Margaret Duarte

Visionary Fiction

You are here: Home / For Writers / 75 Books Every Writer Should Read

75 Books Every Writer Should Read

by

Let me introduce you to Online University’s 75 Books Every Writer Should Read, broken into the following categories:

    • Writing Basics
    • Advice for Authors
    • Improving Your Writing
    • Grammar
    • Reference Books
    • Writing as a Career
    • Genre or Format Specific
    • Classics
    • Creativity and Motivation

Five of my favorites of the 75 books every writer should read:

As always, thanks for stopping by,

Author signature

 

About Margaret Duarte

Former middle school teacher, Margaret Duarte, lives on a California dairy farm with a herd of “happy cows,” a constant reminder that the greenest pastures lie closest to home. Margaret earned her creative writing certificate through UC Davis Extension and has since published four novels in her “Enter the Between” visionary fiction series: Between Will and Surrender, Between Darkness and Dawn, Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, and Between Now and Forever. Her poem and story credits include SPC Tule Review; The California Writers Club Literary Review; finalist in the 2017 SLO Nightwriters Golden Quill Writing Contest; First Place winner for fiction in 2016, Second Place winner for fiction in 2018, Honorable Mention for fiction in 2019, and Gold winner for fiction in 2020 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS Book Awards Competition; 2019 California Author Project winner for adult fiction.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. naomijwilliams says

    A great list! I'm going to bookmark it. Includes old favorites I'd love to re-read, titles I keep meaning to get around to, and some unfamiliar names I want to check out.

    Having said that, though, I do think it's more important for writers to write than to read about writing. I'd be kinda embarrassed if I'd really read everything on this list. That would be mean I was more interested in thinking about being a writer than in actually writing. (Which, admittedly, I occasionally am.)

  2. Margaret Duarte says

    I know what you mean, Naomi. You can only read so many "how to" books, and then you've got to write, write, and write some more if you want to become an accomplished author. Almost anything work doing takes practice. Wouldn't it be nice if we could learn to play a piano, swim, drive a car, AND write, simply by reading about it? But then again, I don't know where I'd be without books to help guide me.

  4. Margaret Duarte says

    Hi SS. I read Writing Down the Bones while in college and still consider it one of the best books on writing I have ever read. I use it as inspiration for myself and have also used it for inspiring my students when teaching creative writing at the middle school level.

  5. Lee Lopez says

    I love Writing Down the Bones. I found it years ago, on tape, (that's how long ago) & listened to it as I drove to work and sat in traffic. Recently I found the tape and since cars don't have tape players anymore, I plan on replacing it with a cd. It is very inspiring.

  6. Margaret Duarte says

    Hi Lee. My copy of Writing Down the Bones is old, but I still treasure it. It's even better with a second and third read. I love books that inspire me to write from the gut.