Books about writing books offer advice on mastering this elusive art. Below we discuss a few of our favorites and provide a list of others we recommend.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott says that, "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

Of all the instructive books on the craft of writing, somehow this one stands out as the one that has been the most helpful to me. Writing a 500-word article can be intimidating, so you can imagine how daunting a whole novel can be. But Annie's advice to take it "bird by bird" really gets me through the hard parts.  

In this book she covers the entire process from "Getting Started," through to the section on "How Do You Know When You're Done?" She continues to give very good advice as she guides you through the subsequent chapters. By the time you have finished this book, you will have all the tools you need and hopefully enough gumption to write your own book. —Jacqueline Harmon Butler

One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty

I can't quite bring myself to call this iconic author Eudora, although the eponymous email program has co-opted her first name in a way to make it a household word.   No, I will refer to her as Ms. Welty, because she was a Southerner, an independent woman from another era, who never married, preferring instead to devote her life to writing and travel. In her advanced years, after she had become a literary legend, she was goaded into writing a book on the craft she had long-since mastered. With characteristic modesty, here she seamlessly weaves together advice on writing with an autobiographical look at her own life, a beguiling tale of that rarest of all birds:   a writer who had a happy childhood. When Ms. Welty tells us of the years she struggled to sell her stories, saving up to take the train from Mississippi to New York so she could call on editors--only to leave that city again and again in defeat--she offers inspiration to every writer who's ever received a rejection letter. And indeed, this book is a gift to all of us who aspire to write.  —Cathleen Miller

The Art of Creative Nonficiton: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality by Lee Gutkind

Creative nonfiction has to be the hottest genre going, with every poet, novelist, and journalist who ever hammered a keyboard experimenting with its hybrid form, which blends fact with the techniques of fiction. Lee Gutkind is the author of eight books, and the founder and editor of the publication Creative Nonfiction, a literary journal devoted exclusively to short works in the genre. All this activity earned Lee the sobriquet "the godfather behind creative nonfiction" in James Wolcott's Vanity Fair article on the subject. As is only fitting for a godfather, he has taken care of the rest of us by publishing a straightforward primer offering step-by-step advice on writing creative nonfiction--telling you what it is, isn't, and how to make it what it should be. But Lee is not a fairy godfather; he expects you to work hard and make the magic happen yourself, a fact he makes clear in the introduction. Luckily, armed with his text and your own determination, you'll have everything you need to succeed. —Cathleen Miller

The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, by Bay Area brain surgeon Leonard Shlain.
Ignore the terrible title, the book is great. This intriguing examination of the evolution of communication and cognition, which looks at how learning to read and write reconfigured our brains and culture, has given me a much deeper, more interconnected, understanding of history, religion and gender relations. Shlain handles a rich melange of heady topics like a novelist. And his passion for the material is infectious. This is one of those books you want to buy for everyone you know. A big plus--an interview with the author and discussion questions for book groups at the end of the book. (Shlain is appearing at our March 2004 salon in San Francisco.) —Pamela Michael

E-What? A guide to the Quirks of New Media Style and Usage: How to handle inconsistencies in punctuation, capitalization, Internet addresses, and more.
From the editors of EEI Press. Is it web site or website or Web site...or Web page? Why is Internet capitalized when intranet isn't? Is it email or e-mail? Got questions on Internet copyright issues? Want to know when to use a forward slash / or a backward slash \ ? This book has all the E-answers you need. Order direct from EEI. —Carla King

GRAMMAR AND STYLE

The Chicago Manual of Style 2003 by the University of Chicago Press

The Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon

Strunk and White: The Elements of Style 4th Edition, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White

On Writing Well: the Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser

Sin & Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose by Constance Hale

INSPIRATION

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
 
A Writer's Journal by Henry David Thoreau
 
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
 
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
 
Martin Eden by Jack London
 
The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron

REFERENCE

The American Heritage Dictionary

Roget's Thesaurus

Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions

Rand McNally World Atlas

The New York Public Library's Writer's Guide to Style and Usage

The Timetables of History

World Weather Guide

Funk & Wagnall's Standard Handbook of Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions