My How-to-Write Library

 
 
I count 51 books on the two shelves, and I know there's at least one more downstairs (The War of Art by Steven Pressfield). And maybe a few others about the house.
 
My "library" consists of a lot of how-to books (for novels, short stories and screenplays), plus some handy writers references books (like Deadly Doses), and some biographies and autobiographies. Some of these books are out of print. Some have been re-released with new covers.
 
I started buying how-to-write books in college (when I could afford to buy them instead of just checking them out of the library). That would be about 1989 or so. In the early 2K's I started buying fewer and reading more from the library again. Like that goofy, useless, industry-spawning How to Write a Breakout Novel. Not that some of the books I have on my shelves aren't also goofy and useless (like The Key). I just got lucky and didn't actually spend money on Breakout.
 
-David