Portable Personal Portfolios in Pockets

Kris Krug is a fantastic photographer. Trust me. If you don’t believe me, then just ask him. He’ll pull out his iPhone and prove it to you.

Like many of us, Kris keeps photos on his iPhone. But for Kris, who works as a professional photographer (among many other things), the photo feature on his iPhone isn’t simply a place to store photos of his family and that great party he went to last week.

It’s his portable personal portfolio.

When Kris meets a potential client or someone that’s just interested in his work, instead of pointing them to a website, he can pull out his iPhone and set up a slideshow so that they can see his photographs right there on the spot. Instantaneous gratification.

Which got me thinking: I can see the use of the iPhone (or iPod Touch) for carrying the portfolios of photographers and artists, but what about other kinds of content creators? How can they carry their portfolios in their pockets?

For example, my writing portfolio doesn’t translate all too well to the small screen (maybe it should?) and I feel as though I’m limited to just giving people a card so they can visit my website. While Eloquation looks great on an iPhone, the mobile device still isn’t conducive for consuming large amounts of text.

I’m exploring ways of making my writing portfolio more mobile and easier to consume. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

7 current writers I’m in love with

Steve Jobs thinks that reading is dead, but if that’s true, mark me as an anomaly. I love reading. I love the way good writers craft their sentences and stories in ways that captivate and enthrall. I love that great writers not only entertain me when I read their work, but inspire me to be a better writer myself.

Inspired by Leo Babauta’s post on Zen Habits, I’ve decided to share a short list of 7 writers that entertain, captivate, and inspire me. As per Leo’s guidelines, this is only a list of writers that are still currently writing, so don’t blame me for the omission of Salinger and Rimbaud. I’ve also made a conscious effort to populate this list predominantly with fiction writers: I have a tendency to only read non-fiction and ignore some of the fantastic novelists and short story writers out there.

So here’s a list of 7 current writers I’m in love with. My apologies if I’ve missed anyone, these are the first seven that popped into my head:

• David Foster Wallace: After the publication of Infinite Jest, it was hard to argue that Wallace wasn’t one of the best American novelists of his generation. It was, however, the publication of Oblivion that sold me on his story-telling talent, making every fiction feel like a reality.
• Jhumpa Lahiri: She may be best-known for The Namesake, a novel that was recently adapted for the big screen, but Lahiri’s genius was evident in The Interpreter of Maladies, where every character’s little actions caused immense emotional reactions.
• J.M. Coetzee: There are few novels that I can so closely relate to as Coetzee’s Youth, and Coetzee is a master of making the reader feel immersed in the political and geographic context of his stories. His writing is terse but evocative.
• J.K. Rowling: Laugh if you want, but this woman revolutionized the publishing and reading landscape over the past decade. Not only is the Harry Potter franchise pervasive, but it’s also quite entertaining.
• Ian McEwan: You know the clichéd phrase ‘emotional rollercoaster’? McEwan’s novels are probably as close as you can get to the cliché without falling into an abyss of despair. His works are remarkably sensuous and evocative, crafted with incredible precision.
• Cory Doctorow: I’m not a fan of science fiction. At all. Unless it is sci-fi written by Cory Doctorow, everyone’s favorite blogger. His worlds of the future are surprisingly realistic and believable, and provide particularly astute observations on our world of the present.
• John Updike: There isn’t much I can say about Updike that hasn’t already been said: he is one of the most prolific and respected writers of his generation, and is a master of both poetry and prose. And his writing always captivates.

Upon further reflection, it seems as though many of the writers on my list are renown essayists and short story authors as well as novelists. Which makes sense, seeing as how short fiction is still my favorite type of literature.

Yup, Bronwyn is my hero

So you know that post I wrote today where I said that Steve Jobs was wrong when he said that reading was dead? Well, as much as that post came from my heart, it wasn’t really the best post I have ever written.

What I really wish I had written, instead, was something akin to what Bronwyn Jones wrote on her site today. Here’s a great gem from her post:

If the Kindle fails, it won’t be because it’s ugly or because it uses only one font or because people don’t read anymore. It will fail because of a lack of imagination. The book was a fucking great idea. Seriously ace. Thank you, Aldus Manutius, you 15th-century Venetian crazy genius. The Kindle is not a unique idea, nor does it improve on Manutius’s really great idea.

Bronwyn is one of my heroes, and has been for a long time. Not only is she one of the best writers I have ever read — which she definitely is — but the way she crafts her thoughts is enlightening and inspirational.

There are very few people that inspire me like Bronwyn Jones, and I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to tell her that in person. (Aside from her amazing writing, she’s also a wonderful person.) If you don’t subscribe to her blog, you’re missing out on some of the greatest word-craft you’ll ever witness on the web.

Subscribe, enjoy, and thank me later.