Hoping for similar discoveries, I asked about a dozen KWG members to give me their short list of favorite books for writers and to explain in a sentence or two why each book made the list.  I didn't get any shocking replies, but I did learn about several titles I'm going to have to stretch my budget to buy.

Let's start with the "multiple mentions."  Leslie LaChance, Marilyn Kallet, Judy Loest, Doris Gove and Don Williams recommended Bird by Bird:  Some instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott.  According to Leslie, "Lamott's humor shines through all, and she is able to show us how to live a writer's life in the midst of all the other messy stuff that comes with being on the planet:  getting the bills paid, loving and losing loved ones, walking up every day, getting the laundry done."  Don says that Lamott "is so helpful and anti snobbish.  The writing life is an open door, and we shouldn't trust the 'keepers of the gate' who say writing can't be learned."  Doris said it's refreshing to "read about shitty first drafts and listening to your broccoli."

Jeanne McDonald, Jo Ann Pantanizopoulos, and Don Williams mentioned one of my own favorites, On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser.  In it Zinsser says that too many writers try to sound important and end up sounding pompous when they should be trying to produce clear, concise prose that sounds like a real human being wrote it.  He give numerous examples of good and bad writing and specific advice about how to produce the good and avoid the bad.  In a quote provided by Jo Ann, the author explains, "It's a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest strength and the least clutter."

Doris Gove recommended another book by Zinsser, Writing to Learn.  According to Doris, "Zinsser asks himself the basic question: 'What makes writing good?' and then looks for examples of technical writing in diverse fields.  He uses passages about the catastrophic late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville flood, the techniques of vocal training, the choice of type faces, and other weird stuff to show that just about anything can be written well, so there are no excuses for bad writing."

In addition to Bird by Bird, Judy Loest picked Revising Fiction, by David Madden, for its technical advice.  Don Williams likes On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner, "because he is such an immaculate stylist and his story is Every Writer's" and a book about poetry called Sound and Sense, by Laurence Perrine.  Marilyn Kallet's other favorite is  Writing Past Dark, by Bonnie Friedman, which is about the pifalls writers face.  Marilyn also said, "I like Sleeping With One Eye Open: Women Writers on the Art of Survival, but I forget the authors." Right Marilyn.  The editors are Marilyn Kallet and Judith Ortiz Coffer, and the book contains two essays by Marilyn and one each by Guild members Katherine Smith and Linda Parsons Marion.

Jeanne McDonald thinks "the best book around" is Writing Fiction:  A Guide of Narrative Craft, by Janet Burroway.  "She gives you stories and essays, suggestions for discussion, and writing assignments.  At the beginning of each section is an analysis of the techniques the stories employ."  Another of Jeanne's favorites is The Best Writing on Writing, edited by Jack Heffron, which "covers views on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screen writing, and the writing life."

For nonfiction Fred Brown recommends The Literature of Reality, by Gay Talese, and Literary Journalism, edited by Norman Sims and Mark Kramer.  "These two books give you great insight into the field of literary journalism.  Both also include a little history of how it all began.  But what I find most important are the stories by some of the best writers, living and dead: Joseph Mitchell, Calvin Trillin, David Quammen, John McPhee, Susan Orlean, Nicole LeBlanc, Annie Dillard on anything at all, and Gay Talese.  Of course, I have found much fertile ground in McPhee's John McPhee Reader.  Here is a master at his task.  Just reading his words over a variety of stories is inspiring."

Jeannette Brown likes Fiction Writer's Workshop, by Josip Novakovich.  According to Jeannette, Novakovich "uses the standard chapter headings--Point of View, Plot, Description, and Word Choice--but he uses good examples of others' writing.  At the end of each chapter, he gives up to a dozen exercises, each with an objective and criteria to see if you met the objective."  Jeannette added, "For those who know how to write but can't bring themselves to, or need to find a way out of a box, I recommend The Observation Deck by Naomi Epel.  This is actually a small book with a corresponding deck of cards, whatever works for you.  Each card or chapter recommends a writing activity such as consult the news, zoom in or out, or visit a dictionary. One of my favorites is Flip It Over:  if your hero is a skinny male, write about a fat female lead character.  If your scene is in the city, put it in a rural setting.  The flexibility is freshing."

Jim Johnston recommended The Self-Publishing Manual, by Dan Poynter, which "is an excellent resource for anyone thinking about self-publishing.  It provides everything you need.  I guess the best testimony is that I went from knowing nothing about self-publishing to publishing and successfully marketing my first book of poems."

Jim's endorsement of Poynter's book reminds me of what I have said repeatedly about a favorite of mine, How to Get Happily Published, by Judith Appelbaum.  It's a guide to the contemporary book publishing scene, periodically updated.  I followed its instructions and got published, if not happily, at least not unhappily.

Brian Griffin recommends The Eye of the Story by Eudora Welty.  He calls this collection of essays "one of the wisest and most compelling analyses of fiction writing that I have ever read.  These essays are not of the 'how-to' variety; rather, they are about the creative process itself--about how fiction comes to be an act of human will."  Brian added, "Another really special book for me is Hubert McAlexander's Conversations with Peter Taylor," a collection of previously published interviews.

So there's the crop.  I'm sure I could have asked a different dozen Guild members and gotten many of the same titles and some equally good books that none of these folks mentioned.  As I said at the beginning, there were no big surprises, but I'm a bit surprised that nobody recommended Writing Down the Bones.