books on writing and reading

ON WRITING:

Aristotle: Poetics

Margaret Atwood (2003): Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing

Hélène Cixous (1993): Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing

Diana Gabaldon (2016): “I Give You My Body…”: How I Write Sex Scenes

Gotham Writers’ Workshop (2010): Writing Fiction. The Practical Guide from New York’s Acclaimed Creative Writing School

Lee Gutkind (2012): You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction–from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between

Ernest Hemingway, Larry W. Phillips (1999): Ernest Hemingway on Writing

Bret Anthony Johnston (2008): Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer

Stephen King (2012): On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Anne Lamott (1995): Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

John McPhee (2017): Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process

G. Lynn Nelson (2004): Writing and Being: Embracing Your Life Through Creative Journaling

Brenda Miller, Suzanne Paola (2019): Tell it Slant

Benjamin Percy (2016): Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction

Michele Poff, William Strunk Jr. (2018): The Elements of Style Workbook: Writing Strategies with Grammar Book (Writing Workbook Featuring New Lessons on Writing with Style)

Dani Shapiro (2013): Stil Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life

Wlliam Strunk Jr., E.B. White (2020): The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition

William Zinsser (2016): On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Non-Fiction

ON WRITING A MEMOIR:

Judith Barrington (2002): Writing a Memoir

Natalie Goldberg (2008): Old Freind from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir

Vivian Gornick (2002): The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative

Lee Gutkind (1997): The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality

Rachel Herron (2018): Fast-Draft Your Memoir: Write Your Life Story in 45 Hours

Mary Karr (2016): The Art of Memoir

Thomas Larsen (2007): The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative

Meredith Maran (Editor)(2016): Why We Write About Ourselves: Twenty Memoirists on Why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature

Linda Joy Myers, Brooke Warner (2014): Breaking Ground on Your Memoir: Craft, Inspiration, and Motivation for Memoir Writers

Tristine Rainer (1998): Your Life as Story: Discovering the “new Autobiography” and Writing Memoir as Literature

Jennifer Traig (2002): The Autobiographer’s Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir

William Zinsser (2004): Writing About Your Life: A Journey into the Past

William Zinsser (Editor) (1998): Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of the Memoir. Featured authors include Russell Baker on Growing Up; Jill Ker Conway on The Road from Coorain; Annie Dillard on An American Childhood; Ian Frazier on Family; Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Colored People; Alfred Kazin on A Walker in the City; Frank McCourt on Angela’s Ashes; Toni Morrison on Beloved; and Eileen Simpson on Poets in Their Youth.

ON POETRY:

Maria Mazziotta Gillan (2013): Writing Poetry to Save Your Life

ON SONGWRITING:

John Braheny (2006): The Craft and Business of Songwriting: A Practical Guide to Creating and Marketing Artistically and Commercially Successful Songs

Shiela Davis (1985): The Craft of Lyric Writing

Jai Josefs (1996): Writing Music for Hit Songs: Including New Songs From the ’90s

Moll-Ann Leikin (1989): How to Write a Hit Song: The Complete Guide to Writing and Marketing Chart-Topping Lyrics & Music

Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting (2013): Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting

Pat Pattison (2010): Writing Better Lyrics

Andrea Stolpe (2007): Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling

Jimmy Webb (1999): Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting

Clement Wood (1992): The Complete Rhyming Dictionary

ON SCREENWRITING:

Gotham (2008): Writing Movies: The Practical Guide to Creating Stellar Screenplays

Robert McKee (2010): Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

Michael Tierno (2002): Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilisation

ON STORYTELLING:

Jonathan Shapiro (2016): Lawyers, Liars, and the Art of Storytelling: Using Stories to Advocate, Influence, and Persuade

ON READING:

Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren (1972): How to Read a Book

DAVID MIKICS (2013): Slow Reading in a Hurried Age

Francine Prose (2007): Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them