Some are by authors about the art of authoring.....
Bird by Bird is a wonderful relation of the difficulties we face as writers, personable and revealing, Anne Lamott manages to describe all the pitfalls we place in front of us.
An experienced writing teacher, she hits on all the elements of writing, technical and psychological. I thought that this book should have been essential reading for all us Creative Writing students, and there were chapters I know I could lift and use as the basis of lessons with creative writing students. I felt she addressed the mental issues of writing (and we are all quite mental) very well, introducing ideas like Radio KFCD - the voice in your head, the importance of listening to your inner broccoli (intuition, I can't explain, just read it) and forgiving yourself for the shitty first draft - agonising but necessary.
Though this book is about writing, it is also a memoir and a exploration of why we write and what on earth we think we are doing. It is not such an instructive piece as Bird by Bird, as in directly applicable to teaching creative writing, but Atwood's style and substance make it a worthwhile read anyway.
Some books are about the technical aspects of writing........
Mend Your English is subtitled 'What you should have been taught at primary school'. I swear we weren't. Grammar, punctuation, parts of speech. Splitting the atom I understand, splitting a verb I did not. Thanks to this book, I do now. Alongside brain melting definitions, he also gives easier to understand examples of correct and incorrect usages, alongside lots of recommendations for further reading, breakdowns of the roots of words and handy hints. I know that this book will be invaluable in tutoring situations when I need to explain a consistent mistake of language to a student.
It's odd that we learn through experience, through reading and writing and listening to language, so that often I know something is wrong by the way it sounds, and yet I could not explain what is wrong. I have come across instances of students writing in the vernacular, which sounds perfectly acceptable to them but is not correct written English. In that instance I would have great difficulty explaining to them what the issue was. This book I know will help.
Some books are about teaching.........
Friere's pedagogy is something I feel quite passionate about. Though his ideas on education (Iput a link to it in a previous post) are radical and designed to liberate the subjugated classes in south america; there is a lesson to be learnt for us too. Friere says “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” If we continue to indoctrinate in the name of education the future of our society stagnates. I believe that creative and critical thinking is highly prized, but not often permitted in schools, controversial opinion I know, but student-lead critical thought means the acceptance of a degree of uncertainty, in which the educators can be challenged, which doesn't fit with results lead education. Friere says “If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed. Radical I know. Good further reading is We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change by Myles Horton and Paulo Friere.
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