Come and Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott With Me
The Non-Fiction Book Club Title for Our July Read-Along
We have finally finished The Artist’s Way after six long months. Now it’s time to turn our attention to the second book in our read-along. (If you are thinking of doing the 12-week course in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron you might be interested in following our journey here.)
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is part memoir and part instructions on writing. It was first published back in the early nineties. When I first started writing nearly twenty years ago, fellow writers would rave about it.
I thought this would be a fun book to read after the heavy introspection of The Artist’s Way.
This is the blurb:
Bird by Bird is the bible of writing guides - a wry, honest, down-to-earth book that has never stopped selling since it was first published in the United States in the 1990s. Bestselling novelist and memoirist Anne Lamott distils what she's learned over years of trial and error. Beautifully written, wise and immensely helpful, this is the book for all serious writers and writers-to-be.
I would love it if you’d join me in reading Lamott’s writing memoir this July. The Book Club is free but comments on my Substack will be for paid subscribers only, simply to keep it a space for people to share without feeling the entire internet’s eyes are upon them. (See below for details on how to receive the book club emails). If you use Notes in the Substack app, however, you’ll be able to comment and share your thoughts there.
Upgrade here to take part in the discussion.
The structure of the read-along will be simple and as follows:
Week One: Read up to page 75 (of the paperback) and the chapter called Character.
Week Two: Read up to page 148 and the chapter on Broccoli.
Week Three: Catch up/rest week.
Week Four: Read up to page 221 and the chapter on Writer’s Block.
Week Five: Read to the end.
We will start on Monday 1st July and there will be a post every week (except week three) up to and including week beginning 29th July.
To follow The Non-Fiction Book Club read-alongs and get the emails delivered directly to your inbox you need to:
Be subscribed to this newsletter, The Anxious Writer. You don’t need to be a paid subscriber to take part but commenting will be for paid subscribers only to create a private environment.
Then you have to go to your account settings within The Anxious Writer and turn on notifications for The Non-Fiction Book Club (below the button is grey meaning it hasn’t yet been turned on. You need to click it so it becomes green.)
And that’s it. From now on you’ll get emailed with The Non-Fiction Book Club emails.
Any time you want to opt out just do the same process and turn the button to grey.
Have I forgotten anything? If I have drop me a comment below.
I just joined you on Substack and I have do not understand how it works. I don't wanna miss anything and want to start the bookclub on July one but what time is it, is it live? Is it YouTube video?
Excellent! Looking forward to this.