I think I went into this book with my expectations set a bit too high. After all, I'd been recommended it by a respected, published author... and Anne Lamott IS something of a legend in the literary realm. And then there was the fact that the critic reviews on the back cover repeatedly used the word 'hilarious' to describe her writing. It was more then a little disappointing then that I only found a few vague points of amusement, and none that tempted me into an external expression. (Well, okay, I might have chuckled to myself once. But that's a distant cry from 'hilarity.') 
 Please don't misunderstand. I do grasp acrid sarcasm. In fact, it's my native language. Perhaps that had something to do with why I found some of this book to be tedious--I often have the same sentiment about myself. The author's admission of being an egoist with low self-esteem also felt unsettlingly familiar. 
 I was somewhat bothered that many of the quotes that resonated with me were actually requotes by others that she had incorporated into this particular piece. However, she did have a few gems of her own here and there. The chapter on Writer's Block presented a particularly compelling perspective from her. I do consider this to be a worthwhile read, but to me it felt like the parts of it that would be truly valuable to an aspiring writer could have been condensed to around 50-75 pages. On the whole, it felt more like a memoir than an instructional book on writing. In terms of content, got a lot more out of Stephen King's 'On Writing.'