Book: 'The New New Journalism'

books journalism

I just finished "The New New Journalism." It's a collection of interviews with writers such as Ted Conover, William Langewiesche, Gay Talese and Jon Krakauer to name a few.

The interviews follow a consistent path and cover topics such as how the writers develop their ideas into stories, there reportorial methods and writing techniques. It's interesting to read the similarities and differences. Some swear by tape recorders for interviews and some avoid them. One writer will have a very structured environment for writing, but the next can write anywhere. I especially like Ron Rosenbaum's response to the question, "Do you have to be in any particular location to write?":

I find it helps to write in coffee shops ... Adopting the pose of the writer in public in some way helps you to actually start getting writing done. There you are in the coffee shop: "What am I supposed to be doing? Am I just a poseur? No, I'm a writer! I'd better get some writing done."

One thing all of the writers have in common is the extensive amount of time they spend with their subjects: years in some cases. Another commonality is they all (with a couple of exceptions) have been staff writers at "The New Yorker" at some point during their careers.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in writing (either fiction or nonfiction) in general or journalism in particular.

Two down, 11 to go