At some point in this book, Handler writes something akin to "You'll never love a book as much as you love a book at ten years old" (I listened on audio and can't find it, so I'm paraphrasing here), and that was precisely why I chose to pick up this memoir.

I've read The Basic Eight published by Daniel Handler, but most importantly, like any self-respecting child of the early 2000s, I know him as Lemony Snicket. I devoured A Series of Unfortunate Events probably somewhere between second and fourth grade, when the final one was published. I read many, many, many books as a child. I'd check out at least ten every week and devour them and then go back for more. (My crowning achievement to this day, even as an adult, was the summer vacation I read 107 books.) All this to say is that I read a lot of books, but ASOUE is one that lodged itself into my ten-year-old brain and has never been shaken free.

I think for me, a large part of the appeal was in the tone that Snicket uses when writing to children. He treats the audience with respect. I think as adults, we sometimes forget what it was like to be a child. But as a child, I distinctly remember hating when adults didn't treat me capable of intelligent thought. But Lemony Snicket never did that.

Reading Handler's memoir gave an interesting insight into just how one of my favorite childhood authors came to be. (Including the origin of the name itself, which alone was worth it.) Dry, witty, and reflective, this memoir meanders and rambles, but in a way that is mostly interesting. It does always feel strange rating a memoir, since it's somebody's life. Overall? I enjoyed it and would recommend to childhood fans. I'm not always sure of where he's going or what he said, but I enjoyed the process nonetheless.

3.5/5

I’m so glad to have gotten a glimpse into the mind of my childhood idol (Lemony Snicket, not Daniel Handler. Jk.) The uniquely witty and dry prose is present here just as i remember it from A Series of Unfortunate Events. I liked that a large part of the memoir was getting to understand Handler’s “literary canon”, which, he says, has shaped him as an author. The book does however go off on a lot of long, confusing and complex tangents that sometimes struggled to hold my attention. Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for this free eARC in exchange for my review.

Listen, my childhood obsession with Lemony Snickett now has me reading anything Daniel Handler writes even if it is not good.

I was so excited to be chosen for this one-- "Lemony Snicket" sparked my love of reading as a kid, and A Series of Unfortunate Events is still my favorite book series of all time. It was really interesting to get a more authentic look at Daniel Handler through this book and understand more about how he creates his writing. There are parts of this book that may have been more geared towards other authors, but I still really enjoyed it!

Part memoir, part commentary on creating, I enjoyed reading through this. I only know of his work, a series of unfortunate events, from childhood, but interesting to read none the less.

I am a fan of Daniel Handler—his writing for children and adults—and will admit to once waiting over four hours in line at my local bookstore so that "Lemony Snicket's representative" could stamp a copy of his book. I should mention that I was fully grown at that time, and using my friend's son (also a fan) to rationalize my place in line, as my children were too young at the time to care (or to be able to read).

So of course I grabbed this book when NetGalley offered it. And, like the 4-hour wait in line, this book was totally worth it. Handler's story is intimate and engaging., and often hilarious and dark (see the one about Edward Gorey). His knowledge of books, authors and other cultural touchstones is vast and inspiring. But really, my love for this book can most neatly be summed up with this one section I bookmarked, if not merely for the contents of the quote but for the fact that I very, very rarely bookmark anything I read on my kindle...

"One afternoon we found a used bookstore— one of those big cavernous ones with towers of tomes everywhere and one cranky man who doesn't want to help you. The prescribed thing to do, of course, would have been to walk hand in hand through the place, a new couple cutely oohing together over favorite titles. But we were not f-ing around. We were both mad for literature and needed to comb savagely through the store's stacks like parallel raccoons. "See you in an hour or so," my wife—my new girlfriend, then—said to me, and as I watched her head to a dusty mass of surrealism, I decided that this was the woman I was going to marry."

What could I possibly add to that?

I read this book slowly, but not because I didn't enjoy it. In fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was just that the essay-style of writing lent it well to be able to put down and pick back up again later. I love Daniel Handler's writing style and he is incredibly well-read. I felt proud of myself when I had heard of and/or read one of the books he mentioned in his memoir! He is such a unique author, and his experiences and the candor with which he told his story made me like him all the more. A definite recommendation for anyone who loves the written word because, if nothing else, this is lyrically and poetically written.

Odds are high you read Handler as a kid (he wrote A Series of Unfortunate Events), so I was interested to see him turn the mirror back on himself, and see what he had to say about writing besides. Took this in small doses, and liked what I found here. Definitely worth a read.

"𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩—𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵…𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘱 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦—𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘺𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨—𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺—𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘺𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴."

