Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
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Bird by Bird
Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Author: Anne Lamott

Narrator: Anne Lamott

Unabridged: 6 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/13/2022


Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). 

“Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review

For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

About The Author

ANNE LAMOTT is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Almost Everything; Hallelujah Anyway; Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; and Operating Instructions. She is also the author of seven novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on February 01, 2023

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. - Ernest Hemingway One writer I know tells me that he sits down every morning and says to himself nicely, “It’s not like you don’t have a choice, because you do—you can either type or kill yourself.” - Anne LamottI have......more

Goodreads review by Jane on February 06, 2012

Where I got the book: purchased from Amazon. Perhaps I'm reading this, one of the writing community's most referred-to books, too late in life. Perhaps as a 20-year-old English major (which I never was) I would have loved this book. That could explain its popularity; it seems like the kind of writing......more

Goodreads review by LeAnn on October 07, 2007

I'm getting to the point where I've read a handful of books on the writing life by authors and I found this one to be particularly resonant at this point in my writing career. I actually found myself underlining things that Anne Lamott wrote and thinking, "I need to reread this so that I can absorb......more

Goodreads review by G on December 04, 2013

Ugh. I used to write and then I took some time away from it, and someone suggested this book to me to inspire me. It did exactly the opposite. Lamott makes writing sound like passing a kidney stone, and it doesn't have to be that way.......more

Goodreads review by Valeriu on April 10, 2025

Am citit cartea de multe ori, am privit (pe YouTube) și un mic discurs despre scris și viață, ținut de Anne Lamott în fața unui public pios, dar cu simțul umorului (Anne Lamott este o activistă în cadrul Bisericii reformate), și am sesizat mereu seninătatea și buna ei dispoziție. E o plăcere s-o asc......more


Quotes

“Superb writing advice. . . . Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.”
The New York Times Book Review
 
“A warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps.” 
Los Angeles Times

“One of the funniest books on writing ever published.” 
The Christian Science Monitor

“A gift to all of us mortals who write or ever wanted to write. . . . Sidesplittingly funny, patiently wise and alternately cranky and kind—a reveille to get off our duffs and start writing now, while we  still can.” 
Seattle Times

Bird by Bird would be worth reading just for Lamott’s ele- gant, moving, and often-hilarious prose. But the advice she offers is just as fantastic as the style with which it’s delivered.”
Forbes

“Anne Lamott understands better than anyone that writers need help. . . . She writes so well, in fact, that it’s hard to believe that she, too, has trouble with writing. That’s what’s so deeply comforting about this book.”
The Wall Street Journal

“Deftly and honestly explores the mental challenges of being a writer. . . . Lamott’s advice is, simply put, invaluable.”
Bustle

“[Lamott] uses her writing exercises or lessons as a way to help us more deeply understand ourselves and the human condition in all its messiness. If you’re looking for sense-making and meaning during this deeply destabilizing time, this book is timeless.”
—Elise Hu, TED Talks Daily


“Delight[s] with insight and descriptive acumen. This humorous, insightful, no-nonsense approach will remind novices why they are writing.”      
Kirkus Reviews

“Offers unique inspiration. . . . An honest appraisal of what it takes to be a writer and why it matters so much.”
Library Journal