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January 20, 2010
Booklife - Jeff Vandermeer
Booklife by Jeff Vandermeer is not a book about writing, but rather a book about being a writer. It won't tell you about correct grammar, it will instead give you tips for how to survive as a modern writer.
These tips and ideas are divided into two portions, the public book life and the private booklife.
The public booklife is first and covers such things as goals, strategy, PR, marketing.
The private booklife covers how to keep happy, keep up inspiration, schedule.
The amount you get out of the public section of this book will depend heavily on what stage of your writing career you are at, what type of writer you are, how much you know about the use of the web and modern social networking. So for me I enjoyed the section on setting goals and having a vision and a plan, whereas the sections on PR isn't as important for me at the moment. Jeff also mentions that he prefers Facebook to Twitter, at the time of writing, but none of these ideas he proclaims with godlike authority, instead he explains why he believes these things and always suggest that you find your own path.
The private part of booklife however I imagine to be of interest to every writer. If you need inspiration to get started it's there, if you are settled into your own productive routines and practices it will be fascinating to read about how Jeff does it. If you're a writer then reading how another writer works is always fascinating, for one thing it provides company, you no longer need to linger in isolation with your insecurities.
I have over time devoured any advice by other writers and the ones which stick out most in my memory are Neil Gaiman and Jay Lake. I can now add Jeff Vandermeer to this list and I'm sure I'll be rereading Booklife many times.