A review by merrrry
The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin

challenging inspiring reflective

4.5

This might be the most well-written content I've read this year. Ursula Le Guin is powerful. The only reason this isn't a 5 star read for me is because I'm too dumb to appreciate the entire collection. A lot of them went completely over my head because I'm not a writer and not the most well-read in classics. I definitely want to return to a lot of these essays after I understand the context more. The stuff I did have prior knowledge going into (e.g., the Tolkien stuff) I aDORED. Some of my favourite pieces were the Personal Matters pieces. My favourite was “Being Taken for Granted”. I also love the way Le Guin talks about the oral tradition of written word, art, and feminism both in literature and in general. I read the Left Hand Of Darkness and didn't really enjoy my reading experience, but still really respected the book as a whole. Having now read her essays, I feel motivated to at least try the Earthsea series.