It isn't about writing Lisp parsers so much as about writing a parser for your particular language that solves your particular problem. Instead of writing a python program that plays minesweeper, you write a minesweeper language where minefield, detonate, mine, digit, grid are keywords in some sense, where minesweeping can be explained in terms of your minesweeper language itself, not in terms of python & variables & functions & all that.
Read Section 1.2 - "Change the language to suit the problem. In Lisp, you don’t just write your program down toward the language, you also build the language up toward your program. Language and program evolve together. Like the border between two warring states, the boundary between language and program is drawn and redrawn, until eventually it comes to rest along the mountains and rivers, the natural frontiers of your problem. In the end your program will look as if the language had been designed for it. And when language and program fit one another well, you end up with code which is clear, small, and efficient.
The greatest danger of Lisp is that it may spoil you. Once you’ve used Lisp for a while, you may become so sensitive to the fit between language and application that you won’t be able to go back to another language without always feeling that it doesn’t give you quite the flexibility you need.".
I will let the master explain -
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/paulgraham/onlisp.pdf
Read Section 1.2 - "Change the language to suit the problem. In Lisp, you don’t just write your program down toward the language, you also build the language up toward your program. Language and program evolve together. Like the border between two warring states, the boundary between language and program is drawn and redrawn, until eventually it comes to rest along the mountains and rivers, the natural frontiers of your problem. In the end your program will look as if the language had been designed for it. And when language and program fit one another well, you end up with code which is clear, small, and efficient.
The greatest danger of Lisp is that it may spoil you. Once you’ve used Lisp for a while, you may become so sensitive to the fit between language and application that you won’t be able to go back to another language without always feeling that it doesn’t give you quite the flexibility you need.".