I've read this book while walking on the street, at school or in the dentist waiting room (times when my mind usually is blank or wondering around) - not a single page at home so I can focus all my attention on it. Yes, it happened to feel the need to re-read sentences but I understood every point Llosa made there and so many times I smiled cause there were notes and observation that I myself as a reader intuited but couldn't grasp or put down as clear as Llosa.

I read the letters as if they were addressed to me for I myself wonder sometimes about the things you need to know and look at if you want to become a writer.
Anyhow, the letters are also useful to a reader in learning more about the process of creation.

It's hard to write something more about this book since it is itself a book that speaks of other books. A part of its content wasn't new to me - I learned some things about the space and time points of view but it was a lot more interesting than a literature class. There were new things, like the parallel of the intercommunicable pots or the hidden given (I think that's the way it's called, I'm not sure).
Very simple and concise, Llosa states a few times that the act of creation is a lot more complex than he presented it, but that a too deep incision of a book would most likely kill it.

He gives examples from the all time great novels for how-to's.
Mainly, he presents the choices concerning the space, time, level of reality and characters a writer has to make and the methods he can use to expand his novel to complex levels. There's no secret recipe, you still have to do the hard work of finding your own style.

Worth reading if you think you already think of literature as a whole made of little parts and want to know more about them.