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I’m a sucker for books on writing, so I’ve read lots of them–the good, the bad and the stupid. As a mental exercise I decided to pick the few I’d have to buy again if they were all lost. Here are my picks for must-have books on the craft of writing:

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White

This guide to clear, precise and grammatically correct writing is the most essential of the essentials. Follow Mr. Strunk’s advice and he’ll have you writing tight, elegant prose. This slim volume is vivid and  opinionated, but never unfriendly. Says Mr. Strunk: “If one is to write, one must believe–in the truth and worth of the scrawl, in the ability of the reader to receive and decode the message. No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing.”

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

Lamott has a gift for pushing comedy to the brink of the absurd, only to turn it into a moment of insight. “I know I set out to tell you every single thing I know about writing,” Lamott says, “but I am also going to tell you every single thing I know about school lunches, partly because the longings and dynamics and anxieties are so similar.” I appreciate her always reasonable and sometimes hilarious approach to the craft.

A Reader’s Manifesto, by B.R. Myers

The subtitle of this book is “An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose,” and Myers isn’t pulling any punches. I agree with much of his theory, but often dispute the examples he uses. But it’s that very push/pull that I find so valuable. Myers’ appendix, “Ten Rules for ‘Serious’ Writers” is a fine dose of Swiftian satire. See if you don’t wince in self-recognition at biting little tidbits like rule VII, Pile on The Imagery: “Use metaphors and similes not for vividness–which, like clarity, has a nasty habit of emboldening the reader–but to establish your writerly credentials.”

Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer on Writing, by Margaret Atwood

Atwood is one of my favorite authors, and her insights on writers and writing intrigue me. I don’t always like what she says or even think it’s important. And yet, I continue to ponder the ideas she puts forward. The title essay’s thesis is, she says, “that not just some, but all writing of the narrative kind, and perhaps all writing, is motivated, deep down, by a fear of and a fascination with mortality–by a desire to make the risky trip to the Underworld, and to bring something or someone back from the dead.” That’s something to think about.

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law

This is an essential for anyone who plans to write for magazines or newspapers, and its rules are helpful for fiction writers, too. There’s so much here, from whether to capitalize Pyrex (yes) to the proper use of “cosmonaut.” It takes a little time to get used to the way this book is organized–alphabetically rather than by subject/category–but it’s got more useful information per page than any other reference book I own.

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, by Christopher Vogler

Plot has been a weak point for me, so considering characters in terms of their story arc has been a great help to me in terms of plot development. A protagonist with a problem isn’t enough to sustain a novel. Employing mythic structure gives the excitement of a good plot with the satisfaction of fully realized characters. I don’t use this book as a formula, but do consider every scene I write in terms of a character’s arc.

Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus

I have another thesaurus, but immediately relegated it to the basement bookshelves when I got this one. Unlike my old thesaurus, which seemed organized for an accountant, this one is organized to make sense to the writing mind. I no longer have to look in five different places to find the right word.