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vikologia 's review for:
If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
by Brenda Ueland
This is a good book. I gave it 3 steady stars. I don't share the exhilaration many express about it. I liked it for not being as instructional as most books about writing. It's inspiring rather than instructing. Thanks to this book I found out (yes, to my shame, only now) that Tolstoy had written a lengthy essay about "What is Art?". Ueland uses a lot of quotes from Tolstoy, Van Gogh, Chekhov, Blake, Dostoevsky... She inspires young artists by telling stories from her own life and experience. I loved that her book isn't a kind of structured manual, but rather a stream of consciousnesses type of essay.
However, firstly, I didn't like the long passages with examples from Ueland's students. Most of them were rather boring and it is quite subjective and daring to put things like that in a writing book and set them as an example. Secondly, Ueland keeps repeating similar/identical idea too much. At some point, I got the feeling as if I'm her silly child and she's trying to explain obvious things to me over and over again.
Maybe I've outgrown this book a little bit. It is still an interesting, inspiring light read for your writers regardless of my negative comments. I recommend it to everybody who wants to try and do something creative, but is afraid to start.
However, firstly, I didn't like the long passages with examples from Ueland's students. Most of them were rather boring and it is quite subjective and daring to put things like that in a writing book and set them as an example. Secondly, Ueland keeps repeating similar/identical idea too much. At some point, I got the feeling as if I'm her silly child and she's trying to explain obvious things to me over and over again.
Maybe I've outgrown this book a little bit. It is still an interesting, inspiring light read for your writers regardless of my negative comments. I recommend it to everybody who wants to try and do something creative, but is afraid to start.