James Drogan

...good writers.  I heard this advice long, long ago.

A recent article in The New Yorker (January 12, 2009), "The Speech" by Jill Lepore reminds me of this.  Good writers compel you to read.  Tolkein, Neal Stephenson, Robert Jordan, Stephen Donaldson (note the genre here) are like that.  The reason I bring up genre is there are good writers in genres that may not appeal to you.  I'm not, for example, much found of romance novels.

Anyway, Lepore seems to me a good writer.  The subject, Inaugural Addresses, is of interest and The New Yorker is one of my favorite magazines.  That is, the good writer needs to be in a genre of interest and in place accessible.

The story within the story is that of James Garfield preparing his inaugural speech.

I want to particularly call your attention to her discussion of the Flesch Readability Test and the delightful and humorous little bit that begins

in the middle of the third column on page 52.

An interesting story well told is what we have here.  Lepore, a good read for a number of reasons.