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abe25's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Great read about literacy and literacy oddities!
bhavani's review against another edition
2.0
Literary Miscellany is divided into three sections: Writers, Readers, and Works
Part 1 explores forms of storytelling, their historical origin, and significance. It talks about how writers earned (and still do) their living before they made enough money to make it their only occupation, what fueled their creativity and what were their writing habits. I learned that autobiographies are more or less the reality tv of its day, why most successful novelists make poor screenplay writers and what defines a short story, novella, and novel.
Part 2 is about bestsellers, fandoms, literary hoaxes, sexism directed at early novels and moralizing of literature. Part 3 examines the evolution of insults and sex in books, terror, science fiction and detective novels and how they're a product of the society that they were created in.
This book is at times illuminating and funny and at others, dreadfully boring. I skipped through the chapter on odes (yawn) but found some really good quotes and info on some authors.
P.S.: If William Faulkner had published a how-to guide for writing resignation letters, let me know. I would definitely read that.
Part 1 explores forms of storytelling, their historical origin, and significance. It talks about how writers earned (and still do) their living before they made enough money to make it their only occupation, what fueled their creativity and what were their writing habits. I learned that autobiographies are more or less the reality tv of its day, why most successful novelists make poor screenplay writers and what defines a short story, novella, and novel.
Part 2 is about bestsellers, fandoms, literary hoaxes, sexism directed at early novels and moralizing of literature. Part 3 examines the evolution of insults and sex in books, terror, science fiction and detective novels and how they're a product of the society that they were created in.
This book is at times illuminating and funny and at others, dreadfully boring. I skipped through the chapter on odes (yawn) but found some really good quotes and info on some authors.
P.S.: If William Faulkner had published a how-to guide for writing resignation letters, let me know. I would definitely read that.
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