I had no idea where to ask this, so I am putting it here. Recently I have stumbled across an online book-ebook or whatever you want to call it. This book of 157 pages is called (Destiny Unfulfilled) and it's a thorough critique of the Harry Potter series. I found it very educative and actually have learned a lot about writing from reading this book. What I am trying to say is reading literature Criticism articles about other authors' work can help establish a sense of knowing about what to avoid in writing fiction. My question is: does any of you have more examples of such books/articles that I can look at and read? I don't mind if the book it talks about is one I haven't read, I will read it. If you can name some for me, I'd be grateful. By the way, I strongly recommend reading Destiny Unfulfilled. You can find it online.
Thanks for the heads up - just purchased the book for 1.19 dollars. Description says 'not for Harry Pottter fans'!
From what I've read of this book (I don't own it) the author is right on, and I share a lot of his opinions to be honest. I've always disliked Harry Potter though, so I'm not the type to be completely fair.
When you say "criticism", are you talking about the study and discussion of books, or are you talking about an in-depth review of books? I've seen the word "criticism" used to mean both those things, so I just wanted to make sure we're on the same page.
I love the HP series and I've read it many times but I couldn't help agreeing with the author of Destiny Unfulfilled. After all, every write has flaws in it and it is these flaws that I want to study in order to improve my editing and writing skills. I mean the in-depth review of books. I can see the confusion between the two as I myself have tried to look on the internet but instead always found results about what is Literature reviewing rather than individual book reviews.
I've read about 20% of Destiny Unfulfilled, but I am handicapped as I haven't read a single Harry Potter book, or watched a film right the way through. Though I am still picking up some of the points. Sometimes there are some great books on 'how to write' on Amazon. Amazon have a marketing scheme that lets authors offer their ebooks for free for a given amount of time (think it is 3 days out of 90?). Today there are three FREE books - two of them I have read within half an hour each, the other has more too it. Some may think the books are rubbish, but I don't and I've picked up quite a few pointers from them. The Prolific Writer - a minimalist guide to prolific writing http://www.amazon.com/The-Prolific-Writer-Minimalists-ebook/dp/B009MP40V4 What Did You Say (for brushing up your grammar) - http://www.amazon.com/What-Did-You-Say-ebook/dp/B00B39ZGQK How to Write a New York Times Bestseller in Ten Easy Steps (authors language is a bit ripe) - http://www.amazon.com/Write-Times-Bestseller-Original-ebook/dp/B00APGOO38 The prices could have gone up, so keep an eye. For UK peeps, just change the .com in amazon.com to .co.uk , same for other countries.
In the course of a year, I read almost 20 books on 'How to Write'. Free and bought, one of them which stuck out as a great read was 'How not to write a novel'. However, I was more interested in reading Critical Reviewing of books, they sort of have stronger examples and make a better case of showing what to avoid and what to keep in mind while writing novels.
Apologies, should have started a new thread on the free books, I just thought they would sit okay in this thread. There is an ebook on Amazon (a free classic), "How Shakespere Came to Write the Tempest" by Rudyard Kipling - maybe worth a look.
Nothing was disturbed. I actually got the books you mentioned and plan to sit and read them, sometimes they are more fascinating than writing a story. lol Thanks for helping.
