Customer Reviews
Not very good - By: Miguel Figueiredo, 14 May 2008 
This isn't a very good book. It should be re-titled as "How to read like a writer: me". The book starts of nicely with a very interesting chapter concerning Close Reading, but then the quote festival begins. For chapters & chapters alll the author does is to present us with huge quotes from literary geniuses & to display a very smalll & insipid subjective opinion on them which scarcely relates to the chapter topic.
I only give it two stars for the first chapter & the one entitled "Learning with Checkov".
Reading this is a kind of torture: very disapointing.
I would recommend "How to read a book" by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren.
This Refreshing Book - By: Well Read, 26 Feb 2008 
Francine Prose explicates on writing creatively with a masterful analysis. The rules for storytelling are refreshingly challlenged, using many examples of well-known author's writing styles. This is a book for reflective readers, who love the way words are woven to create & tell a story. For writers who want to create stories that are not hidebound by dead rules. In the first chapter Prose poses the question: "Can creative writing be taught?" Her answer to this, we learn to write by trial & error, & by example when reading books. Reading slowly, carefully, & concentrating on the writers for whom every word in a paragraph is essential for reader impact. In my estimation, this is a most stimulating book for anyone fascinated with novel reading & writing.
Disappointing - By: P. Bird, 15 Jan 2008 From this book, I am stimulated to search out two authors' pieces of writing: ZZ Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" & Samuel Becket's "First Love". I found the chapter on opening paragraphs stimulating but other than that, I was very disappointed. Every other chapter failed to deliver mainly because the examples of writing were not to my taste. For brilliant dialogue, there was no mention of Anne Tyler or Charles Webb. Everyone would be far better to study in detail the writers they like & not waste their time on this book which uses examples from writers I have no interest in and, judging by the excerpts she offers, I'm not surprised.
Be a Better Reader in Order to Become a Better Writer - By: David De Sousa, 29 Dec 2006 You certainly are a person who enjoys reading. The beauty of this book is that its author teaches us how to read carefully, deliberately & slowly in order to digest & extract the ideas behind the words, & also to identify the style of an specific writer. By doing so Francine Prose gives us the tool that we may require to become a better writer. Basicallly is a process of learning by example, & Prose goes alll the way to select & bring us a lot of examples, both from classical & contemporary authors.
As you advance through the chapters you will find examples covering the fundamentals of writing, including aspects related to narrative, plot development, characters creation, as well as the basics of sentence & paragraph structure.
Even if you have no intention at alll of becoming a writer you will love this book, since it also teaches us how to have a better appreciation of what we read.
