[daveT]

To continue with your thinking on style. Different writers have different aptitudes. A screenwriter is generally good with quick, snappy dialogue, and a linear story line. An essayists is good at getting to the point. A novelist is better at telling a complex, many times, non-linear story.

Different forms for the writer to work out of his or her comfort level. Unfortunately the results aren't always good. Garrison Keilor, for example is great at telling a story on the radio. He is good at spoken-word writing. His novels are terrible. Stephen King was probably better in his early years than his middle years. I think that his later stuff is better, but I'm not a huge fan, either. Didn't he put out an unabridged version of The Stand? I remember reading the intro and he said that the original was terrible because it was edited. I think that he is best when he is writing essays. These are engrossing, thoughtful, and funny. His conversational style fits well.

As for poetry. I was never a large fan of poetry. In my opinion, it is at it's best when it is written from deep emotions. In school, we are given the shallower poetry, that has no deep meaning. Just at face value, there is nothing to explore. e. e. cummings was crammed down out throats the most. He was part of the impressionistic art movement, which means that there is not meaning beyond the face of what you see. Poe opitomizes the pain part of poetry. Songwriters are great poets in my opinion. Check out Henry Rollins, for example.

I only read three books this year:
Collapse -- about the end of civilizations
Portrait of Myself -- Auto-biography of Sandra Burke-White
Meeting the Shadow -- A Jungian psycho-analyst book. Very thick with material and hard to get through.

There is one book that I am searching for. It is written by a Chinese interviewer. He interviews all sorts of criminals, and Barbara Walters he is not. He ends up telling some of the criminals what pigs and evil people they are, while empathizing with others.

I read an excerpt of this book in a Paris Review. This was shocking by any standards. The interview featured was one of the most disturbing things I ever read in my life, but I found there were parts that I was laughing at the befuddlement of the interviewer, as he is cursing the very being of the criminal. Sadly, part of the agreement was that he would not turn anyone in. I don't know he could keep that promise. The book is banned in China.