J.C.'s Reviews > The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers

The best book on writing that i've read in a great while. Though at times Gardner gives story titles without any examples from the text, a list to read before reading this book would be extremely helpful.
The length of Gardner's knowledge on literature and writing is quite extensive, and he doesn't dumb down his ideas for anyone. I practically painted my copy in ink, underlining, notes, etc.

At times Gardner's own opinion gets in the way of his lessons (for example at one point he comes to a full stop to explain why Steinbeck is a flawed, sentimentalist writer), but overall I like his ideas and found his explanations of literature and writing helpful.

If you want to be a serious writer in any degree, I highly recommend this book.