Read, read, read: a narrative writing/editing book list

The folks at Nieman handed out a list of books compiled, I believe, from recommendations from the faculty at the weekend seminar. There are 28 on their list under various categories, so I'll list a couple from each category. Eventually I'll put the whole list on the rail side of the blog (or ask, and I'll photocopy it for you.

Guides to narrative writing, editing and the digital networking age

• Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing, by Claire Kehrwald Cook
• Sin and Syntax, by Constance Hale
• Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction, by Jon Franklin (I have it at my desk if you want to borrow it)

Collections of contemporary narrative journalism

• We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Non-fiction, by Joan Didion
• The Heart that Bleeds: Latin America Now, by Alma Guillermoprieto

Classic narrative journalism

• The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam
• Hiroshima, by John Hersey
• In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

The lives of legendary editors

• Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, by A. Scott Berg
• Personal History, by Katharine Graham

Book-length narrative journalism

• The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, by Steve Lopez
• Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, by David Talbot