скачать книгу бесплатно
Devil in the Words. Книга для практики английского языка
Петр Ласточкин
Книга не очень-то и интересная, она банальна и рассказывает о небольшом промежутке жизни парня, который решил написать книгу. Её ценность только в том, что в ней современные слова и обороты, которые полезны для практики английского языка.
Devil in the Words
Книга для практики английского языка
Петр Ласточкин
© Петр Ласточкин, 2023
ISBN 978-5-0060-8670-8
Создано в интеллектуальной издательской системе Ridero
The devil is in words
– A new book.
– First chapters.
– Walk in the park.
– Meet Sveta.
– Movie with my sister.
– Heavy thoughts.
– Meeting at the center.
– Job search.
– First work day.
– First salary.
– Second meeting.
– Last working day.
– Christmas.
– The book is finished.
– Departure for the dacha.
– Days at the dacha.
– Return to the city.
CHAPTER 1. New book.
Words have the power to change not only one person’s life, but the entire world.
– I will never write a single worthwhile work. – Peter thought, moving his chair away from the computer desk. – Even if I find a suitable genre, I will never be able to stand out in it. There are tens of thousands of books, thousands of authors around, but who am I? I didn’t even graduate from college and have no literary education. I just want money. I must admit to myself that all my attempts to write a book are a banal desire to earn a lot of money. Easy money. If I go to any forum, everyone will tell me that my lines are not worth a penny. Maybe I’m actually a graphomaniac.
Getting up from the computer desk, Peter went to the kitchen to pour himself some coffee. His mother was sitting in the kitchen.
– He came out again, let me sit here quietly, alone, without you. – she said, throwing a dissatisfied look at Peter.
– I just went out to get some coffee. I’ll pour it now and leave. – he answered, and turning on the electric kettle, he went to the bedside table where the coffee was.
Taking his mug, he put a few spoons of sugar and a spoonful of coffee into it, and mixed it all thoroughly. When you thoroughly mix sugar and coffee before adding water, the coffee turns out foamy.
The water in the kettle boiled and the kettle turned off.
Peter poured boiling water into a mug and stirred everything thoroughly, after which he went to the refrigerator and took out milk from there.
– Are you even going to look for a job? – asked the mother. – You yourself aren’t tired of sitting on my neck. – You are soon thirty years old, and you are sitting at home and doing nothing.
– I do. – Peter responded.
– And what are you doing? Do you sit at the computer all day? – the mother grinned.
Peter wanted to answer that he was working on a book, but he immediately realized that this would cause nothing but ridicule of him. When someone talks about being a writer, it usually causes nothing but laughter.
Peter remained silent. He added milk to the coffee, stirred it, and put the bottle back in the refrigerator. Without saying anything, he left the kitchen and returned to the computer.
The image of a social network was frozen on the monitor. Peter scrolled his page with his mouse. Just one post, not a single friend, and not a single message.
Having taken a sip of coffee, Peter pushed the mug to the side, pulled the keyboard closer to him, and typed «Graphomaniac» into the search engine. He was given an extraordinary text in which it was said that a graphomaniac is a person who writes a lot in order to be published.
– Well, I’m not a graphomaniac, I don’t seem to write that much. – he thought. At the same moment, the bridge of his nose twitched. It was like a nervous tic. – What kind of attack is this, I’ll never concentrate.
He took the coffee mug and took another sip.
– Okay, I’ll start from the beginning. I want to write a book. What do I need for this? – Peter stared at the monitor and thought. – It’s probably worth looking at what it takes to write a book. – Well, aren’t I brilliant?
He entered the phrase into the search: – What does it take to write a book? – In response, he received several million links to sites where recommendations were given to novice authors. The bridge of the nose continued to twitch, which was very distracting.
The younger sister entered the room.
– Give me a computer, I need to draw a picture, we have a geography assignment. – she said, standing close to the table.
Silently, Peter crawled out from behind the table and lay down on the sofa that stood behind him, near the window. My sister sat down at the computer and started digging through the drawings.
Peter relaxed and tried to imagine what he could write a book about. Various ideas came into my head, about Elves, Orcs and Dwarves. But all this was too primitive and monotonous, besides, Peter understood that thousands of books about Elves and Orcs had already been written, and it was unlikely that his would become a bestseller. And he just needed a bestseller, because he wrote not for the sake of recognition, not for the sake of being known as a talented author, he just wanted to earn money, he dreamed of leaving Russia and settling in some two-story house, not far from the sea, preferably somewhere somewhere in Los Angeles, closer to Hollywood stars.
