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| Author: Francine Prose
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $10.88
You Save: $3.07 (22%)
Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 6950
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0060777052
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.02
EAN: 9780060777050
Publication Date: April 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Guess I'll never be a writer based on this book... December 30, 2006
28 out of 38 found this review helpful
This book sounded like a natural fit for me... Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose. I read prolifically, I write... Perfect, right? Nope. Guess I'll never be a writer based on this book...
Contents: Close Reading; Words; Sentences; Paragraphs; Narration; Character; Dialogue; Details; Gesture; Learning from Chekhov; Reading for Courage; Books to Be Read Immediately; Acknowledgements
I had to think a bit to figure out why this book didn't do much for me. Prose talks about how slow reading and deconstructing of the masters can lead one to become a better writer. By noting what works and what doesn't in terms of words, sentences, dialog and such, you can tap into the collected wisdom of the ages when it comes to putting words to paper. That's all true, and I know that I *do* read much too fast to savor the way the construction of a story occurs. Where I lost it however, was with the lofty ramblings about how one word was used instead of another, how a particular sentence said far more than the words contained, and how the mind of the writer was dissected along with each word. I'm sure the greats probably did agonize over each page and paragraph. But if I read a book in her style, I'd spend hours getting through each chapter, and the joy of reading would disappear entirely.
I think the other part of my disconnect was that my writing tends to be nonfiction. Nearly all her examples deal with fiction and stories, and I know that's a completely different beast when it comes to writing. I've often said that if I wrote a novel, it'd end up being about 50 pages long as I don't do color well. As stories are all about color (stated or implied), I don't relate to her commentary when it comes to my own work. Yes, I *do* need to spend more time thinking about how writers construct their words. I just can't fathom doing it at the level she presents.
If you're seriously into writing fiction and have a more introspective nature than I do, you will probably get a whole lot more value from the time you spend with Prose. I guess for me, I'll just have to stick to my doomed efforts to communicate with a reader...
 Writing Like A Pretentious Bore April 13, 2007
27 out of 73 found this review helpful
Sorry, but I really hated this pretentious, boring, and useless exercise in academic masturbation. It's all just an excuse for the writer to drone on and on about her favorite books. A lackluster lesson in literary snobbery, this lifeless thesis paper includes iffy interpretations of dry excerpts, unhelpful writing hints, and zero sense of humor or drama. If you don't love the same books, stories, and writers that Francine Prose loves, you're pretty much screwed. As a published writer myself, I often check out writing books for inspiration. This is one of the worst. I prefer something lighter, more engaging and motivational to light a fire under me. I like Ray Bradbury's book, with its infectious boyish enthusiasm, and the terrific book about publishing, "The Forrest for the Trees" (the first half is inspiring, but the second half a little depressing.) Either way, skip this yawn-fest.
 TRULY INSPIRING September 5, 2006
26 out of 30 found this review helpful
I have a feeling this book is going to become the bible of many a creative writing program, and it will surely be a lifesaver for writing teachers who wish their students would spent less time "expressing themselves" and more time studying how good books actually get written. In the kindest, gentlest way possible, Prose has written a how-to book that also strikes a blow against the culture of narcissism. Francine Prose --surely one of our best cultural critics, on top of being a fine novelist --has written a joyous celebration of the written word, and she reminds us that you don't have to write to be a part of the literary community. And by the way, the many passages that illustrate this fine book are in themselves worth the price of admission.
Good but needs a do-over May 16, 2007
24 out of 28 found this review helpful
While I am pleased to add Francine Prose's "Reading Like a Writer" to my how-to-write-good canon, I think I'd like her to do it over, not as a replacement, more as a corollary. Keep the title and most of the content; change the subtitle to "A PRACTICAL Guide for NEW Writers Aspiring to Make a Living in a Dysfunctional Industry". Ms. Prose has been at this game for so long and been successful for nearly as long that she has forgotten what it's like to be an FNG (effing new guy) to professional writing. She certainly hasn't experienced anything like being unknown and unpublished in the last 10 years where the barriers to entry have become even more entrenched than they ever were before.
So what to put in the new improved version? Besides an index, start with losing the references that were written before, say, 1960. It's obvious Ms. Prose loves the classics. So do I. Those writers were giants in their day. But it would be career suicide to try to write like them today, especially the overfed prose of the British writers. Today's writers have XBox, reality shows, and cellphone-texting standing by ready to steal the reader with the flick of a switch. Today's writers need to grab the reader quickly and not let go. That can't be done with 181-word sentences. This is the age of the short attention span. It is no accident that Harold Bloom has little regard for J.K. Rowling. Neither is it an accident that all the world is reading Rowling's work.
