Books on Reading and Writing – Modern Mrs Darcy

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

by Lynne Truss

If you count yourself among Truss’s target audience--the tiny minority of people “who love punctuation and don’t like to see it mucked about with”--this book will make you laugh until you cry. Her chapter on the semicolon (I’m a fan) is my very favorite. Tons of fun for grammar geeks.

The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life

by Marion Roach Smith

This slim volume (114 pages) is well worth spending an afternoon on. Memoir readers everywhere will thank Roach for her no-nonsense rules for writing your own story: you can write about anything, but just because something happens, doesn’t make it interesting. Have no fear: Roach will help you make it interesting. Entertaining and dead-practical: if you're a writer, you'll learn to write better; readers will learn to better appreciate the genre—and know how to spot a good specimen when they see it.

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

by Anne Fadiman

If you’re crazy (or compulsive) about reading, you’ll recognize yourself on the pages of this essay collection. Perhaps you’ve experienced the pain/pleasure of merging libraries with a new spouse (“Marrying Libraries”), or utilize questionable bookmarking strategies (“Never Do That to a Book”), or self-identify as a compulsive proofreader (“Insert a Carat”--my favorite!). Smart, interesting, and laugh-out-loud funny.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

by Steven Pressfield

An instant classic. This is THE BOOK on the subject; everything else is derivative. Highly recommended.

The Getaway Car

by Ann Patchett

Patchett realized she wanted to be a writer about the same time she learned to ride a tricycle. In this mini-memoir, Patchett sketches a path from childhood all the way to the completion of her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. Stops along the way include her college years (complete with fabulous teachers), a failed marriage, the Iowa writing program, and a waitressing stint at TGIFriday’s. You’ll come away inspired to sit down at your keyboard and write.