“Deliciously drawn (with fragments of collage worked into each page), insightful and bubbling with delight in the process of artistic crea...
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reviews
Jun 11, 2008
jess
rated it: 
THE ORDINARY IS EXTRAORDINARY. i love this book like i have never loved a book. i want to make out with it, caress it, sleep with it near my pillow and wake up clutching it after a bad dream.
this book is related to the Lynda Barry writing class WRITING THE UNTHINKABLE! which i took in april. this class and book are for people who think they want to write, but don't know where to start. it's also for people who never thought about writing, people who already write, and people w More...
this book is related to the Lynda Barry writing class WRITING THE UNTHINKABLE! which i took in april. this class and book are for people who think they want to write, but don't know where to start. it's also for people who never thought about writing, people who already write, and people w More...
Nov 14, 2008
Kevin
rated it:
I got this from the library but will be buying myself a copy post-haste.
This is what a book about writing should be. It was really interesting to read this so soon after Stephen King's "On Writing", because it really underlined how far short of the target his book fell.
A book about writing should do the following things:
* inspire you
* provide insight/discussion on the tools a writer needs
* offer framework for developing the skills of creativit More...
This is what a book about writing should be. It was really interesting to read this so soon after Stephen King's "On Writing", because it really underlined how far short of the target his book fell.
A book about writing should do the following things:
* inspire you
* provide insight/discussion on the tools a writer needs
* offer framework for developing the skills of creativit More...
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Jul 25, 2008
Jennifer
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What It Is by Lynda Barry is a fascinating memoir/scrapbook/writing guide that almost defies definition. The first half of the book contains melancholic comic panels about Barry's alienated childhood and how drawing and writing saved her from loneliness interspersed with large one and two page spreads of collages that contain great writing prompts, like "Do thoughts move?" "What is a secret? What is it made of? Where is it kept?" "What is a monster? Do we need them?"
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Dec 16, 2008
edh
rated it:
Lynda Barry takes readers on a visual exploration of insecurities and uncertainties about the world in What It Is. Barry's obsession with storytelling and authenticity shines as she reflects on incidents in her life that led her to express herself through words and drawings. She reflects on whether childhood is a place or a time in one's life, and whether the past isn't an integral part of your present experience that you can draw on to help the creative process. The book contains many ideas,
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Aug 12, 2008
Jessica
rated it:
We saw Lynda Barry speak about this book at ComicCon. She sang and danced and told jokes and reminded us all what it was like to play when we were really little. Then she signed the book for us and told Shawn and me that we "looked good!" She rocks.
Apart from that, this is a gorgeously illustrated book based on classes that she teaches. It explores the nature of art as play, how when we're kids we draw and write and sing and dance for the fun of it, and then suddenly in pu More...
Apart from that, this is a gorgeously illustrated book based on classes that she teaches. It explores the nature of art as play, how when we're kids we draw and write and sing and dance for the fun of it, and then suddenly in pu More...
Oct 01, 2008
Meredith
rated it: 
I would put this into the hands of anyone who wants to explore the creative process. This book is about memory and inspiration and drawing and writing and self-doubt and criticism (for good or bad), and it has questions that prompt a writer or an artist to think big thoughts and writing exercises to help focus things onto the page. She talks a lot about the relationship of objects to memory and to images...and a lot about her creative process and plus, the book just looks cool, period.
I More...
I More...
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Jan 17, 2009
Phoebe
rated it:
Lynda Barry's latest is more of an artist journal/workbook than a comic book. There are only about thirty pages, maybe, of comics, which are very close to the style and autobiographical content of One Hundred Demons. The loose story of the comics, the surrounding pages, and the instruction manual for journaling that takes up the book's final third, surrounds the maturation of both Barry's creative process and her burgeoning childhood self-consciousness. In the workbook "section", she t
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Aug 19, 2011
Bonnie
rated it:
This book really inspired me and I loved the memoir parts where she recounts issues she faced growing up. I don't pursue many "artistic" or "crafty" things and this book just brought to my attention what might be lost by not having some sort of artistic type of outlet. She also points out the major reasons most adults abandon drawing, writing, singing, etc and I completely agreed with her on those (and I had never really considered the reasons before). I don't draw because
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Apr 12, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it: 
This is a book about prompting your creativity particularly WRITING. It is broken up into four sections plus a last peach page with lists the acknowledgments.
