From the archives:The writer's bookshelf, Part I

This entry first appeared (in a slightly different form) on 12.02.2004.

"Part I" was an afterthought, or maybe, more precisely, it was an attempt to cover my capacious, erm, behind since, in a first pass, I can't hope to identify all of the books that have shaped, refined, or even redefined my writing life. By tacking "Part I" onto to the title of the entry, then, I'm acknowledging the list's incompleteness.

Of course, all that I have read has, in one way or another, altered the landscape of my imagination.

And this is as it should be.

But here I only hope to satisfy the curiosity of the readers who have written to ask about the books on which I rely as a writer.

It's a relatively short list.

The essential titles
The Chicago Manual of Style
Writer's Market
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
The New York Public Library Desk Reference
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Two decades of bylines ago, I needed (or believed I needed) many other titles within reach. But the internet and, yes, experience mean fewer "essentials" on the writer's desk.

A related aside
Two decades of bylines ago, I also believed that writing required a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils, an orderly stack of yellow legal pads, and my favorite chair. Oh, the pretensions and preoccupations of the beginning writer... to say nothing of the writer who fancies the idea of being a writer more than the work of being a writer.

Many a beginning writer overcomes the pretensions and preoccupations (with the "right" writing utensil, the "ideal" paper, the "perfect" chair), but the latter rarely does, and consequently, he generally doesn't accumulate (m)any bylines. You can quickly identify this writer at a party, writer's group, or online forum: He talks about what he's going to write. A lot. But don't bother following up when you next meet. He didn't start the project, or, if he did, he has already abandoned it for his next big idea.

A bit of unsolicited advice
If you want to write, don't busy yourself with sharpening pencils and don't spend too much time talking about what you're going to write.

Just write.

Reading about writing
Writing is not terribly difficult, but writing well is.

From Stephen King's gem On Writing:

Writers form themselves into the pyramid we see in all areas of human talent and human creativity. At the bottom are the bad ones. Above them is a group which is slightly smaller but still large and welcoming; these are the competent writers. They may also be found on the staff of your local newspaper, on the racks at your local bookstore, and at poetry readings on Open Mike Night... The next level is much smaller. These are the really good writers. Above them — above almost all of us — are the Shakespeares, the Faulkners, the Yeatses, Shaws, and Eudora Weltys. They are geniuses, divine accidents, gifted in a way which is beyond our ability to understand... [M]ost geniuses aren't able to understand themselves, and many of them lead miserable lives, realizing (at least on some level) that they are nothing but fortunate freaks....

"Really good" (like King and, say, for example, Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike) and "fortunate freak" are not in my future, so I get by with "competent" (if I do say so myself). Heh, heh, heh. Competent's fine. Hey, it pays the bills.

Moreover, "competent" enables me to write to learn.

But more about that worthy topic some other time.

For now, let me just get a few more titles out there. I'll call them... hmmmm... "Not essential but worth the time"? Nah. Let's go with

Books about writing and the writing life
Presented in no particular order.

On Writing (Stephen King)
The Orwell Reader ("Politics and the English Language")
Stet: An Editor's Life (Diana Athill)
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lamott)
Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers (Susan Shaughnessy)
Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing (Patricia T. O'Connor, who also wrote the wonderful Woe Is I)
Writing and the Writer (Frank Smith)
For Writers Only (Sophy Burnham)
Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing (Claire Kehrwald Cook)
A Room of One's Own (Virginia Woolf)
Becoming a Writer (Dorothea Brande)
The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art (Joyce Carol Oates, whose (Woman) Writer is also worth having)
The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (Christopher Vogel)
On Writing Well (William Zinsser)
The Elements of Style (Strunk and White)
Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Joseph M. Williams)

More on this subject when time and inclination permit. Until then, read, think, learn.

Write.

And eat some homemade chocolate chip cookies.