Must-read books for Writers Hello there, creative people! I hope I'm posting in the right section of these forums. I was just wondering if someone would be kind enough to share their suggestions of the "must-read" books for writers? You know, something for inspiration, creativity, ideas, etc etc. And I don't mean books of technical stuff - just novels of different genres. Or, maybe someone is aware of some blog/website that has a great list published? I'm looking for like top 30, or top 50, or even a 100. I tried using Google for this purpose, but that didn't return anything good (all suggested books were on the technical things of how to write, etc) Your help is much appreciated! Thank you.
"Must reads for writers?," I can't say any come to mind but I have noticed when it comes to 'how to books', the information provided is usually only the personal insights of the author in question and not a 'this is how to do it' reference book. Writing is all about style, sentence structure, word use and pacing; something that would suit one writer may seem awkward to another. By all means read these, 'how to books' and take what appeals to you and doesn't sound like nonesence, try some of the suggestion and see if it works for you. But do yourself a favour and don't mistake them for 'rules,' there's no such thing...in my opinion. To finally answer your question. I would suggest you try searching on Google or Amazon, I'm sure tons of titles will come up. Don't go by ratings but by cost, anything at a descent price (expensive) would be worth investing in. My other piece of advice would be to stay on this forum and read the posts you're bound to find help here without spending a penny. Edit; Ah! Got the wrong idea, sorry. Thats going to be hard to answer. But I'll do my best. I would say grab up whatever is selling big, the blockbusters. In the theory that if they are big sellers they must be doing something right. Go to your local book store and see whats in the top 20 best sellers.
This thread has been moved. It was in the wrong section. In answer to the question though, I don't know if it is just because of the way I was brought up but the must read books are those in the great western canon. I can't think of a better list personally.
Sorry I was about to open a thread of the same nature, si I'll use yours to ask my question but does anyone knows good books for complete beginners in writing? Thank you.
The 'must reads' will be different depending on what type of books you like to read and what type of story you want to write. Are you writing Sci fi? Romance? YA? Contemporary? Historical? Sarouchka - there have been several threads dealing with writing books in general. Do a search for those. If you can't find them, PM me and I'll send you a list of ones that I have liked.
Thanks, everyone! I'm interested to write some various stuff, most particularly kind of Quentin Tarantino's style (what he writes for films, I do want to put into a book). I haven't written anything significant yet, because I don't have enough courage to start off properly - I get blocked as soon as I go further than the general idea that I have to write about. That is why I thought I will spend some more time reading now instead of writing, and prepare myself better before "painting my windows black and delving into the writing-only for two weeks". I will definitely grab one or two bestsellers, but any suggestions for books that withstood the time and are still a great, and necessary, read? Lemex, what is a "western cannon"? chicagoliz, I will do so, however would you mind still sharing the books that you liked? I am very much interested in this list of yours.
The Western canon includes books that helped shaped Western thought and culture. These lists are a good place to start, but they are, as the name implies, mostly limited to European and North American books. You should look into books from Asia and Africa as well, though it may be hard to find translations for some of them.
As far as books that would be written in a style similar to Quentin Tarantino's movies -- nothing is springing immediately to mind, but I'm sure others will have suggestions. For current well-written novels, check out the various prizes that are given (National Book Award, etc). You can find them on amazon and via searches. Two classics that have a bit more modernity to them, but have stood the test of time are Catcher in the Rye and Great Gatsby.
How can I improve on this? I have always used the, admittedly long, list of the 'Great Books' as a framework more than anything else. It often starts with Greek Drama (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) and Pre-Socratic philosophy, and then to Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and goes through Roman poetry (Horace, Catullus, Virgil, Ovid) drama and history, The Bible, St. Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, John Donne, Shakespeare, Milton, Descartes, Kant, Hume, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Nietzsche, Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot and ends with Solzhenitsyn. There are many different lists of the canon though, the names that keep recurring (those I have named) are the best places to start.
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose, is pretty good. In fact it's one of the best I've read, and I've read some books on writing. As the title says, it focuses on how to read great books in order to discover how those writers did it. It sort of proposes we learn the craft by apprentiship, which fascinates me as an idea. In the same spirit I love The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry. It focuses on the forms of poetry, for example how to write a sonnet, a haiku, whatever. It has some wonderful exercises and it has some good points on poetry writing. Both books are very keen on reading other books, plus they are very well written and fun to read.
How Novels Work - John Mullan On Directing Film - David Mamet Story - Robert McKee Mullan's book is a rework of a series of newspaper articles regarding various techniques used in mainly literary fiction, with a decent enough set of references to classic and recent novels where those techniques are used. Good for a detailed overview. Mamet's and McKee's books come from a screenwriting perspective, particularly the Mamet one as it focuses on how to shoot the story in such a way that it edits itself, but it's useful for understanding how one action by a character links to their next action. However, McKee's book is invaluable in understanding story for any medium, not just film, and one I can't recommend highly enough.
I've read "Stephen King on writing" & I found it definitely helped me create a foundation for my writing, this was earlier when I first got started writing a few years ago..sorry if this has been posted already couldn't go through the entire thread!
I've read McKee's book. I found it infuriating. It's a good book for those who voluntarily don straitjackets, I guess. It's almost physically painful to read. It's the opposite of inspiration. I prefer John Gardner's books on writing.
Both of these that she published are brilliant. Found them at a used bookstore and they are my bibles. You can't go wrong with "On Writing" by Stephen King either. It's a favourite.