‘When I first began reading Nam Le’s Love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice, I was sceptical: a story about a writer writing a story? A writer at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, no less? Isn’t this a little self-indulgent? Hasn’t this been done before?’

So begins Fiona McFarlane in her essay for Reading Like an Australian Writer, a new collection of writings on writing, edited by award-winning novelist Belinda Castles. I shared a little of this sentiment when Castles’ book arrived for review. Yet another book of writers talking about the books that inspire them? Isn’t this familiar territory?