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soaudreyreads's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
ethan0lsen's review against another edition
informative
relaxing
slow-paced
3.0
A behind-the-scenes look into the creation of an art style that doesn’t typically get its story told.
Super cool for hardcore Steinbeck or East of Eden fans. Otherwise, the discussion may seem vague and disinteresting :/
Feeling super inspired to start journaling and become MUCH more productive, though!
Super cool for hardcore Steinbeck or East of Eden fans. Otherwise, the discussion may seem vague and disinteresting :/
Feeling super inspired to start journaling and become MUCH more productive, though!
littletaiko's review against another edition
4.0
Read this in tandem with a rereading of East of Eden. Quite enjoyed seeing behind the scenes.
• The man really loved his pencils. There were multiple mentions throughout the book about his pencils getting too short and how he preferred the long pencils. Also how they needed to be round. I just find it hard to believe that he wrote the whole book by pencil.
• Writers are normal people. He had things going on his personal life that disrupted his writing. He had doubts, procrastinated some days, got sick, etc...
• He put so much thought into writing this book and had very specific reasons for his choices.
• The Hamilton portion of the book is based on his family. He even makes a very brief appearance towards the end.
• The difficult parts of the book were hard for him to write and he had to sort of prepare himself to get through those sections.
• The man really loved his pencils. There were multiple mentions throughout the book about his pencils getting too short and how he preferred the long pencils. Also how they needed to be round. I just find it hard to believe that he wrote the whole book by pencil.
• Writers are normal people. He had things going on his personal life that disrupted his writing. He had doubts, procrastinated some days, got sick, etc...
• He put so much thought into writing this book and had very specific reasons for his choices.
• The Hamilton portion of the book is based on his family. He even makes a very brief appearance towards the end.
• The difficult parts of the book were hard for him to write and he had to sort of prepare himself to get through those sections.
kevinm56's review against another edition
3.0
If you are a writer you might like this book. Quite a bit of it is mundane; it is pretty repetitive. But, there is some insight into the mind of a great writer.
Page 115 – 116: “Not that it is necessary to be remembered but there is one purpose in writing that I can see, beyond simply doing it interestingly. It is the duty of the writer to lift up, to extend, to encourage. If the written word has contributed anything at all to our developing species and our half developed culture, it is this” Great writing has been a staff to lean on, a mother to consult, a wisdom to pick up stumbling folly, a strength in weakness and a courage to support sick cowardice.”
Page 124: “…novel has been falling before the onslaught of non-fiction.” This is on July 9, 1951. Even then the novel was thought to be dead. Look at it now.
Also, the man was seriously into his pencils! It's no different today. We are picky about our computers and software. He mentions on July 2, 1951 that he went through three dozen pencils since June 11th. That's about 2 pencils per working day! That's a lot of writing!
One other observation: unlike so many of today's writers, especially but not confined to self-published writers, there's no mention of cover design, book blurbs, marketing strategy, book giveaways to garner reviews... his sole focus during the 10 months of writing was on the story.
Page 115 – 116: “Not that it is necessary to be remembered but there is one purpose in writing that I can see, beyond simply doing it interestingly. It is the duty of the writer to lift up, to extend, to encourage. If the written word has contributed anything at all to our developing species and our half developed culture, it is this” Great writing has been a staff to lean on, a mother to consult, a wisdom to pick up stumbling folly, a strength in weakness and a courage to support sick cowardice.”
Page 124: “…novel has been falling before the onslaught of non-fiction.” This is on July 9, 1951. Even then the novel was thought to be dead. Look at it now.
Also, the man was seriously into his pencils! It's no different today. We are picky about our computers and software. He mentions on July 2, 1951 that he went through three dozen pencils since June 11th. That's about 2 pencils per working day! That's a lot of writing!
One other observation: unlike so many of today's writers, especially but not confined to self-published writers, there's no mention of cover design, book blurbs, marketing strategy, book giveaways to garner reviews... his sole focus during the 10 months of writing was on the story.
c8_19's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.0
I happened upon this book at Half Price Books right before I was going to begin my re-read of East of Eden and what serendipitous timing. Having finished that re-read at the end of this past year, I deeply enjoyed picking this up because themes and characters were fresh on my mind. The way Steinbeck shares his thoughts simply works for me. Something about his writing voice is exactly my vibe. And it's incredibly interesting to get his perspective on a novel that he feels was The Book he was meant to write. As he put it, all other stories up to the point of writing East of Eden were just practice for the real task he needed to undertake.