Our PR Daily LinkedIn group shares their favorite fiction and nonfiction must-reads

Looking for a good book on writing?

Maybe it’s just me, but bookstores can be overwhelming at times. Amid the many wonderful options, I’m trying to recall various recommendations from friends while eyeing the best-sellers looming around every corner. Ah, the pressure!

What’s a writer who’s looking for a good book to do in this situation?

Crowd-source the question, and then make a list.

Members of the PR Daily LinkedIn group shared their must-reads for writers. From self-help to inspirational, here are the titles they think every writer should read.

How-to/self-help writing books:

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White—a classic
The Elements of Grammar by Margaret D. Shertzer
On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
Make Your Words Work by Gary Provost
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (It’s not really about birds.)
Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
How to Write a Lot by Paul Silvia
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
On Writing by Stephen King
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield

Reference guides:

The dictionary: Expand that vocabulary.
The thesaurus: There’s always a simpler (or, at least, better) way to say it.
The AP Stylebook: It’s many writers’ bible.

Fiction – for inspiration:

The Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ulysses by James Joyce. It’s “like eating incredibly rich cheesecake,” said public affairs professional William Mecke.
The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The trend-setting novel “gives a writer permission to stay within technical accuracy while cruising prose and lobbing emotion,” said learning consultant David Harris.

Bonus—essay:

“Mark Twain's Rules of Writing” by Mark Twain (part of the longer Twain essay “Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper.”)

What books do you plan to pick up next at the bookstore?