This is the kind of book that makes me love reading, writing, and the role of the writer. It's a tough job, and Handler shows us all the ways in which it comes together.
From love. From trauma.
From fear. From excitement.
It's all here.
It's Handler at point blank. Incredibly honest. Learned things that I think have been meaning to come to surface for a long while. From Barthes to 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘯 9 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘖𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦, Handler talks about why he loves Baudelaire and rejects cancel culture. He comes from the school of read everything. See how it works. See how it's done. Do better.

It's this year's A Horse at Night: On Writing but without all the seriousness.

Funny. Informative. Full of surprises.

*loved his list of favorite books/films at the end of the book. if you get the chance, go out and look to the back for the list, but as an appetizer:

- "𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘺𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘨-𝘬𝘸𝘢𝘯, Whale, 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘪-𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘒𝘪𝘮’𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘈 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘤, 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬."

-and his favorite Murakami is A Wild Sheep Chase

p/s: will be writing DB in all of my manuscripts from now on <3

I had just finished watching the "Lemony Snicket" series with my daughter. The entire time I read this book, I heard it in the narrator's voice. It was perfect. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a remarkable piece of unique art. I'd write a thesis about it and its many layers. Handler's memoir really told the story of a brilliant human with his own dark stories. I was blown away by his intelligence and the way he incorporated other literary work, as his inspiration, but also in this book. I keep talking about how fascinated I was with "And Then? And Then? What Else?"

And Then? And Then? What Else? is Daniel Handler’s (best known as Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events) memoir.

As always let’s start with the good: I liked learning where he got different bits of inspiration for The Basic Eight and A Series of Unfortunate Events. A Series of Unfortunate Events is my favorite series of all time so knowing more information about how it came to be is delightful. I learned about how his parents’ love story inspired the Baudelaire parents’ love story. I learned about his love for Charles Baudelaire. I learned about how he came up with the title “A Series of Unfortunate Events.” I learned about how he communicated with conspiracy theorists and it helped him with writing The Basic Eight. But the majority of this book is not these things.

It’s hard to describe how reading this book feels. Have you ever been cornered by a drunk guy who’s really smart and rambles at you for a loooong time about random topics even though you don’t care and you’re trying to politely leave? And I don’t mean a guy who just thinks he’s smart. I mean a guy who’s actually smart. Yes he’s telling you things that could be interesting in theory, in a different circumstance. But he’s drunk. He’s bad at communicating. It feels like he’s holding you hostage. That’s what reading this felt like. It was coherent I guess. There were a bunch of little stories about his life. But wow. I did not care about them. I don’t think he did a good job at telling/showing me why I should care about the things he was telling me. Through every chapter I thought “Ok… now what is this leading to? What are you really trying to teach me?” and I could never find an answer. And I should’ve been able to find an answer! The publisher claims that this book provides inspiration for aspiring writers! Where was the inspiration?!?!

Also he’s very clearly bad at handling criticism which came through in a few chapters. It’s always pretty annoying to find out that authors are bad at taking criticism.

And Then? And Then? What Else? has a pretty high Goodreads rating so clearly I’m an outlier here. But I don’t recommend this even if you’re a big time Lemony Snicket fan like I am.

Part-memoir, part-craft exploration. This book is written by an author whose voice is like no other. As someone from the Bay who lived in San Francisco for several years, the mentioned landmarks tickled me. As a millennial whose love for the macabre started in elementary school, it was a pleasure to explore the mind of the author who wrote "The Series of Unfortunate Events." This book is excellent for millennial writers.

Feels absurd to say it for a book so new but I'm pretty sure this is one of my all-time favorite books. Not to say it's the best I've ever read, or that everyone else will like it, but if you're a bookish person, if you've grown up and been shaped by reading and continue to let that happen, Daniel Handler's life-in-books will pluck the best possible song off those strings. It's funny, conversational, moving and haunting (with some particularly powerful chapters about Handler's past and somewhat ongoing mental health issues), and the best of it comes when, toward the end, Handler provides the most salient, clear-headed, compassionate dose of opinionizing I think he's ever done in print.

Outstanding outstanding outstanding. I love. And I can see this book having legs along the lines of Stephen King's ON WRITING.

This was a very fascinating book and now I understand where he got his ideas for l Lemonade snickers. He wrote these books based on his childhood. And in the books he used to read as a child. And adult.. He had a very difficult upbringing, but he seemed to get through it when he read different books and he could Express yourself through this.. You also did mushrooms, which helped him see things in a different light and Cause problems later in life. He ended up in a mental hospital because he couldn't really Express. His emotions or difficulties, but he overcame a lot of these obstacles.. I think it's really interesting. How he took different authors when he had certain problems or ideas. And this really showed in his writing.. I think people don't understand people like that because they go outside themselves and they look at things very different.. I can relate to that because I've been alone all my life. And I can see things in people and realize what they're going through.. I am more people read this book. Now I understand where he's coming from in his writings when I read his books. Cause when I read them. I really didn't understand what was going on but now I understand now.

