Working On My Novel Paperback – July 1, 2014

This is my favorite book about modern writers and writing. We are so lucky to be alive at a time when so many people are writing novels they are definitely going to finish and are kind enough to let everyone know they are writing one.

Total nothingness. I can't believe I paid for this "slim volume" of sentences. It's neither amusing nor interesting. Shame on me!

My first thought upon browsing through this book was: Penguin published this? The second: Who did this guy bribe for all the great press?A brief Google search will find no shortage of avant-garde artistic rags vomiting praise over the clever ways in which this book disrupts the modern meta-narratives of writing and exposes the hidden some-suchs of the artistic process. But at its heart, do you know what it is?Tweets. Just tweets. Yes, this is an example of assemblage--of making meaning by the wholesale repurposing of existing content--but the lofty artistic aspirations that reviewers attribute to this text seem laughable.So fine, make an argument for the ways in which this book disrupts modernity by presenting a postmodern account of writing (or the procrastination thereof) through fragmented thoughts of (aspiring) authors browsing twitter during their breaks. If the goal is to reflect some critical attention to the culture of attention and writing and have a soft jape at these folks then we should have the same jape at the author, whose efforts at marketing this trash far exceed the effort put into the concept of the piece.And content aside, my biggest gripe? The utter waste of paper. Each page has one tweet printed on the top half (if it's a long tweet) of the page. And the rest is blank space. The reasoning? Personally, I'm thinking it's to pad out the book and make it appear more substantial (you're holding the simulacrum of a novel, here), though others have suggested you could use that space to write your own haikus. And to me, that is about the only thing that would make this "book" an artistic artifact.

This is a book of tweets from people who have included the phrase "working on my novel" in their tweet interspersed with sketches of kettles. I'm not joking - this actually got published by Penguin of all companies!The tweets "reveal" that people prefer to tell you that they're writing their novels rather than actually writing them (shock!). They also inform you of the TV shows/movies they're watching, the foods/drinks they're consuming, the other activities they're doing instead of writing, and a few say they've written a bunch of words today and that they're happy. It's that mundane. In fact, reading it makes you feel like you're the butt of a joke. And why include bad sketches of kettles - to underline how "arty" this project is?All I can say is that Cory Arcangel must be really well connected to get this rubbish into print by a major publisher. If you want to read this book for free, go on Twitter at any time, check out the hashtag #amwriting and have your fill of all the nonsense you can stand that self-absorbed dummies spout about their writing.Cory Arcangel's Working on My Novel is a novelty publication with nothing to offer but it's own vacuity.

Received my copy today...as an author who tweets, it was fun to read through the book and check out how/where other writers are working.

this is brilliant.I am a part-time novelist, meaning nothing I've worked on has been picked up...or finished.That didn't occur to me when I received the book in the mail. I was like, what? Is this some sort of sick joke that they would remind me I need to work on my novel? But, it wasn't. It wasn't until I realized what the author had done, looked up my name, and realized I was there.This is a wonderful little book. Humerous. Brilliant. It collects lots of tweets from working novelists, many of them novelists will be able to connect to.I love it.

Quite brilliant and subversive. A welcome provocation.

this book is a joy…

I love this book. It won't be for everyone, though. It's a collection of tweets from people who are supposedly working on a novel. The tweets are sad and funny - full of hope and full of excuses. If you know a budding writer it would make a really good present.

Meh!

Art or anthology? Can't decide. Art project maybe. Finished reading rather quickly, it was all to familiar to me. Anyway - need to go working on my novel now.... 😉

Funny book to keep over the toilet ;).

An inspired contribution from one of the world's greatest living artists!