Much for readers and writers to learn from in Lydia Davis's Essays

I've been reading, on and off, Lydia Davis's recent collection of her nonfiction work, Essays One; some pieces in this collection are random reviews and brief essays she's written over the years, some of which hold up better than others (the reviews of single books are less significant but her pieces of wider scope, such as her list of 5 "perfect" short stories," are provocative and instructive). Anyone who's read her stories, most of them extremely concise, and her translations from the French - Swann's Way in particular) know that she's about the smartest and funniest writer (and thinker) working today. And for further evidence, just take a look at the pieces in this collection drawn from a series of lectures on writing that she delivered at NYU. In these pieces she explains and dissects how she works, something few other writers would take on; these pieces are filled with fantastic advice and guidance for aspiring writers - although her advice, like her stories, is sly and subtle. She shows how her work develops from initial idea jotted in a notebook and through, generally, multiple revisions - and she shows us these revisions in stages. Any attentive reader (or listener) can see how she makes her writing better through stages and, more important, what constitutes her end game: wit, surprise, unease. She loves sentences, and stories, that keep the reader on edge, and she works every phrase, every word, toward a foreseen final effect. I'd steer any young writer to her essay on Revising a Single Sentence; every word is important, carries weight, and can heighten, or deaden, the effect of the piece as a whole. In fact, just see some of her comments on order and sequence - and why the last element in a sequences is of highest importance (in particular see her discussion of Shakespeare's sonnet "Bare Ruined Choirs.") Perhaps the end result of reading these essays is to lead us to her stories and poems - which I would recommend (and have recommended) - but for any developing writer (or reader for that matter) there is so much to learn from these essays, all present w/ Davis's formidable wit, style, and breadth of knowledge (see how this "list" builds?).