By Cheryl Rushing

Title: On Writing
by Stephen King

I’m reading the Kindle edition.

My confession for this review is that I am not a fan of Stephen King.  I read about half of Pet Sematary in high school and it gave me nightmares.  On the recommendation of several other friends I tried reading a couple of other books by him and didn’t get very far. 

I purchased this book several years ago on the recommendation of a writers group and started reading it then.  It was very good, but life happened and the next thing I knew it was 2010 and the dusty paperback ended up in a garage sale.

And that brings us up to this past week, when I finally read it all the way through, nearly in one sitting. 

So why did I read it?  Well, in case you didn’t know, Stephen King is quite the prolific best-selling writer.  Again, I am not a fan, but if this guy is going to take time out from counting his millions to give me the secrets to his success, who am I to turn my back on that?

I like to meet and know people who have passion for what they do.  There is nothing more attractive in a person, and no one more interesting than someone who can wax eloquently over the minutiae of his or her job.  King is that passionate about writing.

The Kindle allows one to highlight passages and post them to Facebook or Twitter, or keeps them in a notepad in your Amazon account.  This is the only book so far where I think I highlighted something on every page.

King’s whole book can be boiled down to these two rules:

1.  To be a writer you must write.

2.  There are no other rules.

This is very simplified, of course.  The book is many pages of interesting biography, gleeful nose-thumbing at the establishment, and examples of how and when to follow actual guidelines.

While this book is focused primarily on fiction writing, it is a breath of fresh air for any writer who feels like they can’t or won’t or shouldn’t.  You want permission?  King will give it to you.

Do I recommend this book? Definitely. Sometimes we get bogged down by the rules, or thinking we’re not doing it right.  King’s philosophy of “who cares if you’re doing it right, just write!” is one we all need to hear sometimes.

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Title:  The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content
by Timothy Ferriss

I’m reading the Kindle edition.

One of the great things about the Kindle (besides being able to carry 400+ books around in my purse) is that you can download a sample of book before you buy it.  It’s usually the first few pages or first chapter, but a good writer can get you hooked in that amount of time.

Timothy Ferriss definitely got me hooked.  I wanted to know how I could have a life like his.  I was hungry for someone to tell me life could be different from my 40 hour workweek at a job I’m not always crazy about.  That’s his message, and he sells it well.

I’m going to be honest here and tell you that I have not finished reading the book.  According to my Kindle I’m only 33% done with the book, but I can tell you what I think so far: it’s an interesting concept.

Ferriss gives you a brief biography of his life, then explains the process of going from office drone to international man of mystery in a few (easy?) steps.  He talks about how to automate your life by controlling e-mails and phone calls, as well as become a remote worker at your current job, and even recommends that you outsource some of your regular functions to India.

And that’s where he lost me.  Outsourcing to other countries is not something I support.  I understand why he would think this is a good idea, but it’s not something I would do.

Ferriss also has the luxury of running his own company.  He has (or rather, had – I believe he sold it) a company that sells supplements over the internet.  He built it up himself, and then automated the process so much so that he only checks voicemail and emails every few weeks.  The income from the business finances his globe-trotting lifestyle.

That’s all well and good, but I don’t own a business, and my employer seems to think that remote workers are nonproductive workers.  We have to be where we can clock in and be monitored.

That’s not to say he doesn’t have good ideas, and some of his concepts are very solid.  Why are we checking email 45 times a day?  Have we trained our clients and coworkers that everything is an emergency that we will be available to correct 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

Essentially, Ferriss is preaching that there isn’t just one way of doing something, and that just because you’re busy all day doesn’t mean you are productive.  That is a powerful message to someone like me who spends a lot of time thinking “there has to be a better way!” while doing the same old things.

I plan on finishing the book in the next few weeks (I will definitely post an update to this review if something blow my mind).  It probably doesn’t help that I’m reading two other books besides this one, and those are actually writing-related.

Interestingly, the latest version of The Well-Fed Writer references The 4-Hour Workweek, so I am looking forward to seeing what Peter Bowerman gleaned from this book and how it affected his processes.

Do I recommend this book?  If you’re an outside-the-box thinker, absolutely yes.  It might be a little bit of preaching to the choir, but there is helpful information and some practice exercises that can get you out of a rut.