Book Review: Bird by Bird

So through a ‘tweet’ on my ‘Hootsuite’ iPhone App — a little birdy with the handle @behoff recommended this book as a writing instructional tool and more. Kind of skeptical on the later part but I thought I might check this out to improve my writing without having to read some colossal industry tome.

The book, Bird by Bird is written by Anne Lamott. She is an American writer known for a variety of works. From fictional novels, magazines, short stories to autobiographical-ish books in various subjects. One of her most popular books was called Traveling Mercies which reflected on some of her personal struggles.

Who Should Read This?

Bird by Bird is about writing. However, you can replace the word “writer” with “designer”, “typographer”, “illustrator” and most other creative professions and the subject matter would still apply. Perhaps even more so in some cases.

What made it appeal to me was that it is more of a realistic look at a profession rather than an idealist snapshot from someone who has found success. The elements of good writing are simply stated and can be described ; determination, work ethic and balls. (That’s my opinion of course, you can read the book and interpret whether any type of balls are necessary to be a writer at all.) As you will discover, the book is about a lot more than writing though.

The chapters are structured in four parts. Each part dealing with what her personal and unique views as to what is important to a writer’s success.

• Part One: Writing
• Part Two: The Writing Frame of Mind
• Part Three: Help Along The Way
• Part Four: Publication — And Other Reasons To Write

Writing

The meat of the book is in Part One. She goes over common sense strategies to get started, staying sharp or improving. Not surprisingly, there are no secrets. All her advice centers around a hard-nosed foundation of just plain ol’ working at it. She recommends such practices as setting a routine, don’t be afraid to do a first draft and to just scribble away.

What makes this book special is how she brings her advice to life with vivid stories from her past. You find out that the life of a writer is not as glamorous as you might think when she pulls back the curtains for us to see. You will learn about writing in these chapters. How well you can turn these writing specific chapters into metaphors for your specific vocation is up to the reader.

Life

I found that her most valuable instruction in the book came in the form of life lessons. In Part Two: The Writing Frame of Mind — she speaks of Jealousy. No professor, mentor, conference speaker or colleague of mine has ever pontificated on the idea of envy and jealousy within the creative industry,

When she ranted on having to deal with other people’s success, it was great to know other people have the same type of emotions. At one point in my career, I was extremely frustrated with how things were shaping up. I ended up leaving NYC because of it and paved my own path out her in the SF Bay area, where the internet saved my career (and sanity).

She puts the situation in perspective by telling us how she has dealt with it as well. Jealousy is not pretty. After reading this chapter, I really appreciate the unconventional approach she took towards selecting her topics.

I found this helpful to me as I can be a competitive person but she has dealt with other inner demons in her life that might help you.

Bleep

I love her use of expletives. Like them or hate them, I feel as though normal human speech requires a well placed expletive every so often. After reading this, it felt more like I’ve had a long conversation with someone rather than reading a book. Her conversational writing style combined with her stories make this book fast reading.

$8.80 Yo’

I’ve gained a perspective that wasn’t there previously after reading Bird by Bird. You can peruse lifehacker.com for tips and tricks or Lance Armstrong bios for pure rah-rah inspiration but this book has a unique vibe that is neither like a instruction manual or a movie. It’s real and I’d like to think the reason I enjoyed it so much is that I am too.

» Amazon