I haven’t done much reading aside from blogs so far during this Thankfully Reading Weekend – tomorrow will be my big day for that – but I’m taking part in the first mini-challenge anyway. The assignment:

I don’t know if it’s the book, but one book I remain thankful for, more than ten years after first reading it, is this one:

I read Anne Lamott first as a novelist, but I find her nonfiction more vivid and vital, and I read Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life at a time when I really needed it.  Lamott’s writing is direct, honest, blunt, and ultimately affirming. It’s an often-recommended writing text, but I found the “…and Life” portion even more valuable. I really should commit to a re-read so I can blog about it, but I remain grateful that I have read it.