On Writing
by Stephen King
Think a craft book can't be a thrilling read? Pick up this memoir from the master of horror and get ready to get weird, in a good way, of course. On Writing is part master class on the mechanics of writing and part memoir of life as a writer. It's the perfect mix of practical advice and thank-god-it's-not-just-me anecdotes. King even offers a fascinating look into his near-fatal car accident in 1999 and how his writing was a huge impetus for his recovery. The moral? Writing is hard, but it can also save your life.
Bird by Bird
by Anne Lamott
Haven't read a single writing book? Start here. This classic does it all – the encouraging, the hard truths, the practical advice, the perspective, and the unavoidable reality that there is nothing easy or glamorous about being a writer. This is where you should start asking yourself the question: do you want to be published, or do you want to write? Do you want to be a writer because it sounds glitzy and exciting, or do you want to be a writer because you couldn't stop writing if you tried? And while you are at it, you can also check out Small Victories, her newest book that dishes advice on writing and life.
The Sense of Style
by Steven Pinker
Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Have dictionaries abandoned their responsibility to safeguard correct usage? Do the kids today even care about good writing? Why should any of us care? In this entertaining and instructive book, the bestselling cognitive scientist, linguist, and writer Steven Pinker rethinks the usage guide for the 21st century. Rather than moaning about the decline of the language, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose.
On Writing Well
by William Zinsser
If you only read one book on this list, read this one. Yes, even if you're a fiction writer. This book is a classic guide for a reason, and you'll soon find yourself clutching your tattered, underlined copy during your darkest moments of prose fatigue. It's a much needed antidote to the meaningless corporate-speak that clogs our poor brains, and it's also the perfect starting point for learning how to write simple, muscular prose. Originally published in 1976, Zinsser's tips on mechanics, structure and thinking have stood the test of time for generations of writers of all kinds. His principles are equally sound for today's bloggers, fiction and non-fiction writers and any kind of digital publisher.
How to Write a Sentence
by Stanley Fish
How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One by Stanley Fish isn't merely a prescriptive guide to the craft of writing, it's also a rich and layered exploration of language as an evolving cultural organism. This is an insightful, rigorous manual on the art of language that may just be one of the best such tools since The Elements of Style. In fact, Fish offers an intelligent rebuttal of some of the cultish mandates of Strunk and White's bible, most notably the blind insistence on brevity and sentence minimalism. To argue his case, he picks apart some of history's most powerful sentences, from Shakespeare to Dickens to Lewis Carroll, using a kind of literary forensics to excavate the essence of beautiful language.
How to Read a Book
by Mortimer Adler & Charles van Doren
How to Read a Book was originally written by Mortimer Adler in 1940 and revised with Charles van Doren in 1972. From basic reading to systematic skimming and inspectional reading to speed reading, Adler's how-to's apply as efficiently to practical textbooks and science books as they do to poetry and fiction. One of the book's finest points deals with the fundamental yin-yang of how ideas travel and permeate minds – the intertwined acts of reading and writing. Marginalia – those fragments of thought and seeds of insight we scribble in the margins of a book – have a social life all their own and hardly anything captures both the utilitarian necessity and creative allure of marginalia better than this Adler's classic.
Zen in the Art of Writing
by Ray Bradbury
What is most wonderful about this book is that Ray Bradbury loves to write. And because he is having so much fun writing the book, he'll make you want to write too and as well. Bradbury mixes memoir and advice in this short book. Zen in the Art of Writing is an emotional punch in the arm, emphasizing the importance of zest, gusto and curiosity. If you're not sure if there's anything in your life worth writing about, Bradbury gives you a wake-up call. There are many books on writing, but there are very few that are as good as this one. This is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer – it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you.
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