're spending too much time doing what you love and not enough time doing what you ought, or what your parents think you ought to do, stop doing the thing that you are failing at, go do the thing you love.

See you next time, until then keep reading, writing and doing everything you love. When (yes when) I come back I'll be doing a Harry Potter Re-read (Yes I know I started one for Banned books week but that doesn't really count as I never finished it and it turned out badly).

See you next time!