Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

by Lamott, Anne
ISBN: 9780385480017
4.8 (4)
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Used - Trade Paperback - 9780385480017

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Overview

"A warm, generous and hilarious guide through the writer's world and its treacherous swamps." --Los Angeles Times

Advice on writing and on life from an acclaimed bestselling author:
"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Lamott, Anne
  • ISBN: 9780385480017
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 7.70 x 0.90
  • Number Of Pages: 256
  • Publication Year: 1995

Customer Reviews

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5 ★   75%
4 ★   25%
3 ★   0%
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4.8
4 Ratings

25

25% Would Recommend
1 Recommendations

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  • Lamott is one of my favorites!

    Would Recommend
    Cay C. - 4 months ago

    This is a book worth re-reading periodically. Not just a tome about writing but a reminder not to take yourself so seriously and some laugh-until-you snort moments! I delight in Lamott's snarky, punchy humor.

    Tags: Quick Read, Funny

  • My favorite book about being a writer

    Alyson G. - 3 years 7 months ago

    Bird By Bird is a compassionate, sensible read, reassuring for those moments when the words just won't come. There's no secret technique to becoming a good writer or bestseller here, no magic formula for success. There's just advice for coping with a creative rut, jealousy, the desire for success and its difficulties, interspersed with stories of personal experience. Consider it as a gift for the writer in your life.

    HPB Staff Review

  • “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

    Jennifer E. - 4 years 10 months ago

    Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird was inspired by her ten year old brother’s meltdown over an impending bird report, “immobilized by the hugeness of the task at hand.” Like Lamott’s, I picture my Heavenly Father sitting down beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, and saying, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” “Writers are like vacuum cleaners sucking up all that we can see and hear and think and feel and articulate...The first draft is the down draft – you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft -- you fix it up… And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.” “I worry that Jesus drinks himself to sleep when he hears me talk like this,” but “you can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do...To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass. Seeing things in such a narrow and narcissistic way that it presents a colorectal theology.” “One of the most annoying things about God is that he never just touches you with his magic wand, like Glenda the Good, and gives you what you want.… But he might give you the courage or the stamina to write lots and lots of terrible first drafts, and then you’d learn that good second drafts can spring from these, and you’d see that big sloppy imperfect messes have value.” Unorthodox, irreverent and hilarious, guru Anne Lamott intertwines theology and ornithology into a tapestry of truth for life.

  • A Great Book For Any Inspiring Writer

    Samantha-Anne S. - 6 years 9 months ago

    While not only a great read, Bird By Bird is a wonderfully inspiring book for any writer. It's not really a "how to" book for writing, but a book that helps you take your work (whether writing or otherwise) "bird by bird" or rather, one thing at a time. Well written and an enjoyable read.

    HPB Staff Review