Bird by Bird
Thursday August 12, 2021 | By Hieronymus Hawkes | book review
Anne Lamott’s book with “some instructions on writing and life” was an enjoyable read. This is the twenty-fifth anniversary edition, which came out two years ago. It is quirky and funny and filled with advice that she shared with her writing students when she taught writing.
She has been fairly prolific in the non-fiction category and also has some fiction books, but I was only peripherally aware of her. She is neurotic in the extreme, but it made her a very good camera for taking in the details of life and of people. She has a somewhat skewed view of people but it makes her books interesting. She shared a lot about herself and raising a son, and some of the stories are uproariously hilarious.
She has a wonderful sense of humor and the writing advice she gives is on the money. I enjoyed one tidbit that I am going to try to employ for short story writing.
Highly recommended!
Awesome take. I love this book. It really is quite good.
Have you read “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder? It’s amazingly good, though deals with screenwriting more than novels or short stories. Still, a solid introduction on writing good screenplays.
I have read it and I feel like you that it’s quite good. I kept thinking I might try my hand at screenwriting as well, but the more I looked into it the more I realized I want to write novels. Thanks again for dropping by!