Skip to main content

Review: Zen in the art of writing by Ray Bradbury – The literary equivalent of getting high

Ray Bradbury is my favorite writer. I love his short stories, his novels, his poems, and Fahrenheit 451 is my favorite book of all time.


I wanted a book that would make me a better writer but would not be boring and tedious. So when I found out that there was a book by him, about writing, I decided that I had to have it. I had looked up some good books about writing and the moment I saw the name Bradbury I clicked on it. I scrolled through a list of quotes from the book and was fascinated, there are many great quotes from the book, and each one seemed to have life energy and being to them. So after reading only several quotes from the list I became very hyped for the book.


And I was not disappointed because Bradbury writes with enthusiasm and honesty. While starting the first two chapters I became so enwrapped with the book that I went outside and began yelling the words out like a preacher quoting the bible (I was not drunk at the time, I was just very happy and really I’m just a little child).
Zen in the Art of Writing is a book of seven essay’s by Bradbury, some of them addressing the creation of his more famous books, and others simply made to lend a hand to writers entering the business of writing. He has helpful tips but also tells interesting stories about what inspired him as well as the trials and tribulations that he had to go through in order to get to where he is today.


One particularly good suggestion of his is this: every morning, the first thing you do is turn on your computer and write down the first word that comes to mind, then write the word that is brought on by that, then write down the next word brought on by the second word and so on and so forth until you have ten or twenty from this little game of word association.


By doing this you cannot only get ideas that you didn't even know you had out, but you can also gain practice and learn more about your own mind. You're strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing different genres and perspectives. And along the way you might just discover that you have a new idea for a story under you belt.


The book is great for if you're a Bradbury fan, and wonderful if you're an aspiring writer.


I’d rate the book Great.


(If you haven’t read any of my previous posts, then this chart shows how I rate books = Awful - Bad - Good - Great - Brilliant.)

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2015 at 2:26 PM

    I went outside and began yelling the words out like a preacher quoting the bible. That's my favorite line. Thanks, Ezra.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Leap days” by Ian Bennett and “Anya’s Ghost” by Vera Brosgol - In which I get an invisible friend to help me cheat on the review

“Leap days” by Ian Bennett and “Anya’s Ghost” by Vera Brosgol Since these two graphic novels are somewhat similar and neither is particularly long, I figured reviewing them together would make sense. Both take place in high school and they are both coming of age stories. They also both involve a high schooler befriending a supernatural force who allows them to cheat in school. LEAP DAYS We’ll start with Leap Days since it’s the relatively less emotionally charged of the two.             I was surprised by this book. When it opens, it’s pretty grim. Being more realistic, it depicts the crushing boredom of school and the frustration of a sense that you are wasting your time and not really learning anything. The protagonist’s name is Jake and he drifts through the day, unknown by everyone and uninterested in everything. The only thing that snaps him out of the malaise aside from eventually getting to go home and go to sl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Borrasca by C. K. Walker (Bourasca? Borraskwa?! ¿¿Boruscka??)

Novel: Thriller, horror. Contains violence and disturbing imagery.  Warning: This review contains minor spoilers.             Do you like tragic thrillers, bordering on horror? Stories which seem like they originate from the pits of humanity which we do not understand and do not wish to? Small towns with big secrets? Twists that you know are coming from a mile away, but find yourself too surrounded by fog to know the nature of this twist until it is footsteps are right upon you and your heart is tearing to get out of your rib cage???             If any of these apply to you (or god forbid, them all), then Borrasca may just be the book for you.             The book starts out with the old “I’m moving to a small town because of my dad/mom’s new job. Of course, in this book, the change of job is a lot more...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Who Could That Be At This Hour?” By Lemony Snicket, in which Lemony sneaks around at too late of an hour

BE ADVISED! Along with containing minor spoilers, this review will be less about the book itself and more about the series of All The Wrong Questions and what it accomplishes and what it fails.  When I was around twelve or thirteen I first picked up “Who could that be at this hour?” It instantly captured my imagination with its air of intrigue and fascinating, semi-surreal setting. I grew up with the previous serious in the Lemony Snicketverse, “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and I hadn’t yet discovered my love of noir films so many of the tropes at play were initially lost on me. Looking back, older and more mature, I can see the seams. Already in the first book of a series of four, I can see the moments where the story lags. Having read all four books, I can see that while Handler is a master of delivering a powerful and clever satire, he doesn’t know how to break his own routines. It’s less noticeable in the first book than it is in later entries, but we are alrea...
Post a Comment
Read more