Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Mairi

This book is, essentially, Stephen King's memoir, but, as the title suggests, it focuses on writing, and thus it is not as sleep-inducing as a standard memoir (just because you're famous doesn't mean we want to hear about your first word and your middle school report card, after all). No, this memoir is many things, but boring is by no means one of them- how could it not be fascinating to read about how a writer as skilled as Stephen King writes? Best of all, it's funny.

I read this book because you cannot discuss the most common faults in novels for more than ten minutes without someone quoting it, and after reading it it's easy to understand why. Stephen King isn't trying to spare anyone's feelings. He writes about writing in the same sometimes painfully blunt and colloquial manner that made his other books popular.

This is not a book for aspiring writers so much as it is for all bibliophiles, to whom it might seem to be just about perfect.