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Ray Bradbury: Zen in the Art of Writing (1992) 3 stars

Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity is a collection of essays by …

Bookshelf Read: Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury

2 stars

I gobbled up everything I could read from Ray Bradbury when I was younger, and I still really admire his ability to tell a gripping story. I first read this book years ago and had remembered it as a collection of essays about writing and the creative process. It is indeed a collection of essays, but most of which seem to be forwards written for previous books. Mostly this book reads more like a memoir about Ray Bradbury's creative process (of which he is very enthusiastic!), and does not contain a lot of actual practical advice for other people. I was also somewhat dismayed that Bradbury always refers to the aspiring writer as "he," and the recommended authors are all the standard midcentury white male canon. Unless you are a huge Bradbury fan I think this is a skip. There are lots of better books about writing out there.