How to Read Like a Writer is a critical writing course in book form, written and collated by Erin M. Pushman. Released 13th Jan 2022 by Bloomsbury Academic, it's 216 pages and is available in hardback, and ebook formats,with a paperback edition out in Feb 2022. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately; it makes it so easy to find information with the search function. The interactive format in this case rendered the read much more accessible and comprehensible for me. Special concepts and references are hyperlinked in the text making it simple to click back and forth without losing one's place.
This is set up as a critical reading/writing course in book form. The 10 chapters provide reading examples with questions and discussion prompts to allow the student to evaluate and analyze particular salient points concerning: genre, inter-genre works, short forms and digital media, plot, structure, character, point of view, setting, scene, and language.
As a reader who spends a lot of time reading for critical analysis and review, there were a lot of valuable salient points offered here. It is an information dense and academic look at literature analysis and students in secondary and post-secondary studies will find it useful. The writing is dry and precise but quite accessible and not couched in overly convoluted or academic obfuscation. I didn't have any trouble figuring out the point of the exercises or prompts. Some of the choices for reading excerpts were odd for the points which they were supposed to illuminate - but overall the book is a good resource.
It would make a good choice as an adjunct text for literature studies as well as for the writer's home reference library.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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