Every Day I Write the Book: Notes on Style by Amitava Kumar

Every Day I Write the Book: Notes on Style Reviews

• 
  Sandro

  Just brilliant! Everyone who plans to pursue a career in academia should read this.
• 
  daniel dillon

  Few books have been as invigorating or as validating to me as "Every Day I Write the Book." The book itself is a collection of short (sometimes only a few sentences) pieces that reflect on the problems of form and style, especially the overly dry and lifeless ones that dominate in academia. Kumar is fed up, seems to have been for quite some time, and so has done something about it. Part manifesto, part journal, part scribbled notes on the backside of napkins, this book argues, perhaps promises, that there are other ways to "write the book" (or dissertation) and delivers a variety of provocations that could lead the reader to discover their own. Highly recommend for any academic, but especially those who find themselves sitting with the problem of writing and what to do with it.
• 
  Brigitte

  I read this over the last day and a half and most of it set my teeth on edge. As someone who writes fiction and reads and uses countless books to improve my craft, I’m always on the lookout for a book that does the same for scholarly writing, since I also write scholarship. While this book seems to be trying to write a book for academic writers that compares to Stephen King’s On Writing, the difference is that the book overs zero practical advice to improve academic prose. For example: Yes, academic prose should be revised, he says. I already know that. What are specific strategies and exercises to actually improve that prose? Nothing. He falls into the same trap he claims to be fighting against: Writing about academic writing but offering little in the way of a discussion about craft. Most of these short essays and fragments are self-indulgent musings about what he believes to be good writing and bad writing. Why is it so hard for so many scholars to talk practical application when it comes to writing? I just don’t understand.
• 
  Shashank Kamdar

  The book is not on writing better but on becoming a better writer.  I liked the sections on advice from great writers with their writing ethics and rituals. Appendices are really useful too. But the rest of the book was not very pleasing to read. After reading, it did not appear as general a book as it seems from the title. It looks designed for a niche area of academic novel writers. 
  
  In many places, the theme/message starts to appear fuzzy and abstract due to the mention of so many other works that the author himself loses clarity and gives an impression as if he is talking to himself/ someone with all the knowledge he shares.  
• 
  Patty

  I absolutely love to read books about writing and language. And I don't normally read many books published by the publisher I work for, but I had heard such good things about this one that I decided to dig in. And I didn't put it down until I was finished! An excellent book: not overbearing, full of reference to other great books about writing, advice from other great writers, and encouragement to academics in particular but also to all who write. This is going on my shelf of favorite books about writing that I return to over and over.
• 
  ML Character

  Well, this is mildly interesting but very... impressionistic? Like, sometimes a glimmer of something also interesting to me, but more enamored of the vague joys and ill-defined abstract importance of academics and academic writing/theory, less engaged with the machinery of institution and contemporary neoliberalism that is grinding down any possibility that such vague joys and abstract importances ever get accomplished. But... I do like to escape to that utopia where that stuff- stuff I thought I was working toward- is still around and is the point.
• 
  Travis

  The kind of book that so self-consciously responds to the weirdly saturated yet underdeveloped genre of the academic “self-help” guide. Less a guide to writing than a set of “notes on style” as the title suggests, the book does what I think academic writers need most: the freedom to think boldly, irreverently about writing as a practice that is itself in perpetual revision.
• 
  Alyson

  I haven’t read anything where somebody mentioned Stanley Fish in over a decade. I also miss teaching when I read books like this, but then I remember living off my credit card as a adjunct. I’ve forgotten most of what seems important to Kumar about criticism, but I loved everything about writing, defending form, and all the mentions of Sontag. I plan to return to some of my favorite works by her, so I’m thankful. Will follow the seminar rules. Promise.
• 
  Elle Furtado

  Picked this up and my university’s library and it was a cute little read, in terms of practical advice I would say I took much. Mostly concepts and general tip to keep in mind. No specific rules out advice aside for a few appendicitis in the back. Not a bad read if you have time. Very short “chapters” easier to digest
• 
  Erika

  Fun. Borrow and skim. Don’t expect actionable advice; that’s not what he’s doing. If you write, and read about writing, skimming this may be a pleasant way to spend an hour or two. A few entries will catch your eye or strike the right chord.
• 
  Maya

  My senior thesis journey is over before it has even begun, but this book gave me so many little gems of advice/inspiration. I wish I knew how to write literary work as creatively as I'd like but maybe I'll get there in the future :-)
• 
  Sohum

  I wavered between 3 and 4 but ultimately concluded that since my takeaways from this book were fuzzy at best, I would settle on a 3.
• 
  Guillaume Morissette

  Generic
• 
  Monica

  This book was most useful in providing titles of other things I’m interested in reading. It was a rather quick read, with occasional insights into what makes for engaging writing.
• 
  Nicholas

  Academic writing, blah.
• 
  szymborskalyte

  Fairly good and entertaining guide on style, but can be prone to lapsing into self-aggrandizing ego-trips that feel too egotist to educate.