So many things go into the mix that I think, on a personal level, it simply comes down to what grabs me and holds me. Due to the fact that Union Organizers spend weeks on end alone, and in places far from their homes, I tend to read a great deal. Sometimes it is for pure entertainment, sometimes it is inspirational, sometimes it is information oriented so that I may come to know my adversaries, and most of the time it is research oriented so that I may sing my songs from a position of understanding what the conditions were that spawned them. I consider myself strong in the empathy suit, so that if I can find a really well written treatise on a person, act, event, conditions, around which songs were built, then I can sink into that song and relate it to the audience that I am singing it to.

Which brings me to a point about good writing. I am unschooled, and unsophisticated, when it comes to understanding what constitutes good writing. I have never studied the elements of it, and when I write something, such as some of my Vietnam posts, or posts for the kids in Why We Sing, it is usually from the heart. But when I am reading, it is easy for me to discern good writing, as it relates to me. If it turns into "white noise" and I realize that I have read several pages, or para's, and I don't know what they said, then I am reading from an author that just fails to hold my interest. If I am reading something, I am interested in what it says. But if the author lacks the ability to phrase, and as Frank says, fails to paint pictures that I can see, that content is going to go by the wayside for me.

Mick