I have never read any books by this author but I was curious and decided to request this book. I was shocked I was approved and once I started reading I got sucked in pretty quickly. The author has a unique voice so I can see why his books are so popular. it was cool to see how he got his start and to learn the other works that inspired and shaped his writing. I didn’t expect to learn so much about him but I’m glad he was open about his life experiences. Definitely learned how to look at things in a new way. This was a thought provoking read about a very interesting mind. 4.5

It's difficult for me to figure out how many stars to give this one; it's more for the writers (I am just a normie reader). Many of the essays outline inspiration, process, how Handler "got here". The whole thing is very candid, bordering on oversharing. Handler also uses some ink to defend? explain? justify? some of his past questionable behavior in a way that's icky. I do appreciate Handler's openness about his mental health and some other tough topics, but it's overshadowed by the rest.

Thank you, Liveright and Netgalley, for an advance ebook in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Part memoir, part writing advice, part something else entirely, And Then? And Then? What Else? chronicles moments from Daniel Handler's (Lemony Snicket) life interspersed with his thoughts and observations on writing and literature.

I was really excited for this book, and I think it's important to talk about why. While I enjoyed A Series of Unfortunate Events as much as anyone, the thing that has kept my little writer heart parasocially attached to Lemony Snicket for years is a pep talk he wrote for National Novel Writing Month in 2010. Though it is a pep talk, he approaches the subject in a way which has always felt genius to me: basically, you should just give up. As a writer, it's one of the most motivating things I've read, and I return to it frequently for the inspiring rage and desire to succeed that it fuels in me. So when I read that this book would be part inspiration for aspiring writers, I thought I'd find something like this pep talk, only longer form.

Alas, that is not what this book is. It's not the next "On Writing," and it's not my favorite writing pep talk. Sometimes, it hardly feels like a memoir, either. If I were to call this anything, I'd say it's a character study, only it's Daniel Handler studying himself, and he is very often interrupted by Daniel Handler rambling on about one thing or another as it strikes his fancy. While I think this could have done with another round of editing, I think more than that, it needed a complete overhaul of structure. It was just... hard to keep up with, and that made it kind of disappointing.

Beyond my disappointment with this book as an overall read, I don't know that I found much of the little writing advice here helpful. If anything, after reading this book, I think I could be convinced that the Unfortunate Events books were more a stroke of luck than the first herald of a new literary genius. Handler certainly has a lot going on in his brain, and he does draw some unique connections, which means he's often writing stories that probably only he could come up with, and that's great! But "think really hard about a lot of things" doesn't really make for a followable example of writing skill.

Anyways, I think a lot of readers will really enjoy this. It's definitely an interesting look at Handler's mind, and I don't want to sound like I'm arguing this book isn't worth reading. In fact, I think it generally is! I just wish it had lived up to at least one of my expectations. (I was also NOT a fan of his little dig at The Hunger Games, but that's a me problem)

And Then? And Then? What Else? is an interesting look into Daniel Handler's life, works, and inspirations. I enjoyed the parts where he talked about his approaches to writing. At times the book is a bit chaotic topic-wise, but I overall really enjoyed the writing.

I very much enjoyed this author's stream of consciousness essays and inimitable style. This book is probably nostalgic for people who grew up reading Lemony Snicket books. I think I'm a little outside the target audience for the autobiographical aspect, but when I look at this more as a craft book, I found these essays to be a great reminder not to grow up.

Like many child readers in my generation, A Series of Unfortunate Events was formative for me. Lemony Snicket was an uncanny figure in my developing mind, a mysterious person who somehow existed in both real life and in the gothically fantastical world of the Baudelaires. This blur between fiction and reality was absolutely thrilling to me.

Zoom forward to now. I’m an emerging writer looking for some guidance. My prefrontal cortex is fully developed (I think). Now, in steps the man behind all the magic (Daniel Handler!) and he writes things this grown-up version of me finds thrilling, too!

He talks about words and books and music and life experiences and society in such a humble, honest, and insightful way. I walked away with tidbits and tools that I’ll apply to my own writing, and I also walked away with plenty of enticing musical and literary recommendations. Definitely want to put this in the hands of all former child Lemony Snicket fans. May we all grow up to be fans of Daniel Handler, as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!