– Will you help me make a drawing? – asked the sister.
– No. – Peter answered briefly, immersed in thoughts about the book.
– Well, please, is it difficult for you?
– Yes, it’s difficult for me now. Besides, these are your lessons and you need to do them yourself.
– Because of you, they’ll give me a bad mark, and my mother will scold me. —
– Then go and draw what you need to draw, and don’t look at pictures on the Internet. —
– I don’t know how to draw, I can’t do it.
Peter got up from the sofa and went to the computer.
– I can’t help you, I have my own things to do. – Give me back my computer.
– I won’t get out from behind the computer until you draw me a picture. —
– I won’t draw anything.
– Well, that’s it, then go lie on the sofa.
– Give me back my computer.
– Draw me a picture.
– What do you need to draw?
– Our classroom, view from above.
– And what’s so difficult about this? Just draw rectangles and squares.
– I can’t, I can’t do it.
– What might not work out there?
– All.
– Okay, let’s go, I’ll draw you a drawing.
Together they went into the next room. Peter took a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and began to draw. After spending a few minutes, he drew a classroom that looked more like a bunch of rectangles and squares representing desks, chairs, and cabinets.
– Hold it. – he said, and gave the drawing to his sister.
– Thank you. – she answered.
Peter returned to his room and sat down at the computer desk. Collecting his thoughts, he again tried to think of something to write a book about, but his head was completely empty of ideas.
– Maybe just try to start writing, and then the path goes as it turns out. But about what? – he thought, bowing his head over the keyboard.
Glancing at the mug of coffee that stood in the corner of the table, he took it and took a sip. The coffee was no longer hot as it had been a few minutes ago, and its taste was no longer as rich as before.
– First you need to create a plan. – said Peter, reflecting on the book. – I’ll come up with a plan, and then I’ll write according to the plan. —
He opened the desk drawer and took out a squared notebook and a pen. Opening the first page of the notebook, he wrote: «Plan.» That’s where all the thoughts ended. There was not a single idea, not a single thought about what a book could be written about. All dreams of a beautiful life and millions in royalties turned into emptiness, exactly the same as the one that reigned in his head.
– And how do these writers manage to write their books? – Peter got angry. – You need to look at someone’s book, understand how it’s written, how many scenes there are in one chapter, and how many words.
Having opened a website where free books were posted, Peter opened the first one he came across and began reading it. It was one of the most popular books in the world, selling over one hundred and fifty million copies. Peter chose one chapter at random and began to read it. Images and pictures, characters and their actions swam before his eyes, the world began to come to life in his mind, giving him impressions. The author was a master of words; he knew how to reach the reader’s consciousness. Peter was amazed by what he read, although he was not a fan of reading books, which made it doubly difficult for him to write them.
– Amazing. – he thought after finishing reading the chapter.
He highlighted the entire text of the chapter and copied it into an office program to see the word count. The number four thousand was displayed on the monitor.
– Four thousand words! – Peter was amazed. – And it reads so easily and quickly, as if there were only two!
He drank the rest of his iced coffee and created a separate folder for the future book, inside which he placed an office program file.
– Well, we need to come up with a name. – he thought. «But first you need to figure out what the book will be about.» Let’s say this book is about a writer who writes a book. You need to write down all the names that might fit.
Peter took the notebook that he had recently taken from the table and began to write down possible titles for the future book in a column:
«Peter and the Notebook.»
«Writer of the new century.»
«Young Writer»
«Only a writer.»
«The genius of the pen.»
«The devil is in words.»
«Master of Words»
«Genius of words.»
Having written several titles he liked, he began to choose the one that, as it seemed to him, could best suit the work he was going to write. After thinking for a few minutes, he settled on the title: «THE DEVIL IN THE WORDS.» He found it quite interesting and somewhat mystical. Now all that remained was to decide on the genre of the work and come up with a plot for it.
The bridge of the nose twitched again. Peter began to rub it with his fingers, as this tic greatly distracted him and did not allow him to concentrate.
– Go ahead already! – he blurted out.
The sister entered the room again.
– I need to do English. Help me translate the words.