How to account for this phenomenon? Though Ms. Prose and I are nearly the same age, she has spent her life in literature while I spent mine first as an Army officer and later as an engineer. I've only been at this reading/writing game for about five years. Before you scoff, engineering and writing are more alike than they are different. Each is governed by a set of laws--grammar for writing, formulas for engineering. But beyond that there is a great deal of room for artistry, creativity, or, as we say in engineering, elegance. Were this not so, all bridges would either look alike or fall down.
Growing up in the world of words I can easily see how Ms. Prose fell in love with Words, Sentences and Paragraphs. She's become a virtuoso, rather like one of those violinists who delight in playing things that are hard to play whether or not they are nice to listen to. As for myself, I'm a Signal-to-Noise-Ratio kinda guy. In any given sentence, some words contribute to signal (meaning), while others contribute to noise. As I read Ms. Prose's windier sample passages, I observed two things: first I had to read them several times to grok their meaning--I had to grope for the subject-verb-object and was tempted to highlight them after I found them. Second, I never did settle into the rhythm of the words that she insisted was there. After five years, I can write a pretty good sentence, clever even. However, I suspect Ms. Prose and I go about it in very different ways and have very different outcomes. I think I'll pick up a copy of "Blue Angel" to see if I'm right.
Some other observations:
--Her chapters started out with decreasing granularity--words, sentences, paragraphs. I would have liked her to extend that progression to scenes and chapters as well. I suspect the sheer bulk prohibited that in this edition.
--A chapter I would have liked to have seen would have been one on openers. Every sentence has a mission--to get you to read the next sentence. Any sentence that fails in that mission leaves a long string of unrequited sentences. Hence, the nearer the failure occurs to the beginning of the book, the greater the damage. She did comment on a few people's openers, but I believe separate billing for openers would have been justified.
--I got a chuckle out of her closing section, Books to Be Read Immediately. She just got done convincing me to read more slowly, one word at a time. BTW--engineers do that by nature. Now she presents me with a single-spaced list of books that goes on for five pages. I had been wondering what I was going to do for the next twenty years--now I know.
--She commented that the joy of writing for her and many other writers comes from crafting sentences. I will admit that is one of the more fun parts of writing, but that is not why I write. I write to tell stories. Sentences--no matter how finely crafted--are only a means to that end. Beyond telling stories, I have the hidden agenda of changing people's attitudes--something you can only do with good fiction. I like to say that if you intend to inform the already convinced, write non-fiction. But if you would change people's attitudes, you must write fiction. Examples: Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (led to the Civil War), or Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" (led to the civil rights movement). You can write essay after essay on why it's wrong to be a racist but you will not change one racist mind. They do not respond to facts and logic. But let them live in a racist world, let them walk a mile in racist shoes, as you can only do in fiction--ah, now you may find a chink in their armor. Though racism is not my target, changing people's attitudes is why I write.
--Ejner Fulsang, author of "A Knavish Piece of Work", Aarhus Publishing, 2006
Readers are writers - Class dismiss! November 11, 2006
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book on reading and writing and the title says it all. It was eye opening to know what I, as a reader should be aware when reading good and bad writing.
While I was reading the book, I felt like I was sitting in one of Ms. Prose courses and she, as my English professor, was explaining to me how this author did this and why another author wrote this way. It enabled me to realize the fine points of word choice and paragraph structure, which I will remember when writing, in addition to how it is the writers' job to engage the reader with his or her writings.
This book allowed me to see how a writer should write or should look at writing their piece and how I, as the reader, should respond to their writing. It was especially poignant when Ms. Prose said we should slow down when reading. This is against the norm of reading as fast as you can. However, when you read too fast you miss the most important parts of any piece. Reading is not about racing; it is about enjoying the adventure. It also provided me with thought on how I can learn from the classic and contemporary writers to improve my own writing. However, I am not sure I will be able to read "all" the 117 books she recommends to be read immediately. I will just savor each, one at a time.
If you love to read and want to read more effectively, or if you are a writer who wants to write the next hit novel, read this book. It will provide you with numerous points on writing and reading that you never thought of before. After reading this book, you will never look at a book again the same way.
Thanks Ms. Prose for a wonderful lesson. I enjoyed your class.
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