Liam Delahunty > Recent Status Updates

After months of hardly reading I'm devouring this book. I wish I'd read it years ago, it's excellent.

Had this book on the shelf for many years. As it's a physical book it requires a little more determination to read as for me it requires decent light which means I tend to only read "real" books when out strolling about the garden.

Will Storr mentioned it several times in his book, The Science of Storytelling, and at last I've started it.

The start is justly famous, du Maruier's prose is really quite beautiful.

Rereading one of my favourite books. I thoroughly enjoyed the Dice Man in the eighties. A few years later I discovered The Adventures of Wim and adored it.

At the time I don't think I'd read a book that purported to be extracts from others. The flamboyant, self-assured style was intoxicating.

I haven't read this now for over 20 years but dipping into its pages is very much like slipping into a hot bath.

I am suffering through this book. It is so reparative. An idea, at best a short series of blog posts, spun into 200 pages.

And the writing! I'm shocked that paragraphs such as the following were allowed:
The direct decision maker [does A], the oblique decision maker [does B]. The direct decision maker [does C], the oblique decision maker [does D]. The direct decision maker [does E], etc etc etc...

And the book continues to be solid gold.

It's so good I don't want to tell other writers about it. Let me have an advantage. Of course I will (tell).

I'm not quite at the half way point but I think this book could well supersede Stephen King's On Writing as the book to read if you want to write novels.