What It Is

"What It Is" is one of the most surprisingly encouraging and inspiring books I've come across. Good job, LyndaB!

I love this book and have already bought 3 more as gifts. I'm pretty sure that if I just walk around with this book or sit looking at it in coffeshops, bars and car repair waiting rooms, cool things are going to happen to me, mysterious images, strangers, forgotten childhood toys and monsters will come to visit. How can one book be so practical and so mystical at the same time? I'm so grateful to Lynda Barry and the magic cephalapod for making this book.

I ordered this after reading about it on Kelly Kilmer's blog, where she highly praised this repeatedly and made me think that I was missing out on something wonderful if I didn't buy it.
So I bought it, and what I found out is that I had been missing out on something wonderful!!

I couldn't be more happy that I bought this book! First of all this book surprised me in that it is nicely sized 8.5 x 11 (approx) and it's much THICKER than I had imaged it, and it's HARDCOVER.(I was expecting a soft cover magazine type book)So, after I admired the outside, and opened it up, I was even more impressed and excited with what I found!! Yes, I thought I was in comic book/collage/art journal/writing prompt heaven!! With so much to look at, I just about wore myself out trying to look at/read everything. -Which is also a nice thing about this book, I am highly doubting that you'd run out of things to look at or read here.

This is kinda like looking at one of your school friends notebook, or journal, except SO MUCH BETTER! There are comic book pictures, random thoughts, journal prompts, drawings, ideas, etc, etc, etc. This is an awesome and inspiring book. This tops the list of coolest books that I own!!

I am an artist-teacher, and I wish someone had presented this information to me sooner.

The book has a front section that is sort of an artistic, stream of consciousness, diaristic account of Lynda Barry's own creative life. Followed by a workbook, which I didn't have any specific expectations about, but I was sitting there following the steps, and it was pretty amazing how effective the method Barry advocates is. It took me off guard, and I think I am going to use it next week in the class I teach.

Overall this book ranks somewhere around the best books I have ever read because it sort of snuck up on me, and made realize some stuff about myself and my creative process that I may have resisted in a less charismatic presentation.

I recommend this to anyone who loves Linda Barry. This book is supposedto be a condensed version of her wrtining workshop. Mostly, it is L. B. collages and drawings. It explores many of the issues that arise during the creative process.