A review by 2001astaceodyssey
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
3.0
This is another one of those books that had been on my TBR list for years and years, picked up and attempted to start numerous times only to put it down for something more exciting? appealing? interesting? Maybe all of the above. I started this time determined to make it all the way through to the end, beginning purposefully at the end of the year with hopes of using what I learned to fuel more thoughtful and conscientious reading in the coming year. I wanted it to help me better examine, appreciate and/or understand the texts I read in a better way.
While reading this book did make me feel better about my slow reading speed, overall I’m pretty disappointed with the experience. It was difficult to get through and inadvertently caused a bit of a general reading slump. I got through very few pages at a time, either getting distracted by other things or falling asleep. It felt too textbook-y, too list-y so much of the time. I wanted Prose to do more with the examples she presented, to use more of her own stories to tie the passages together, more of her unique anecdotes and not just example, example, example. (For this reason, my favorite chapter was the one on Chekhov. I wish the rest of the book had been more like it.)
I found myself wishing that more of the references came from more recently written books as I’m not very familiar with a lot of the classics, but also appreciated being introduced to interesting works I haven’t yet explored.
I didn’t always agree with the author’s opinions in regards to the examples she provided, and didn’t appreciate the way she would speak as if her interpretations were the be-all, end-all. ‘Clearly, we see here ______.’ “These first words are enough to make us feel ______ and consequently ______ for the main character'. Don’t speak for me, Prose. You don’t know how those words made me feel.
I am going to use to this experience to influence how I read in 2015, but not the way I thought I would. As a bit of a new years resolution I’ve decided to put a book down after 100 pages if it doesn’t grab me. I have so many books I want to read that it just doesn’t make sense to waste my time on something I’m not enjoying simply for the sake of finishing it.
While reading this book did make me feel better about my slow reading speed, overall I’m pretty disappointed with the experience. It was difficult to get through and inadvertently caused a bit of a general reading slump. I got through very few pages at a time, either getting distracted by other things or falling asleep. It felt too textbook-y, too list-y so much of the time. I wanted Prose to do more with the examples she presented, to use more of her own stories to tie the passages together, more of her unique anecdotes and not just example, example, example. (For this reason, my favorite chapter was the one on Chekhov. I wish the rest of the book had been more like it.)
I found myself wishing that more of the references came from more recently written books as I’m not very familiar with a lot of the classics, but also appreciated being introduced to interesting works I haven’t yet explored.
I didn’t always agree with the author’s opinions in regards to the examples she provided, and didn’t appreciate the way she would speak as if her interpretations were the be-all, end-all. ‘Clearly, we see here ______.’ “These first words are enough to make us feel ______ and consequently ______ for the main character'. Don’t speak for me, Prose. You don’t know how those words made me feel.
I am going to use to this experience to influence how I read in 2015, but not the way I thought I would. As a bit of a new years resolution I’ve decided to put a book down after 100 pages if it doesn’t grab me. I have so many books I want to read that it just doesn’t make sense to waste my time on something I’m not enjoying simply for the sake of finishing it.