Books for Writers: Which Are YOUR Favorites?

How about doing your fellow writers a favor?  Share with us the titles, and perhaps even a word or two, about your favorite books for writers.  Just click on the COMMENT link at the bottom of this post — it will only take a moment to share your thoughts.

Of course, with this question, I’m presuming that writers do in fact read books about the art, craft and business of writing.  But I could be wrong.  Maybe everyone finds that information now online.

Or perhaps you simply have not yet found the book that really answers the questions you have about writing.  If so, how about describing your “dream book” for you as a writer?  Maybe one of our readers will sit down and write it for you.

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    Comment by
    Ashish
    30 Dec 2008

    Of course there are no doubts “On Writing” is the most recommended book for most writers. I also found “The writer's book of days” to be inspirational especially to a beginner like myself. Its very easy to read and full of topics on the craft. Having read it I often find myself going back to it whenever I am low of confidence and need little inspiration. Highly recommended.

    Read more from Ashish

    it was hazy last night

    A

    Comment by
    n.
    30 Dec 2008

    Though someone is likely to say “those arent books for writers”, i cannot think of any book other than these two that are of the most help to writers, so for what its worth:

    Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism
    Nietzsche The Birth of Tragedy

    Comment by
    avr
    30 Dec 2008

    I have a few books on the craft of writing that I recommend. You can check out the list on my blog: http://www.thewritertoday.blogspot.com. I took a writing class and the teacher recommended a few of the ones on the list. Specifically, “Writing Down The Bones” by Natalie Goldberg, “The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron, and “Bird by Bird” by Ann Lamotte. These all focus on getting you to come out of your shell and get your creativity flowing so you can get down to the business of writing.

    Comment by
    tomcolvin
    30 Dec 2008

    Ashish, thanks. I know ON WRITING and agree with you. Don´t know BOOK OF
    DAYS, will look into it.

    Comment by
    tomcolvin
    30 Dec 2008

    Your list at The Writer Today is excellent. Thanks for sharing.

    Comment by
    tomcolvin
    30 Dec 2008

    Aninaction — what an intriguing choice of books. Yes, not the expected
    choices, but provocative and worth looking into.

    Comment by
    tomcolvin
    30 Dec 2008

    NOTE — I am posting this on behalf of Michael Ham. TC

    I somehow could not post this comment in response to your “favorite book on
    writing” post:

    My overall favorite is not Strunk & White: abjurations, even with examples,
    fail to teach because the mind is passive. I have a particular love the for
    unabridged edition of The Reader Over Your Shoulder, by Robert Graves
    and Alan Hodge, because it lends itself to exercises that enable the
    reader/worker of the exercises to really learn the skills of revising (which
    is where what is written gets much, much better).

    I have a post that describes the routine, but basically it's this: about 1/4
    the book is dedicated to a history of English prose style, with many
    examples. Then about 1/4 consists of the rules that good writing obeys, with
    many examples of actual published prose that breaks the rules and becomes,
    on analysis, unintelligible. The final half of the book consists of passages
    from a great many writers, all pasasges from published writing, with Graves
    and Hodge carefully marking every violation of the rules and explaining the
    problem that each violation causes, and then their rewriting the passage.

    My proposal is that you take each passage (without comments) and try for
    yourself to spot the rule violations and, after about 20-30 minutes of
    effort, rewriting the passage. Only then do you look at what Graves and
    Hodges found in the passage. Your mind, prepared by your own efforts, will
    then actually absorb what they say and internalize it.

    At http://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2006/11/11/robe...
    you'll find the process described more clearly and also a link so you can
    download the example passages in PDF form for you to mark up.

    Michael Ham
    Monterey CA
    http://leisureguy.wordpress.com
    .

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