{"product_id":"pity-the-reader","title":"Pity the Reader","description":"Kurt Vonnegut used to like to say, \"Practicing an art form is a way to grow your soul.\" He would screw up his lips into a prune face after he said this because of how important he believed this idea to be. \u003ci\u003ePity the Reader\u003c\/i\u003e is the very embodiment of that idea, a book about writing and life and why the two go together.\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt includes rare photos and reproductions, Vonnegut's own account in his own words of how he became a writer and why it matters, and previously untold stories by and about Vonnegut as teacher and friend. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt turns out he was generous to a fault about students' writing, idiosyncratic, a bit tortured and always creative as a teacher, and here in this book that portrait becomes our gateway into getting to know Kurt Vonnegut better than we ever have before as a human being. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVonnegut recounts that his favorite work of art among all those his children produced \"so far\" is a letter his daughter Nanette wrote to a disgruntled customer, after he had tormented a new waitress at the restaurant where she had just started working, and then he shares the letter with us. Thus he illustrates his first writing rule: \"Find a subject you care about.\" This book is full of such rare, intimately teachable moments, and they add up to something special. \u003ci\u003ePity the Reader \u003c\/i\u003eindeed.","brand":"Seven Stories Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48819829506253,"sku":"9781644210215","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0557\/1529\/9533\/files\/imageloader_4a454d2f-d89f-4ae2-bae4-50ef4ad5dacc.jpg?v=1789059492","url":"https:\/\/booksatmidnight.com\/products\/pity-the-reader","provider":"Books At Midnight","version":"1.0","type":"link"}