Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure
List Price: $12.00
Our Price: $5.00
You Save: $7.00 (58%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.62 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Editor: Rachel Fershleiser
Editor: Larry Smith
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-01
ISBN: 0061374059
Number of pages: 225
Publisher: Harper Perennial

Book Reviews of Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

Book Review: highly addictive
Summary: 4 Stars

This book is highly addictive. On the one hand, it's absolutely amazing how much meaning and subtext and nuance can be squeezed into little six word sentences. On the other hand, the universality of the shared experiences are truly touching. Finally, it was hard to put the book down ... but I had to, because I had to sit and think, deeply, about some of these sentences and what they meant and what they implied about the person who wrote them. In that sense, they are like poems / haiku / koans.

You may be tempted to read 50 in one sitting - but I advise you to read only a few at a time and really dwell on them. This book is highly re-readable; and the index by subject, at the back, is invaluable.

Summary of Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure

Deceptively simple and surprisingly addictive, Not Quite What I Was Planning is a thousand glimpses of humanity-six words at a time.

One Life. Six Words. What's Yours?

When Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way too. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving.

From small sagas of bittersweet romance ("Found true love, married someone else") to proud achievements and stinging regrets ("After Harvard, had baby with crackhead"), these terse true tales relate the diversity of human experience in tasty bite-sized pieces. From authors Jonathan Lethem and Richard Ford to comedians Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris, to ordinary folks around the world, everyone has a six-word story to tell.

Memoirs Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Memoirs Books
Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life ImageLearning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life
by Clay Aiken, Allison Glock
Fawcett; Published: 2005-11-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.95
Price in other shops: $7.99
Lucky Man: A Memoir ImageLucky Man: A Memoir
by Michael J. Fox
Simon & Schuster Audio; Published: 2009-04-14; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $8.70
Price in other shops: $14.99
The Company She Keeps ImageThe Company She Keeps
by Georgia Durante
Signet; Published: 2008-10-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.31
Price in other shops: $7.99
Quiet Strength ImageQuiet Strength
by Tony Dungy, Nathan Whitaker
Tyndale House Publishers; Tyndale House Publishers; Release date: 2007-07-10; Published: 2007-07-10; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $12.99
Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple ImageSeductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple
by Deborah Layton
Anchor; Published: 1999-11-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.11
Price in other shops: $15.95
For Laci ImageFor Laci
by Sharon Rocha
Random House Audio; Published: 2005-12-31; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $9.80
Price in other shops: $27.95
Same Kind Of Different As Me ImageSame Kind Of Different As Me
by Ron Hall, Denver Moore
Thomas Nelson; Published: 2006; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops: $21.99
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust ImageLeft to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
by Immaculee Ilibagiza
Hay House, Inc.; Hay House, Inc.; Release date: 2007-06-01; Published: 2007-06-01; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Best price: $8.14
Price in other shops: $10.17
Lost Boy ImageLost Boy
by David J. Pelzer
Orion; Published: 2001-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.97
Rocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1) ImageRocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1)
by Homer Hickam
Delacorte Press; Published: 1998-09-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops: $26.00
Similar Books and other products
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle) ImageThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle)
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 2009-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Graveyard Book ImageThe Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins; Published: 2008-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.75
Price in other shops: $17.99
ABC3D ImageABC3D
by Marion Bataille
Roaring Brook Press; Published: 2008-10-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.59
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ImageThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
Knopf; Published: 2008-09-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops: $24.95
When You Are Engulfed in Flames ImageWhen You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $25.99
Courage and Craft: Writing Your Life into Story ImageCourage and Craft: Writing Your Life into Story
by Barbara Abercrombie
New World Library; Published: 2007-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.70
Price in other shops: $14.95
Outliers: The Story of Success ImageOutliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-11-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.97
Price in other shops: $27.99
I Was Told There'd Be Cake ImageI Was Told There'd Be Cake
by Sloane Crosley
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Vintage) ImageThe Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Vintage)
by David Shields
Vintage; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.16
Price in other shops: $14.95
Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure ImageSix-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak: by Writers Famous and Obscure
by Larry Smith, Rachel Fershleiser
Harper Perennial; Published: 2009-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.13
Price in other shops: $10.00