One of the most common questions I get is, “Bob, what book are
\nyou reading now?”<\/p>\n
And most people are shocked to find that it is a novel, short
\nstory collection, play, nonfiction narrative, social issue,
\nscience, math, history, economics, or informational book on a
\ntopic other than marketing or business.<\/p>\n
The 2 best ways to get better as a writer are to write a lot and
\nread a lot. And to read widely. Not just about writing,
\ncopywriting, marketing, or business.<\/p>\n
And there are 2 reasons reading a lot and widely helps you become
\na better writer.<\/p>\n
First, you read the books for the content. So your brain’s
\nstorehouse of information, from which you pull content for your
\nwriting, is large and varied.<\/p>\n
Second, you absorb the techniques and tricks of the trades other
\nwriters use, and incorporate the best of those in your own
\nwriting.<\/p>\n
Sounds simple. It is simple. But it also takes a lifetime and
\nonly stops when you die.<\/p>\n
So, what do I like to read? Well, without further preamble, here
\nin no particular order are my 15 favorite books of all time:<\/p>\n
1–“A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving.<\/p>\n
2–“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller.<\/p>\n
3–“Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor.<\/p>\n
4–“The Prince of Tides” by Pat Conroy.<\/p>\n
5–“Ogilvy on Advertising” by David Ogilvy.<\/p>\n
6–“Essentialism” by Greg McKeown.<\/p>\n
7–“Lord of Light” by Roger Zelazny.<\/p>\n
8–“Drought” by J.G. Ballard.<\/p>\n
9–“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka.<\/p>\n
10–“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.<\/p>\n
11–“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes.<\/p>\n
12–“Deathbird Stories” by Harlan Ellison.<\/p>\n
13–“The Ascent of Man” by Jacob Bronowski.<\/p>\n
14–“Mockingbird” by Walter Tevis.<\/p>\n
15–“The Shootist” by Glen Swarthout.<\/p>\n
If you asked me for a list of my top 100 instead of just these
\n15, I could fill it easily.<\/p>\n
I can’t help it. I just love books and reading; the addiction is
\nbeyond my control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most common questions I get is, “Bob, what book are you reading now?” And most people are shocked to find that it is a novel, short story collection, play, nonfiction narrative, social issue, science, math, history, economics, or informational book on a topic other than marketing or business. The 2 best ways […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}