"Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors On How And Why They Do What They Do"

Any writer will adore a lot of the sentiments repeated throughout this book, as for most, writing is a necessity. Whether you write slowly everyday, or alternate between binging and breaks, it is a clear requirement to our sanity.
While the majority of the writers that contributed to this book do now write full-time and earn enough from their books alone to live, it did not start that way, and I think this is where the average reader will get the most out of their personal stories as they tell of how they struggle, working full-time and stealing moments of a morning or afternoon for their true passion.
I originally borrowed this book because it was the only book by Meg Wolitzer that I could not, and I was not disappointed by her story, or any of the others. I heartily recommend this book to any person interested in writing, the creative process, or any of the authors featured in general.

Sara Nelson “So Many Books, So Little Time”

I am going to be bluntly honest in my short “review” of this book, but I was rather disappointed.  Books about people who talk about books have fast become a favourite genre of mine, but this is the first book where I just thought “enough is enough”. Although maybe the problem I actually have with this book is with the author personally.

Books are mentioned half-heartily, more as a segue to talk, or rather complain, about lots of facets of her life: an interracial marriage, her husband working for Saturday Night Live, her husband not reading, her husband being angry, her child not reading, et cetera, et cetera.

I love the way she broke out of habits and read books relating to sports, or other subjects a bit out of most reader’s whims, but I otherwise didn’t relate to her tastes. Not that I can seriously find fault with an author not writing about things that I like, but rather that she did so in a way that failed to make it interesting for me. (And I can’t believe that someone who writes about books for a living would only get one chapter into “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” before putting it down. Surely I am not alone in thinking that is work of genius, am I?!)

Regardless of my complaints, I still enjoyed reading this for the most part. It is still a book about books, and the idea is wonderful; deciding to read at least one book a week and write about it. I feel like the author decided to make this into too much of an angsty journal process though.

If your local library has it, consider reading it, but if you’d prefer to skip a few books ahead to “The World’s Strongest Librarian”, I wouldn’t blame you.

"Best Books: Experts Choose Their Favourites"

This book is the ultimate gift and read for autodidacts and bookworms, serving as a gateway to fantastic books of a variety of levels. Experts are chosen to introduce their field in a short paragraph, and then recommend a multitude of books to cover the subject, with a quick introductory summary of each.

There are fifteen hundred books representing over fifty topics, under the main headings of aspects of society, language and literature, the arts, science and technology, and history. Education, religion, feminism, architecture, classical music, sport, medicine, geometry, plants, and ancient history are just a sample of the available subjects covered.

Richard Dawkins heads evolution, and chooses, among others, Darwin’s “Origin Of Species”, Cronin’s “The Ant And The Peacock”, Leakey’s “The Origin Of Humankind” and his own “The Blind Watchmaker”. The entirety of the mathematics section is represented by Ian Stewart, from numbers to geometry to applied mathematics, and a few of his own works also pop up.

Language and literature covers language, classical literature, English literature, American literature, third-world literature, genre fiction (horror, fantasy, romantic fiction, et cetera), children’s literature and women and literature.

I really enjoyed making my way through this book, as it provides a way of fixing obvious short-comings (I have never once read a book on sport, and my knowledge of history outside of Australia or  fantasy medieval realms is also rather lacking). The recommended texts get straight to the point of a facet of the over-all subject, therefore providing you with an easy starting place for your self-imposed study.