Books for Writers

Stephen King's On Writing is half memoir, half instruction to writers, and all love for the craft of writing. As good now in its 10th Anniversary edition (July 2010, Scribner) as it was when King penned it in 2000, On Writing recounts King's childhood writing efforts and his initial adult successes;within its pages, the author lays open a toolbox full of advice for writers.

In this essential book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Walter Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish his or her novel in one year.

Amy Tan takes us on a journey from her childhood of tragedy and comedy to the present day and her arrival as one of the world's best-loved novelists.

Strunk & White's The Elements of Style has for decades been an essential tool for English language writers and students. The 1959 handbook gets a 2005 face lift with the addition of Maira Kalman's fanciful illustrations.

For lovers of words and seekers of wisdom, a lively history of aphorisms—the shortest and oldest written art form—and the intriguing people who have penned them, from the Buddha to Emily Dickinson.

What would you read if you had the time? What would you learn if you could?

Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are.

Michael Chabon's book of essays celebrating genre fiction by wandering academically through the detective stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, the fantasy of Philip Pullman, classic works of Norse Myth, and more.

Peter Bowerman makes the bold claim of being able to teach his readers how to achieve financial self-sufficiency as freelance writers in six months or less.

Sarah Boxer introduces readers to 27 blogs varying widely in author and topic - women writers, men writers, blogs with photos, cartoons, U.S. government documents, poems, frozen animations - all of which warrant further exploration.