Book No 26:Tom Bailey Eds ‘Writing Short Stories’ 2006 Reading List
Current Count:( 26 )Books 2006 Reading List the Year of the Inception of the 2000 Book Reading Programme
This is a first Class Text book on the art of Writing Short Stories.
This is from an Academic who is at the IOWA Writers Workshop which as you know is in the US. He guides us through a process by which we can learn to write Short Stories; firstly by READING this cannot be overestimated in importance and READING AS A WRITER. This is something I picked up whilst browsing MIT Opencourseware School of Writing and Humanistic Studies which as started many a venture with me at the very least separating for me the different kinds of writing that one can learn to do in an Open Courseware Self Learning Setting.
Tom Bailey gets the reknowned US bound stars like Joyce Carol Oats etc to write show pieces on how to write which is always a helpful thing. So the text is replete with Star Names.
The Stories are brutal, real. ( this has given birth to the idea that not only are Academics parasites on the sad lives of people but so are Novelists and others of that ilk) there are I believe Comprehension Questions but these are not the dull boring stuff you get at school this is the stuff that helps you re-read the text or check up on whether you are paying close enough attention to the text to be able to answer questions on it. The writing is clear (something I always look for in academic texts) the writing is very good in itself.
All in all a top class read from an authoritative (yankee) author from the US Academic Institution, that deserves a wider audience.
276 words for word count purposes
