R.H. Walker, Author

No Time to Spare is a hard book to review, at least in the context of this particular series.

The premise is simple enough: this is a collection of Le Guin’s blog posts from early to mid 2010s, towards the end both of her career and her life. The premise of each essay is taken from Le Guin’s everyday life in Portland– a misadventure her cat has gone on, a trend she has noticed, a visit to the symphony, a memory that recently resurfaced– and is examined and addressed through the lens only she could see through.

Reading these makes me think back to what Lamott says about the “writing life” (see my review of Bird by Bird for more). Lamott and Le Guin seem to share a philosophy regarding the craft of writing. They both clearly love exploring new ideas and pondering them, and picking over dictionaries and thesauruses to find exactly the right words to express them. This is simply what a writer does, when one is a Lamott or a Le Guin. One watches and absorbs, and then gets to creating.

No Time To Spare is the natural culmination of this process. This is the philosophy in action. You get the sense that these are Le Guin’s most genuine thoughts, carefully plated and presented for the enjoyment of the reader. But aside from these metaphysical aspects, it’s not prescriptive “writing” advice. If it’s advice at all it’s general life advice. Exactly what it says on the tin: these are Le Guin’s thoughts “about what matters”, in a wide variety of areas.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that we can’t draw some conclusions. I connected very personally with this book. I saw a lot of myself in Le Guin’s writings, and also came away with much to think about. If there’s one lesson I would convey it would be this: even your smallest opinions have value. Get them down, find the beauty and truth therein, and then don’t be afraid to share.