The Sheepish Scribe

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


This book came highly recommended by a writer I both admire and respect. For that reason, I gave it every chance and read more than half of it before shutting the cover for good last night. I have never read a book or article by Anne Lamott other than this one, I know nothing about her personally, but this book turned me off completely. She talks about God and going to church, yet ridicules evangelicals and snidely refers to the Lord as "she". The book contains vulgar language including taking the Lord's name in vain and the use of the F word.

As far as writing content, I found nothing in here that I haven't found in other books. Anne Lamott believes in seat-of-the-pants style writing. In the first two thirds of the book, there was nothing much except the repeat of "listen to the characters" and how to do that. She uses examples from a class she teaches, usually by mocking the students, and her humor throughout tends to be derogatory in nature.

The book overall is well written and easy to follow, but the content did not appeal to me or encourage me to keep reading. I would have shut the cover much sooner except for the respect I have for the person who recommended it.