SECTION 1: Light royal blue paper up to p. 135 is Lynda reflecting on youth and her relationship with herself. There are dozens of questions posed that you could use to begin a writing exercise. An important point in this section is to PHYSICALLY WRITE and/or physically put yourself IN MOTION for any art (computer has its place) but y More...
SECTION 1: Light royal blue paper up to p. 135 is Lynda reflecting on youth and her relationship with herself. There are dozens of questions posed that you could use to begin a writing exercise. An important point in this section is to PHYSICALLY WRITE and/or physically put yourself IN MOTION for any art (computer has its place) but y More...
Mar 22, 2011
Ollie
rated it:
This is the most beautiful and fun creative writing book I've ever read (and I've read quite a few of them.) It's a mixture of graphic novel, art collage and creative exercises to get your imagination flowing and your pencil moving. Lynda's way of getting to a story is through the exploration of the image and the reclaiming of playfulness (remember when you told stories and drew pictures just for fun?) Her exercises are simple but effective, and her point is that writing lies in the exploration
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May 01, 2010
Sharon
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This is the book Lynda Barry was talking about at the Printer's Row Book Fair last summer. It is basically about her creative past and the creative process itself and how it relates to life. The first part of the book is a beautifully done combination of collage and drawing recounting some of Lynda's childhood memories of just beginning to draw and express herself, and her encounters of writer's block. She compares writing and creativity to the hours of play you had when you were a child, just m
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Mar 04, 2010
Bruce
rated it:
From http://flyingsinger.blogspot.com/2009/05...
What do the following things have in common?
Writing this blog
Studying Japanese
Learning to fly light airplanes
Writing and recording an astronomy podcast
Learning to fly simulated spacecraft in Orbiter
Writing and recording songs
Being a Solar System Ambassador
For me, these have all been forms of "adult play," what Lynda Barry calls creative concentration (I'm not doing all More...
What do the following things have in common?
Writing this blog
Studying Japanese
Learning to fly light airplanes
Writing and recording an astronomy podcast
Learning to fly simulated spacecraft in Orbiter
Writing and recording songs
Being a Solar System Ambassador
For me, these have all been forms of "adult play," what Lynda Barry calls creative concentration (I'm not doing all More...
Nov 17, 2009
Parka
rated it:
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)
This book screamed "Buy me!" when I saw it at the Drawn & Quarterly booth at San Diego Comic Con 2009. It is that good!
With a brush in the right hand, and a pencil on the left, the multi-eyed monster on the back cover spoked, "Welcome to writing the unthinkable". That's the essence of this book created by Lynda Barry, putting vivid imagination onto paper.
What It Is is a scrapbook that's filled to the b More...
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Dec 19, 2008
Kate
rated it:
I can remember loving to draw and write and imagine as a child. I can also remember a later time when I stopped doing those things; when there were the good drawers and writers and the rest of us just stopped trying. I can't remember what changed in between those times. What was the event that made me stop drawing and writing and making stories? Lynda Barry examines that question in her own life in What It Is.
The first half of this beautiful graphic novel is a short autobiograp More...
The first half of this beautiful graphic novel is a short autobiograp More...
Jun 16, 2009
Jane
rated it:
Barry does it again! I love the free way she uses collage along with her more customary brush and ink work. Meet the Magic Cephalopod who guides us to our imagery,Sea-Ma, the nonjudgmental writing instructor, and the Near-Sighted Monkey who likes to clip magazines while watching TV and drinking beer.
6/16/09 I now own a copy of this book with my very own personal inscription from the author! She even drew a near-sighted monkey for me!
