"Put the book down slowly and back away."
My pal Edward Readicker-Henderson was counseling me by e-mail. I'd just written him in a panic. I'd read two paragraphs of Craig's autographed copy of Eat Pray Love, the bestseller by Elizabeth Gilbert, when I wrote him that this book was WAY too much like my next book.
It's starts out with divorce, then an affair, then depression, then a global search for recovery.
"Um, I don't like where this is going. The situation in Uganda wasn't a divorce but it was the same idea, but with us running from a hippopotomus the next day, and then I found refuge in making comic books in Kuwait."
I read a few more chapters. The writer is funny, clever, honest. "How will I ever match this?" I e-wailed.
"Stop reading now, until you've finished your own book. PUT IT DOWN."
Okay.
I'll read Lonely Planet Egypt again instead.
1 comment:
From what I've heard, that book's pretty disappointing, nothing like what I'd expect yours to be like; nobody I know who's picked it up has been able to finish it.
When you're writing anything, it helps to have an idea of what's out there, but it sure doesn't help to read it, for the most part. You're you, and you'll write your own story, and that's what sets it apart. You'll likely have to say something about that book when you're trying to sell your own, but you'll steer your own course, I'm sure, and we'll all be happier when you do.
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