When I was a young professional, I read a fabulous book by Gloria Steinem called "Revolution from Within". It was about the importance of taking care of your own demons before taking care of the world's. I generally do not care for self-help books, but for some reason this one struck a note for me, and I sat down and wrote her a letter.
That was in the bad old days when writing a letter meant typing it on a typewriter, using correct-type, folding it in an envelope, addressing it and putting a stamp on it. Further, I did not have an actual address for Ms Steinem so I had to send it in care of her publisher and hope that it did not get lost in the shuffle.
Do you know Ms. Steinem actually wrote me back? A few weeks later I got a type written note thanking me for my kind words and encouraging me in my own personal revolution. I am sure I have the letter somewhere in my boxes. It meant a lot to me that Ms Steinem would take the time to send me a personal note.
It is much easier now to write to living authors we admire. Most new books have an email address on the jacket where you can reach the author. If I enjoy a book, I write the author and let him or her know.
So yesterday, I wrote to Imran Ahmad the author of the book Unimagined that I mentioned in the last blog post. He wrote me right back. He was excited to hear from someone in the States as he has not heard from many of us. He is going to tour the US with his book and is doing so in conjunction with the Unitarian church because the church has many of the same goals (peace, understanding between faiths, international brother and sisterhood) as his Muslim group does. He asked me to write a review and submit it to Amazon which I am glad to do. Last, he wants me to write Oprah and ask her to read his book.
Click Here for Review
I am excited to be part of his literary journey. If I ever get a book published, I hope that people write me. (But first things first, I need to write that book.)
Which books do you admire? Which writer will you write to? What will you say?
1 comment:
Wow, that is cool!
I also read "Revolution From Within" many, many years ago. And then Keith and I went to go hear her speak at ASU. She was wonderful. There's one piece of advice she gave, that night we heard her speak, that always sticks with me. And that is to write things down and to keep journals for your children, because it's one the best gifts that we can pass on to them.
Keep us posted on your journey with Ahmad's book.
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