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Jan 09, 2011
Charlene
rated it:
I discovered Lynda Barry in the 80s when she was doing Ernie Pook's Comeek. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way. The drawing was clunky, people had noses that were too big or some other imaginary graphical infraction that bugged me at the time. So imagine my surprise 20 years later when i rediscovered her as a teacher of creativity of sorts. I can't even tell you what this book is about, exactly. Imagine you accidentally find someone's childhood journal. It's full of intense and intricate
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May 01, 2010
Jackie
rated it:
OH. MY. GOODNESS. I LOVE LOVE LOVED this book. It was just such a refreshing treat of a book, simultaneously a story about the author's history of art in its many forms, an instructional guide with activities to help you brainstorm ideas, and a great big piece of art itself, embedded with philisophical questions regarding images and the act of creating. I've seen plenty of art instruction that is dry and uninspiring, but this is quite the opposite. As you progress through the book, you see t
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Aug 24, 2009
Raina
rated it:
Totally impressive collage/graphic novel rumination on writing and drawing, with exercises and everything!
I lo-lo-loved One Hundred Demons , but I loved it because I identified with her story, and I think it was a slightly more focused structure - story/collage/story/collage. This is a little more mixed and messy, focusing more on the collage, with cool exercises for becoming more inspired as a writer/draw-er. To me, Barry's collages are a bit messy/unfocused - I don't know where t More...
I lo-lo-loved One Hundred Demons , but I loved it because I identified with her story, and I think it was a slightly more focused structure - story/collage/story/collage. This is a little more mixed and messy, focusing more on the collage, with cool exercises for becoming more inspired as a writer/draw-er. To me, Barry's collages are a bit messy/unfocused - I don't know where t More...
Sep 14, 2009
Rachel Ann
rated it:
"What It Is" by Lynda Barry is part journal, scrapbook, sketchpad, self-help book, memoir, and writing exercise book, so I find it rather limiting to think of it as solely a journal. However, I suppose this book asks us to look at how we define the boundaries of a journal in the first place. "What It Is" is not a journal in the traditional sense. It is a journal that has been compiled with an audience in mind and with well-crafted pages in which the image often corresponds wi
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May 14, 2011
Rachel
rated it:
First, let’s start with what Lynda Barry’s graphic novel is not: drab, ordinary, boring. As an intellectual rhapsody of the power of image, form, and function within writing, What It Is is unlike any book I’ve ever experienced: undeniably an oddity– although wonderfully so. Barry’s stylized use of color, text, imagery, and wording is gorgeous, and the thoughts/questions that she poses are intuitively reflective. Her “essay” questions (which bear the post script “we do not know the answers”) cove
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Apr 27, 2011
Paula
rated it:
This book was recommended as a starting point for a creative writing course that someone else was planning. I was intrigued, so I checked it out of the library and "read" it. I put that in quotations because it's not really a book you read. The first pages are incredibly dense with seemingly random words and images, questions as to the meanings of memory and image, interspersed with autobiographical interludes from the life of the author. Towards the end of the book, Ms Barry offer
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Nov 30, 2008
Maré
rated it:
The number of stars is subject to change, depending on whether or not this book's exercises release me from the whatever forces bind me from writing/comicking.
Actually, I don't know if that's fair. I am busy and these exercises are probably really helpful and a necessary part of the experience.
Lynda Barry seems like a pretty smart lady. I've never read any of her books before. I'm pretty unfamiliar with her work. I've picked up bits and pieces about her from my visits to More...
Actually, I don't know if that's fair. I am busy and these exercises are probably really helpful and a necessary part of the experience.
Lynda Barry seems like a pretty smart lady. I've never read any of her books before. I'm pretty unfamiliar with her work. I've picked up bits and pieces about her from my visits to More...
Aug 28, 2011
Taka
rated it:
Good--
Reminded me of Gabriel Rico's Writing the Natural Way minus all the convincing (and old?) scientific background. One practical thing I took away from this is the power of doodling, which Rico also mentions in her book. Another is her simple exercise that may be useful in teaching creative writing.
Anyways, I'll probably try writing by hand and see how that experience is different from banging away on a computer. I do think Barry has a point when she says that we should w More...
