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Books for Your Beach Bag: Writers on Writing

2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky

Like that? It’s a bumper sticker!

Few things make me happier than discovering an unintended theme in my reading, particularly because the longer I blog, the worse I become at intentionally grouping my reading material. These are my latest favorites in the “books about books and writing” category.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit edited by Sonny Brewer

Ever wonder what your favorite writers did before they became writers? In Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Sonny Brewer presents an anthology in which well-known (mostly southern) writers discuss their pre-writing jobs and how those jobs influenced their work. Here is Pat Conroy describing a summer spent working for a Catholic social justice organization. Here is Joshilyn Jackson revealing in hilarious detail the fictional boyfriend who made her mindnumbing office gig slightly more bearable. Here is Tom Franklin (whose Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter was a 2010 Book Lady favorite) reflecting on being a thirty-two-year-old pizza delivery guy…with a twenty-one-year-old manager. And here is John Grisham relating the transition from lawyer (which, come on, it’s not like he was down a mine) to blockbusting bestseller.

The pieces in Don’t Quit Your Day Job are part motivational (these people get paid to do what they love and you can too!), part memoir, and all worthwhile. I enjoyed dipping into this collection for palate cleansers to break up the heavier books I was reading at the time, but one could just as easily plow straight through. It’s always fun to get a glimpse of the people behind the books we love, and Don’t Quit Your Day Job is no exception.

How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely

No, no. It’s not a guide book. This here is a novel about Peter Tarslaw, a burned out writer (and by writer, I mean dude who gets paid to write other people’s college entrance essays and job application cover letters) who, fed up with watching bestselling authors profit from churning out formulaic BS, decides to take the path of if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-em. Plus, he figures there’s no better way to make his ex regret breaking up with him than to show up at her wedding hot on the heels of literary fame and riches.

Tarslaw peruses the bestseller lists—which are hilarious thanks to Hely’s devilish brilliance (see below)— and wanders the aisles at his local bookstore to compile a list of fail-proof plot devices, and he sets to work—aided by coffee, cigarettes, and a little light drug use—churning out the manuscript that becomes The Tornado Ashes Club.

And whaddya know? The formula works! Tarslaw finds himself atop the lists, on a major book tour, and in the interview hot seat of Hely’s fictional Oprah +Barbara Walters equivalent. And he’s appalled!

How I Became a Famous Novelist is impressively and hilariously cynical, and no one is safe. Hely skewers the James Pattersons and Nicholas Sparkses of his fictional world, calls the publishing industry onto the carpet, and takes contemporary readers to task for being so damn undiscriminating and banal. And the real trick of it is that he makes you like every last minute of it. You’ll laugh until you want to cry, or you’ll want to cry so badly that you’ll laugh. Either way, don’t miss How I Became a Famous Novelist. (Big thanks to Geoffrey Jennings of Rainy Day Books for the handsell!)

Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing by Roger Rosenblatt

And now, a turn to the serious.

One of my first reads of the year, Roger Rosenblatt’s Unless It Moves the Human Heart (Ecco Books, January 2011) is destined for my 2011 “best of” lists, no doubt. Drawing on more than forty years of experience, Rosenblatt recalls one semester in his “Writing Everything” course, sharing not only his own insights about what makes writing art but also his students’ perspectives, developments, and profound statements as they grapple with questions of style, substance, and what it means to live “the writing life.”

There is much to be loved in this slim (175-page) volume that deserves a home on every bibliophile’s shelves. Happily, Rosenblatt’s nuggets of wisdom prove just as instructive for readers and critics as for writers, and whatever your place in the world of books and writing, you are sure to learn something. This is a book that will transform the way you read, the way you write, and the way you write about what you read.

Filed Under Book Reviews

6 Comments

Comments

6 Responses to “Books for Your Beach Bag: Writers on Writing”

Julie @ Read Handed on July 19th, 2011 9:25 am

These all sound fantastic, especially How I Became a Famous Novelist. I, too, just finished reading a book about writing called Mentor: A Memoir by novelist Tom Grimes. It was revealing and insightful, especially into how publishing works on the writer’s end. Here’s my post about it, if you’d like to check it out. Thanks for sharing these.
Julie @ Read Handed´s last [type] ..Teaser Tuesdays
Sandy on July 19th, 2011 10:42 am

OK, let’s face it though. Patterson and Sparks totally deserved to be skewered, along with some of their fans. Just saying. I love his take on the bestsellers! That was a nice laugh out loud moment for my morning.
Sandy´s last [type] ..The Redbreast – Jo Nesbo
Alex George on July 19th, 2011 3:18 pm

This is * disastrous *. I want to read ALL of these. Thank you for the recommendations – I knew about Don’t Quit Your Day Job but the others look equally compelling.
Alex George´s last [type] ..Starting Over – Again
Alyce on July 19th, 2011 5:56 pm

I loved the Famous Novelist book too – especially the parts that were obviously digs at authors like Sparks!
Alyce´s last [type] ..Global Climate Change by Orrin H. Pilkey – Review
A. Sparks on July 19th, 2011 7:01 pm

Can’t wait to look into How I Became a Famous Novelist. I remember the point in my life when I realized all those bestseller lists (most especially the New York Times list) were basically filled with books that were more or less only blockbuster movies in prose form without much literary merit. And then there is also my ongoing annoyance that I have to share a last name Mr. Blockbuster himself. Disgrace!
A. Sparks´s last [type] ..The Help – Kathryn Stockett
Kristi on July 19th, 2011 8:59 pm

I love the idea of the anthology in Don’t Quit Your Day Job. I think that it is always fun to get a glimpse of an author’s experiences before they became writers.
Kristi´s last [type] ..Book Review: 22 Brittania Road by Amanda Hodgkinson