Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott

"I began to stalk around his living room, like a trial lawyer making her case to the jury, explaining various aspects of the book, some of which, in my desire not to appear too obvious, I had forgotten to put down at all."

This and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style are the only two books on writing I've ever read which are both useful and a pleasure to read. As a bonus, both are funny. There were a great many parts of Lamott's book which had me laughing out loud, but most of them were the culmination of several paragraphs or pages of build-up, and so I can't excerpt them here. Take my word for it.

In addition to a great deal of solid, non-dogmatic, and practical advice on writing and the writing life, Bird by Bird is a hilarious dissection of the neuroses, panic states, jealousy, paranoia, insanity, depression, addiction, psychotic rage, insomnia, vengefulness, and rare but delightful moments of schadenfreude which make up the life of the writer. I suspect that Lamott is probably more neurotic in some ways than I am, but I have experienced virtually every moment of insanity and pettiness which she describes, except for the bit where, after her editor hated her book after she was positive she'd finally gotten the umpteenth rewrite right, she goes off and snorts coke like an anteater.

I highly recommend this book to all the writers on my list, but I most frequently thought of copperwise as I read it. Lamott's advice on how to write a memoir without getting sued for libel is to change the identifying details of any characters who are portrayed in unflattering terms, and, if they're male and you want to be extra-sure they won't publicly claim the altered evil character is based on them, to say they have a teeny-weeny penis.

I also like her Operating Instructions, the least sappy book on motherhood I've ever read.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott

"I began to stalk around his living room, like a trial lawyer making her case to the jury, explaining various aspects of the book, some of which, in my desire not to appear too obvious, I had forgotten to put down at all."

This and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style are the only two books on writing I've ever read which are both useful and a pleasure to read. As a bonus, both are funny. There were a great many parts of Lamott's book which had me laughing out loud, but most of them were the culmination of several paragraphs or pages of build-up, and so I can't excerpt them here. Take my word for it.

In addition to a great deal of solid, non-dogmatic, and practical advice on writing and the writing life, Bird by Bird is a hilarious dissection of the neuroses, panic states, jealousy, paranoia, insanity, depression, addiction, psychotic rage, insomnia, vengefulness, and rare but delightful moments of schadenfreude which make up the life of the writer. I suspect that Lamott is probably more neurotic in some ways than I am, but I have experienced virtually every moment of insanity and pettiness which she describes, except for the bit where, after her editor hated her book after she was positive she'd finally gotten the umpteenth rewrite right, she goes off and snorts coke like an anteater.

I highly recommend this book to all the writers on my list, but I most frequently thought of copperwise as I read it. Lamott's advice on how to write a memoir without getting sued for libel is to change the identifying details of any characters who are portrayed in unflattering terms, and, if they're male and you want to be extra-sure they won't publicly claim the altered evil character is based on them, to say they have a teeny-weeny penis.

I also like her Operating Instructions, the least sappy book on motherhood I've ever read.

The Ringed Castle is in my hot little hands...

...and it only took about eight bookshop visits and five phone calls to find it. Now I can take it to Japan, even though it's the big trade paperback that won't fit into my purse and will have to be carried by hand. But at least I have it.

Several other people on my friendslist are reading the Lymond books right now. Do not spoil me but I gather that something extremely upsetting happens in Pawn in Frankincense, and can't help but be curious. If Lymond seems to die I will know that it's a Guy Gavriel Kay-esque fake-out, but I think I would know that anyway because a) I already know he spends the next book in Russia and he can't do that while dead unless he's minnow1212's Zombie Lymond, and b) the series is called the Lymond Chronicles and there are two books to go.

Still reading Queens Play. Cheetahs and elephants and marmosets, oh my! Still liking Lymond more than I did in the last book, even though he has flashes of jaw-dropping jerkiness. Yes, I know you feel guilty that spoiler died in the last book and it was indirectly your fault, but that's no reason to be hateful to spoiler's spoiler and spoiler. Great supporting cast; great hunt scene, in which (or rather, after which) I see a homage to a similar scene in T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone section of The Once and Future King. Dunnett gives White a run for his money in terms of obscure vocabulary words. I am not bothering to look any of them up, but rather guessing from context or ignoring them. Still, useful to know via White (who defines many of the more esoteric ones) the meaning of the various terms for hunting dogs.

The Ringed Castle is in my hot little hands...

...and it only took about eight bookshop visits and five phone calls to find it. Now I can take it to Japan, even though it's the big trade paperback that won't fit into my purse and will have to be carried by hand. But at least I have it.

Several other people on my friendslist are reading the Lymond books right now. Do not spoil me but I gather that something extremely upsetting happens in Pawn in Frankincense, and can't help but be curious. If Lymond seems to die I will know that it's a Guy Gavriel Kay-esque fake-out, but I think I would know that anyway because a) I already know he spends the next book in Russia and he can't do that while dead unless he's minnow1212's Zombie Lymond, and b) the series is called the Lymond Chronicles and there are two books to go.

Still reading Queens Play. Cheetahs and elephants and marmosets, oh my! Still liking Lymond more than I did in the last book, even though he has flashes of jaw-dropping jerkiness. Yes, I know you feel guilty that spoiler died in the last book and it was indirectly your fault, but that's no reason to be hateful to spoiler's spoiler and spoiler. Great supporting cast; great hunt scene, in which (or rather, after which) I see a homage to a similar scene in T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone section of The Once and Future King. Dunnett gives White a run for his money in terms of obscure vocabulary words. I am not bothering to look any of them up, but rather guessing from context or ignoring them. Still, useful to know via White (who defines many of the more esoteric ones) the meaning of the various terms for hunting dogs.