Sometimes she went on about things that were lost on me, but mostly her stream-of-conscious narrative on the writing process was insightful, delightful, and beautifully wise. I marked it up real good with my yellow highlighter.

I have been wanting to read this for a while, but I’ve never read Annie Dillard and have been intimidated by the reviews that I’ve seen. But this month I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so I ordered this as a way to keep motivated.

And I’m so glad I did.

Dillard uses humor so well, I felt like I was in on all of her jokes without even knowing her. This book is written so casually – just in small vignettes that can be read in a couple of minutes – but beautifully illustrates her life as a writer. I was surprised to read that Annie hates being a writer, but she is one of those authors who is a true artist and has no choice but to do this work. She agonizes over writing a single word, which seems exhausting.

This book might be for you if you love hearing a master talk about her work or if you love the romantic ideal of being a writer – but this might just flip the idea of romance on its head!

Beautifully, beautifully said. The images that she paints are just stunning--and sometimes jarring. The content of the book does not inspire me to want to write myself, because she makes the writing life sound like a miserable existence, full of tension, internal strife, self-mockery, and redundant obsoletion. But the way that she tells stories of internal strife, tension, and a pursuit of beauty ignites a flittering spark of imagination, and sometimes just one word, used in the odd way that it is used is enough to make me want to sit and think about the stars and lights of life itself. And that...that makes me want to write.
Highly recommend it.

Oh Dillard. The dives and swoops.

Not ground shaking, but I will reread.

UPDATE: upon 2nd reading, still 5 stars, still my favorite book on writing