Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 4561)
Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
writers, journalists, creative people
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
A more accurate rating for this book is probably 3.5 stars--somewhere between "liking" and "really liking." This slim, easy-to-read volume offers inspiration and encouragement for aspiring writers, delivered in a soothing, humorous, sometimes touchy-feely voice. I found her advice to be helpful, but I grew tired of her joking attempts at reassuring novice writers that their feelings of inadequacy were normal. The book would have been many pages shorter had she cut out the ...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in February, 2008
I can see why this is a popular book. Lamott is funny, self-deprecating, and encouraging even in the face of cold, hard realities. She means what she says in the title, too. It really does set out to be instructions on writing and life. There are undoubtedly better books covering particulars of the craft, but this may be one of the best at construing a writer’s perspective. I liked her advice about making incremental progress (the meaning of “bird by bird”), about getting something/an...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
writers, artists, meditators
The books I have read about the art and discipline of writing remind me of what poet Robert Bly refers to in Iron John as “bucketing out” the water from the swamp in the forest. I take this to be a metaphor about the strange, icky junk one finds when inventorying one’s consciousness through meditation. In order to get to the truth within us—the stuff worth writing about—we have to tend to the tedious and disagreeable chore of bucketing out the metaphorical swamp water that cloud...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Writers and serious readers
I'm getting to the point where I've read a handful of books on the writing life by authors and I found this one to be particularly resonant at this point in my writing career. I actually found myself underlining things that Anne Lamott wrote and thinking, "I need to reread this so that I can absorb its message better."
Perhaps the one thing that I'd like to pass along from her book that I wholeheartedly believe is her assertion that novels should have hope in them. I've spent sever...more
Perhaps the one thing that I'd like to pass along from her book that I wholeheartedly believe is her assertion that novels should have hope in them. I've spent sever...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in October, 2006
Anne Lamott is a gifted writer. Say what you will about her theology or her self-absorption--hey, she readily admits it with charming self-deprecation--but she is a treasure hidden in the rock, one who operates with a style and a pained grace all her own. One never reads Anne Lamott thinking that he's read the stuff before or elsewhere.
Here she takes on the subject of writing itself. Within these pages, the author paints a tragicomic portrait of Everywriter with classic chapters ("Shitt...more
Here she takes on the subject of writing itself. Within these pages, the author paints a tragicomic portrait of Everywriter with classic chapters ("Shitt...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2000
recommends it for:
Amy's sister, Cricket
I think I read this in about 2000. I had just decided to get back into writing. Driving home early on a Friday, I heard Terry Gross interviewing Ann Lamott about this book. What she said made sense to me. I drove to Barnes and Noble and bought it.
This was the first book I ever read that gave me permission to write shitty (her word) first drafts. What a relief. You mean it doesn't have to be perfect the first time through? Or the second? Or even the third?
Another notion I got fr...more
This was the first book I ever read that gave me permission to write shitty (her word) first drafts. What a relief. You mean it doesn't have to be perfect the first time through? Or the second? Or even the third?
Another notion I got fr...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write [it] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. ...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in July, 2007
This book is basically what the title describes--instructions on how to write (fiction, mainly, though personal narrative writing as well) interspersed with anecdotes from Lamott's life. I got the book mainly for the latter, though I enjoyed reading the former (it's always interesting to see how other people do it), but I found myself, at the end of the book, thinking, "Wow, thank god I already know how to write." Which is to say, thank god I've already found a way to write that work...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1995
I have so many underlinings and corners turned down that it's hard to know what I like best. Possibly page 227 where Anne advises writers about libel: "...If you disguise this person carefully so that he cannot be recognized by the physical or professional facts of his life, you can use him in your work. And the best advice I can give you is to give him a teenie little p.... so he will be less likely to come forth."
