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Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them
Francine Prose
#UB4402
Paperback, 273 pages; 2007 (2006)
$13.95
 Members' Price: $11.86
I've always thought that a close—reading course should at least be a companion, if not an alternative, to the writing workshop. Though it also doles out praise, the workshop most often focuses on what a writer has done wrong, what needs to be fixed, cut, or augmented. Whereas reading a masterpiece can inspire us by showing us how a writer does something brilliantly.
I highly recommend Reading Like a Writer for both categories of people mentioned in the subtitle. For those of us "who love books," celebrated author Francine Prose's passion, experience, and insight regarding the act of reading give us even more reasons--and ways--to devour the written word. And for "those who want to write," this unique guide reveals the "private lessons in the art of fiction" that can be gleaned from careful readings of great writers' works. In chapters that highlight specific elements of good writing, Prose offers scores of excerpts from a variety of classics…and shows how a writer would read them.
(CH)
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