On this and every Saturday during the 2011 WordCount Blogathon, I’m sharing links to what other bloggers in the event are writing.
Wednesday, May 4, was the first theme day of the blogathon, where people were invited to write on the topic “My 5 favorite books on….” Here are some of the highlights:
On Writing
Sawyer, at Some Can Whistle, included on her list several fiction writing books, and a book I hadn’t heard of on writing feature stories called Feature Writing: The Pursuit of Excellence, by Edward Jay Friendlander and John Lee.
Writer Tia Bach invited her mother and co-author Angela Silverthorne to do a guest post on their joint blog Depression Cookies called Writing Resources for the Serious Writer: 5 I Use Consistently. The post includes a couple books I’d never heard of but want to check out, including The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin, which Silverthorne calls “the writing bible” and Stein on Writing by Sol Stein, for fixing what’s wrong with your manuscript.
Barb Freda took a time out from writing about food on her blog, Babette Feasts, to write about her 5 Favorite Books on Writing. One of those is Stephen King’s writing memoir, On Writing, which almost made it onto my list.
It always surprises me when new bloggers ask what books on blogging I recommend because I automatically assume everything there is to know about blogging is online. I was wrong. John, who blogs at Writing at Gunpoint, shares a great list of books on blogging in the post, Better Blogging: 5 Books that Will Improve Your Blog. And they’re not just about blogging. His list includes everybody’s favorite Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg, and also Seth Godin’s inspiring Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Tess C. Taylor, who blogs at A Journey of Words, includes in her post A Copy Writer Talks about Her 5 Favorite Books of All Time one of my own childhood favorites, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.
And others:
- Mena Grazie, The 5 Best Books for Preternatural Writers and Role Players, The Preternatural Post
- Tara Phillips, My Top 5 Books on Writing? Are You Kidding Me?, Two Hands and a Road Map
- Jan Udlock, 5 Favorite Books, Imperfect Mom
- Alison Law, My 5 Favorite Books on Writing, Alison Law Communications
- Joan Bailey Lambert, 5 Small Book Reviews (of books that inspired my writing), Popcorn Homestead
Other Favorites
Blogathoners don’t just read books on writing. Here’s a smattering of top books lists on other subjects:
- Vicki Powers, 5 Favorite Books on Houston for Families, Houston on the Cheap
- Jennifer Woodard, My 5 Favorite Books that Were Turned into Movies, Wordzopolis
- Claudine MJ, My Favorite (Jewelry Magazine and Book) Reads, Bell Jewelry Designs (P.S. – Her jewelry designs are pretty!)
- Christine Evans, My Top 5 Craft Books, 52 Crafts in 52 Weeks
- Julia Biggs, My 5 Favorite Websites, Aunty JuJu’s Perspective
- Pavithra Kodmad, My 5 Favorite TV Shows, Pavithra Kodmad’s Pages
- Christine, My 5 Favorite Books, Inspired Life
- Melissa Oakes, 5 Must-Have Gardening Books, Gardening-4-Life
- Kathleen Murray, More Great China Books, That China Girl
Good morning, Michelle,
Thanks for the mention.
Jan Udlock
My pleasure. I think, though I’m not 100 percent positive, that Emilie Barnes – one of the authors you mentioned – went to high school with a college friend of mine. Do you know if she used to live in California? And does she have a lot of kids (7 or 8?) If so, it might be the same person.
Michelle
Thanks, Michelle! And because of your topic, I now have three new writing titles on my Nook. There goes another week of housekeeping. My husband sends his, um, regards. 😉
Hey, don’t blame me!
Michelle
No kidding! Now I have even more books to add to my crowded shelves. It’s great that you can include so many blogger links! Nice way to be the blogging champion!
Thanks: I started doing the weekly blogathon blogger roundups last year and people liked it a lot so I decided to do it again this year. It’s my way of recognizing all of the people participating, because frankly, between my own blogging and running the blogathon I’m not always able to get to everyone’s blogs to leave comments. I figure this is the next best thing.
Michelle
Thank you for the mention, Michelle! Though I discovered to my consternation that I am apparently thought of as a guy… Which made me realize that the template I was using had no About link, so the personal page about me wasn’t visible. Lol… With my html skills it was easier to install a new template than to fiddle around with adding an About link. I did manage to do that in the sidebar, but other things disappeared instead. Oh well. On to another theme instead. I quite like the new one.
Sawyer
Thanks for the mention. I love the starting off points for blog posts. It’s not always easy to come up with things! I also really like the #fridayreads tag on twitter. That always has a ton of great books mentioned… (sorry, I think this is called being an “enabler.”) 😉
Awesome. I scanned first down to the bullet list of mentions to see if I made the list there, and didn’t see my name…. and only spotted it on a second glance in a paragraph above. One more lesson in the way we don’t really read blogs. 😉
Thanks for the mention — I’m glad you liked my list! Thanks for organizing the Blogathon, I’m having a good time!
As the blogathon is coming to a close, one of the things I’ve learned about myself is that I don’t read enough about writing. So, I was going back through blogs to jot down some recommended reading material that I plan to seek out. Apparently I’m in the same boat as John because I didn’t even notice the mention of my blog at the bottom of your post the first go around. Yet another lesson learned. Some of us don’t fully read through the end of blogs. Thanks for the mention and teaching me one more thing about myself and blogging.
You’re welcome. And please join us on June 1 for the blogathon wrap party at 10 a.m. PST on Twitter, where I’d love for you to share what you learned this month. Use the #blog2011 hashtag to follow the conversation.
Michelle