I liked that part so much (and have used the advice in my own wr...more
I liked that part so much (and have used the advice in my own wr...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Writers and other crazy people
After so many books about how fun and easy writing can be, it's great to have a book that shows how painful and difficult it really is. Lamott puts a premium on discipline, the discipline of writing every day at a set time and trying hard to get the first draft out, no matter how bad it may be. This message may not be news to most, but along with the added info that neurosis and writing go hand in hand, Lamott is not here to inform, she's here to encourage. She's a real teacher, someone who isn'...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in June, 2007
This book offered an interesting perspective on life and writing fiction. She was preaching to the converted, however; didn't really open my eyes to anything I wouldn't expect/already know. I happen to think jealousy is the ugliest human emotion. Kudos to her for shamelessly admitting to her shortcomings, but I honestly wanted to close the book during this chapter. I'm glad I toughed it out though because it was decent well-laid out writing advice, nonetheless. Can't hurt for beginners.
Lamo...more
Lamo...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I don't read writing books for their educational value. I've been writing for a long time - and while I will always be appalling careless about where I put a comma, I feel pretty comfortable in my writing shoes. But I love to have writing books around to dip into - the good ones like this one, like Bradbury's and Stephen King's with their writing advice punctuating their autobiographies, like Writing Down the Bones where Natalie Goldberg is like a good pal from a writing class, and my favorite...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
writers
First recommended when I took high school summer writing classes at Sarah Lawrence College, I have put off reading Bird by Bird for almost a decade now. Every writer I know - rather, every female writer I know - owns a copy. This book isn't entirely relevent to me because I'm not writing fiction right now, so the advice on "plots" and "characters" are being loosely interpreted for my journalistic purposes. But it's marketed as being about "writing and life," so I...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
readers who like to write.
This is a great book. Inspiring, funny, honest, full of unexpected truths about life in general as well as a guide to being a better writer. Lamott treats writing as a calling as well as a career. The personal benefits of writing often and well, according to Lamott, far outweigh the monetary reward and any personal fame. It is inspiring in that it made me want to pick up short story collections and really hunt out the characters to find out what made them click with me, what was compelling about...more
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Read in March, 2008
I think you have to be in the right frame of mind to read this. I tried a couple years ago but was in the middle of moving, and didn't finish. But this time I was tearing my hair out over trying to get my main character in the book I'm writing to speak to me, not to mention the absurdity of the whole idea of writing a book and trying to publish it, and I just needed the bite this book has. It's great for a day when you would otherwise scarf too much chocolate in consolation, or when you wish you...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 1998
recommended to Jim by:
Heard the author on Wisconsin Public Radiorecommends it for: Normal people who have writing to do
One of the best books on writing I've ever read. There are too many writer's guides that define the writing life as being all cafes, berets, and witty conversations with intellectuals (sitting in cafes, wearing berets). This is a book for struggling writers who are also mortals. One of the charms of Anne Lamott is that her life is just as messed up as yours, and she's able to write, so why not you?
The best lessons I learned from this book were: 1) The rough draft is supposed to be terrible....more
The best lessons I learned from this book were: 1) The rough draft is supposed to be terrible....more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 1996
I'm sort of torn on how to rate this. I tend to buy books on writing when I feel the worst about my own writing. This one was the first (and it was assigned to me, thus was my creative writing professor my dealer, in that he got me hooked). Over the years I've formed the opinion that those who write, write, and those who can't write books on writing, but whatever. It's a good read, albeit a bit baby-boomer feel-good-about-me-oops-i-did-some-cocaine-esque, if that means anything to anyone. W...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
Writers
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommends it for:
anyone
I read and re-read this book over and over again. Especially during Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) in November as inspiration. Hers is the best "how to" writing book there is, mostly because she doesn't give you the preachy, lecturey bits. She understands the frustration involved and she makes fun of it--she teaches you that you need to make friends with this feeling. Which is brilliant and oh so necessary. Her wit and cleverness comes shining through. I laugh, smile and even...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.12 (3685 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.12 (3635 ratings) number of reviews: 490popular shelves
other editions
quote
"We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this."
more quotes »