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BOOKS I READ: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (1994). Each of the book’s chapters offers well-packaged insights and folksy advice for writers, and others. Bird by Bird jumped to the top of my queue after it was heartedly endorsed by someone I met at a writing workshop. The paperback at my local bookstore said it was the 25th anniversary edition, a concurring commendation.
Lamott’s motif is that one should write if you must, but to do so because there’s something divine for you in that act, and not because you seek publication as a validation of the effort. Some of my favorite sections are not specific to writing, staying true to the book’s subtitle, “some instructions on writing and life.” She writes about a time she rushed out of a church meeting, feeling overwhelmed, as she headed to her next engagement. On the way out she pockets a small prayer book. Later, she remembers the prayer book, finding a helpful quote within: “the Gulf Stream will flow through a straw provided the straw is aligned to the Gulf Stream, and not at cross purposes with it.” (pg. 112) Another favorite aphorism is about offering criticism, about how it should be truthful and not patronizing, but also kind: “you don’t always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.” (pg. 146)
In the final chapter, “The Last Class,” Lamott offers her readers a reminder of why one chooses to write. It also serves as a welcome to a life of writing, describing it as an obsession that must be practiced and nurtured, that becoming a writer will connect you to your life and surroundings. “Devotion and commitment [to writing] is its own reward,” she attests. Practicing to be a writer “can profoundly change your life as a reader;” one becomes more appreciative of the effort necessary to make writing seem effortless.
Check out my Bookshop.org stand; and browse my reading log. The previous entry to my reading log is here:
