Book #51: Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

I have recommended this book before (some books you have to read more than once) and Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them is no exception.

I love this book. I’ve read it probably about four times, but each time I do, I find something new to ponder and it does help me write and read better. I don’t think there is any magic hocus-pocus going on, but it’s just one of those books that every serious reader/writer should undertake at some point in their reading/writing career.

Publishers Weekly writes (starred review),

The trick to writing, Prose writes, is reading—carefully, deliberately and slowly. While this might seem like a no-brainer, Prose (Blue Angel; A Changed Man) masterfully meditates on how quality reading informs great writing, which will warm the cold, jaded hearts of even the most frustrated, unappreciated and unpublished writers. Chapters treat the nuts and bolts of writing (words, sentences, paragraphs) as well as issues of craft (narration, character, dialogue), all of which Prose discusses using story or novel excerpts. This is where the book truly shines; Prose is remarkably egalitarian in choosing exemplars of fiction: David Gates, Denis Johnson, John le Carré and ZZ Packer, for instance, are considered as seriously as Chekhov, Melville, Flaubert or Babel. Prose insists that “literature not only breaks the rules, but makes us realize that there are none,” and urges writers to re-read the classics (Chekhov, especially) and view “reading as something that might move or delight you.” Prose’s guide to reading and writing belongs on every writer’s bookshelf alongside E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel.

Grade: A+ (seriously, a delightful, incredible, powerful book)

Tagged as: book record, brilliant, reading, writing