Reminded me of Gabriel Rico's Writing the Natural Way minus all the convincing (and old?) scientific background. One practical thing I took away from this is the power of doodling, which Rico also mentions in her book. Another is her simple exercise that may be useful in teaching creative writing.
Anyways, I'll probably try writing by hand and see how that experience is different from banging away on a computer. I do think Barry has a point when she says that we should w More...
Aug 25, 2008
Jay
rated it: 
What It Is began with a philosophical bang. Are dreams autobiography or fiction? Do imaginary enemies exist? And while I appreciate these existential debates for the duration of a conversation, my mind was not in it for the long haul. I can't fault the book for being ambitious. I'm just a simple guy.
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Dec 07, 2010
Bonnie
rated it:
I write my journal in pen. On paper. With a very nice pen. And sometimes I doodle. I used to doodle a lot more. I used to write a lot more. Lynda Barry won me over with Cruddy and her strips (and don't you just love her fax correspondence with Matt Groening?); and the magic in this book is hard to over-state. Who hasn't had to take a long walk and still feel like things will never feel better, that one isn't creative, that all thoughts have been done, that one isn't worth STOP THAT- those scary
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Apr 14, 2010
Larry
rated it:
If you are interested in writing (and cartooning) this is a must-read book.
Parts of the book are positively existential; other parts fun exercises and great thought starters.
I have ordered a copy because there is so much value in having it at hand.(My first read was at the library.)
I recently missed an opportunity to hear Lynda speak and passed. I am kicking myself. I didn't know who she was. While reading this book I discover she is one of the original under More...
Parts of the book are positively existential; other parts fun exercises and great thought starters.
I have ordered a copy because there is so much value in having it at hand.(My first read was at the library.)
I recently missed an opportunity to hear Lynda speak and passed. I am kicking myself. I didn't know who she was. While reading this book I discover she is one of the original under More...
Feb 24, 2009
Terry
rated it:
I love, love, love Lynda Barry with a kind of helpless, adoring love.
If I am remembering correctly, this book sort of picks up on writing/art/creativity "advice" (can't think of another word at the moment) she explores briefly in 'One! Hundred! Demons!' and expands it into a full-length book. This is sort of The Artist's Way, but for, you know, VISUAL people. It's a meditation on creativity and art and autobiography and imagination, along with some exercises. Honestly, if More...
If I am remembering correctly, this book sort of picks up on writing/art/creativity "advice" (can't think of another word at the moment) she explores briefly in 'One! Hundred! Demons!' and expands it into a full-length book. This is sort of The Artist's Way, but for, you know, VISUAL people. It's a meditation on creativity and art and autobiography and imagination, along with some exercises. Honestly, if More...
Jun 07, 2009
Vicki
rated it:
Neko Case described this book as generous, and as with so many things she says, writes and sings, I identify with that. I follow Barry's comics, and this book looks very much like those little funny, quirky strips. This book is about writing, but it's also about where inspiration starts, when you get down to it. Barry explains what she thinks an image or an idea is by just putting both of those things out there. She intersperses thoughts on creating art with the realities of her life, and, y
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Dec 09, 2008
Joe
rated it:
This is a big, beautiful book full of page after page of gorgeous collages Lynda Barry created, I'm supposing, while trying to actually write a autobiographical comic of her life. But that's all it is. If you're expecting the new adventures of Marlys and Maybonne, Freddy and friends you will be disappointed as I initially was.
Barry peppers her collages with brief comics chronicling her unhappy childhood and creative awakening, so my guess, after finishing the book, is her collages More...
Barry peppers her collages with brief comics chronicling her unhappy childhood and creative awakening, so my guess, after finishing the book, is her collages More...
Jun 17, 2009
Susan
rated it:
Shelved as a YA Graphic Novel, this is a hard to catagorize book as it seemed more an adult memoir of how the author became an artist/writer than a YA, completely non-fiction (so Novel doesn't work even though it seems anything with a comic book feel illustration now is called Graphic Novel). So call it an Art Inspiration Memoir. While it has suggestions on following your art bliss (writing prompts of a sort, ditto art), it is primarily a heavily illustrated memoir, very sincere, and one that
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