Researching and writing the next book

Something I do while working on the first draft of a book is read books that have elements I want to emulate. It could be structure, style, tone or simply a feeling the book gave me as a reader. I go back and reread and it helps me figure out exactly what I want to do in the book I’m writing.

Here’s the list of books I’ve gone back and looked at to help me with the book I’m writing about my experience at WordPress.com:

Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder. This is one of the first, and greatest, books written about a modern tech project. He followed a team of engineers working on one of the last mainframe computers (Data General Eclipse) in 1981, before the rise of personal computers. The book won the Pulitzer prize for non-fiction.

NewJack, Ted Conover – the author worked for a year as a prison guard at Sing Sing prison and wrote a book about his experience. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize and a fantastic read for many reasons.

Dreaming In Code by Scott Rosenberg – Rosenberg followed Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus) and a team of programmers trying to reinvent calendaring applications. He also asks the question why is software hard to make? I enjoyed he book even though I disagreed with many of his answers. I wrote a review of DOC here.

I’ve also been reading many famous diaries / autobiographies. Diary of Anne Frank, My life in France by Julia Child, and Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London.

If you have any favorite company profile books, or exceptionally good books that followed a project, please leave a comment. Same for any books you can think of that use the diary or first person approach particularly well.  Thanks.

Related posts:
The motherlode of book writing statistics
Tricks for writing: book darts
The book index
From the mailbag: Best request ever for writing advice
The new book: confessions of a public speaker