what books should i read if i want to improve my writing?
none in particular is going to be the key to becoming a better writer. just read broadly, and often.
if you already do this and don't think you're getting enough out of the books you're reading, try going out of your comfort zone and read something you wouldn't usually go for or that's more difficult to read.
go back to your favourites and dissect them, figure out what makes them your favourites and how you can incorporate that into your own work.
If you're writing fiction then John Truby and Donald Maass
>>7527426
The Tunnel
>>7528386
dude you are forcing it too much. Let it happen naturally, like the Recognitions posters did.
>>7528402
I forced The Recognitions too.
There's nothing like a single book “How to Speak Correctly”. You should instead focus on the language itself and actively secure your grammar and orthography skills before moving on. Learning argumentation and a bunch of Latin terms is really useful to order your speech and get a functional and coherent structure, with the aforesaid knowledge in language will lead to very efficient, neatly tailored sentences. Bringing yourself on the next level require much more reading and patience. You could read Aristotle or comments on Aristotle, but overall your best bet is to learn to identify a well-written text and carefully detect the reasons of its efficacy. Ask yourself what is the author's intention, how he ruses and lures the reader into approving his thesis and evaluate how well he does it. Here is an example:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/07/31/the-moral-imperative-for-bioethics/JmEkoyzlTAu9oQV76JrK9N/story.html
In this article posted by Steven Pinker, an Harvard psychologist, the point is to deny bioethics any utility. The first paragraph gives a techinal tone to let you think it's going to be a logical, almost mathematical proof, while the second one already suppresses any such line of reasoning by appealing to your emotion. “Did you lost a friend? Then listen the fuck up, I'm going to tell you the truth”. Each word is selected to prevent the reader to ask unwanted questions and you should pay attention to sneaky sentences like “In 2010 [the number of lost to premature death or compromised by disability] was 2.5 billion, which means that about a third of potential human life and flourishing goes to waste. The toll from crime, wars, and genocides does not come anywhere close”. He doesn't give you the right to ask if disabled are “wasted” or wonder about the relevance of drawing comparisons with such abstract things like “potential human life”. He gives a fact and you must agree. The whole article is fitted in this way and either convince you or is made in a way any refutal would be painful and difficult to write up.
Study your language, study the logical relation between parts of speech, then relations between sentences and finally the way you can sort up the arguments to make a coherent and fruitful argumentation.
>>7527852
Don't listen to this. Reading everything is like learning to speak correctly in the Bronx, you'll get influenced by cheap, used writing tricks and awful proses. Carefully select what is worth reading and don't fear throwing out a book in doubt. Never, ever read trashy material to “make your own opinion”. You know “A Song of Ice and Fire” is garbage. We all know it. Don't buy it, waste your time and unconsciously mimic a fragment of his terrible style. Instead focus on solid classics and books reliable critics/friends of yours approved. There's one way to be a better writing. Read, write, read and write again.
>>7528386
Someone got me this for Christmas
>>7528419
Yeah, right. (I did. Listen to that anon and ease off on it. There's a fine line between being enticingly present or simply obnoxious, and the key is: low frequency, long term.)
>>7528498
Blog post.
>>7528419
>pic related
You will not regret picking up this book OP. This book is sometimes used in undergrad creative writing courses to help improve writings.
my diary, tbqh
>>7527426
Ones that explore and elaborate on your favourite subjects in ways that surprise and please you, encouraging you to make similar leaps.
And any classic French writer for pure technique and clarity of prose.
>>7527426
Textual Power by Robert Scholes
>indispensable
