2008-09-25 A literary coffee table book, interesting in snippets

This is not a book about how writers write. What editor Dan Crowe did was contact 67 authors and asked them to write a short piece about one object that plays a part in their creative life. With this very basic premise, it's no wonder that few of the writers actually say much that's useful about how they write. Some of them just indulge in style, and that's alright if you're a fan of that particular author. But, most probably, if you're drawn to this book because of it's title, you want to know how these writers write, not what little knickknack they sit and stare at when they're not writing.

Will Self does give an interesting answer. If you're not creative-minded yourself, the photograph (he gets a double-page spread) of his wall covered in ranks and files of post-it notes may seem uncomfortably like the beginning titles of Se7en. But elsewhere we get, as the subject of writer's pieces: lip-balm, a stuffed donkey, a bronze Ganesh-statue, a cup of tea, ear plugs, the family dog. Some, like a typewriter and a pen, don't even have the virtue of quirkiness.

Interesting in snippets. Really, this is a coffee table book for browsing and killing five or ten minutes with an author here and an author there. Fortunately, enough authors are included that you're bound to find one or two that you know. Outside that, the rest are really going to be just mild curiosities.