Saturday 8 February 2014

Book Review: Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

Title: Reading Like a Writer
Author: Francine Prose
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: 2007 (2006)
Pages: 273
Format: Paperback
Genre: Non-Fiction
Source: Xmas Gift



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060777052/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0060777052&linkCode=as2&tag=nijma-20
Buy This Book from Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart - to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliot's Middlemarch. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail. And, most important, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted. (Goodreads Synopsis)


Reading Like a Writer is an intelligent and thought-provoking read that will make you reassess how you read books and approach language, whether you are a writer or just a bookworm.

Prose illustrates her thoughts with excellent examples from a range of literary styles and periods and I certainly picked up a few concepts I had never thought about before.

This is entertaining reading for those who love books and a vital addition to the library of any budding writer.


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