Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Anne Lamott
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  303 reviews
Sales Rank: 461
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 239
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0385480016
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.02
EAN: 9780385480017
ASIN: 0385480016
Publication Date: September 1, 1995
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Product Description
Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Amazon.com
Think you've got a book inside of you? Anne Lamott isn't afraid to help you let it out. She'll help you find your passion and your voice, beginning from the first really crummy draft to the peculiar letdown of publication. Readers will be reminded of the energizing books of writer Natalie Goldberg and will be seduced by Lamott's witty take on the reality of a writer's life, which has little to do with literary parties and a lot to do with jealousy, writer's block and going for broke with each paragraph. Marvelously wise and best of all, great reading.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 298 more reviews...
 fantastic July 29, 2008
Besides being a thorough exploration of writing, it's a memoir with insight into both writing and life.
Not just another how-to textbook; a must for the writer wanna-be July 17, 2008
A cursory look at the index might have one thinking this is just another step-by-step guide to a successful, publishable writing career...with chapters neatly organized by "character, plot, dialogue..." Ever so subtley, with unexpected laughs around every turn, the first chapter pulled me in as if I was a kid listening to a good friend tell me a crazy story propped on an easy lawnchair in my own backyard.
I adore Lamott's down and dirty frankness about the odds of publishing, and hysterically saw myself (a hopeful wanna-be writer) as one of her eager if not naive students. What an incredibly refreshing way she has of 'teaching' "us" through the most satiric, sometimes moronic, always satisfying stories and examples.
I read much of the book on an airplane and caught myself laughing out loud at times. During the poignant and carefully observed and recorded nursing home scene, I had to hide my watery eyes, only to go back and re-read the author's uniquely touching phraseology over and over again.
I think Lamott is a genius author, a wise and witty spirit, a superb mentor who knows how to grab her reader and then, sereptitiously teach her invaluable lessons on writing and life that will stick because of the intelligent and humorous context in which she reveals them.
The read is fast, but the lessons therein will last a lifetime and interestingly, the book has given me the boost and confidence I needed to write, write, write.
Pep in your step! July 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a put a pep-in-your-step writing book. It's really a book with instructions on having a WRITING life. I'm still in the thick of it but I've never laughed so hard or felt so motivated by a book to write.
 helps the author, not the reader July 12, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
The best advice is in the title, which is, in other words, "step by step." I can't remember if it is this book, or "Plan B," in which the author recounts taking rolls of dimes from an older black woman in the church she attended, even after she didn't need them any more, with the rationalization that it somehow helped the older black woman to give Lamott her meager savings. She can't even disguise her opportunist ways in her writing. This book is actually pretty bleak, to me. Just because Lamott has kinky hair and feels like an outcast, she attended black churches. How condescending to the members there: "I'm one of you because I feel like the lowest member of society and can't manage to get my act together. Oh, by the way, give me money because I had a child out of wedlock. That makes me so unusual." Lamott idolizes her father, who drank like a fish himeself, and allowed her as a minor to drink and hang out with his buddies, and vilifies and dismisses her mother who successfully completed law school and started a productive career at an unlikely age. This book, as all her books, recounts the author's serious drug addictions and her self-indulgence. How many can afford to spend a month or two in complete retreat to re-write a novel that was rejected? I guess if you don't mind taking rolls of dimes from poor black women, you can. But it's not on my list of to-do's for success. Stick to truly disciplined folk, like Michael Jordan for one, for advice on success in anything.
The greatest book on writing and creativity July 12, 2008
As I tell my friends: this is likely the most under-rated book of all time. From organizing your thoughts, to finding your creativity, to getting it all onto a piece of paper, this book serves as a guide for every person that wants to improve their ability to communicate. Anne Lamott is a talented writer, but an even more talented teacher. Get this book if you'd like to improve every facet of your writing.
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