 | How to Read a Book (A Touchstone book) by Mortimer J. Adler
Buy new: $11.89 / Used from: $6.30 Like most of the theoretical books here, I don't buy everything the author (Adler in this case) says, but this book is a foundational remedy for many cultural ills when it comes to reading
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 | The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk Jr.
Buy new: $9.95 / Used from: $2.00 If you get one book on writing, let it be this
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 | Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader by Annette T. Rottenberg
Buy used from: $0.01 This book will make you a better reader and writer
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 | Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice by Charles E. Bressler
Buy used from: $2.17 A great one-volume overview of what some passionate people have thought about literature through the ages
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 | How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry by Edward Hirsch
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $1.79 Is Hirsch's book great or necessary? Who knows? His love of the magic that is the written word is contagious enough to make this more than worth it
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 | ESV Thinline Bible, Premium Bonded Leather, Black, Black Text
Buy new: $21.89 / Used from: $12.00 Necessary reading (step 1)
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 | The Iliad / The Odyssey by Homer
Buy new: $20.79 / Used from: $9.99 Necessary reading (step 2)
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 | The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso) by Dante Alighieri
Buy new: $12.35 / Used from: $6.37 Necessary reading (step 3)
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 | The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd Edition by William Shakespeare
Buy new: $90.36 / Used from: $38.52 Necessary reading (step 4)
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 | Great Expectations (New Oxford Illustrated Dickens) by Charles Dickens
Buy used from: $1.00 Necessary reading (step 5)
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 | The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Buy new: $17.16 / Used from: $6.99 Necessary reading (step 6)
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 | The Merry Heart: Reflections on Reading Writing, and the World of Books by Robertson Davies
Buy new: $25.00 / Used from: $1.00 A great collection of pieces on reading and writing--full of humor and enthusiasm
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 | Trying to Save Piggy Sneed by John Irving
Buy new: $21.95 / Used from: $0.01 A lot of this book is just for Irving admirers, but the first two pieces get to the heart of what it means to be a reader and writer
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 | Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought to Say): Reflections on Literature and Faith by Frederick Buechner
Buy used from: $3.55 Buechner's reflections on Chesterton, Hopkins, Shakespeare and Twain speak to the mystery and brutal honesty of what it means to truly create as an author
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 | Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing by Margaret Atwood
Buy new: $20.83 / Used from: $0.01 Atwood has never impressed me as a writer, but this book has solid advice on what to expect
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 | Other Traditions (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) by John Ashbery
Buy new: $25.00 / Used from: $1.98 There are more things in reading and writing than are dreamt of in your philosophy
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 | On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Buy new: $18.00 / Used from: $0.99 Surprise, surprise...one of the best books "on writing" (and reading) turns out to come from a very successful writer...(also available in a great audio edition)
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 | Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $3.26 Lamott's book has its adherents and is indeed pretty good, but I prefer the next one on the list
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 | The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Buy new: $8.63 / Used from: $0.55 Dillard is life-giving vision to Lamott's solid technique
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 | Take and Read: Spiritual Reading: An Annotated List by Eugene H. Peterson
Buy new: $12.82 / Used from: $2.95 I'm not a huge believer in reading lists, but this one is a pretty decent place to get started
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Listmania!
