I skipped the whole first half about his life except a few paragraphs. The useful half however ...
Don't write off the first half as not being useful just because it's a memoir rather than a manual. It's worth reading, not least because it's well written. It acts as a reminder that this journey to become a great writer starts slowly, that you can't expect to break into the big leagues without a lot of hard work. But there are also little snippets, little things he says about life in general or writing, that get you thinking (or at least, got me thinking) - almost off-hand comments which, if you let them, can help change the attitude you have when writing.