Some nonfiction books worth reading. I read a great deal of fiction, but keep those recommendations elsewhere.

Writing lives and practice

  • Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
  • On Writing, Stephen King
  • The Writing Life, Annie Dillard
  • Good Prose, Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd
  • Gentle Writing Advice, Chuck Wendig
  • The Midnight Disease, Alice W. Flaherty

Academic writing

  • Stylish Academic Writing, Helen Sword
  • Air & Light & Time & Space, Helen Sword
  • Writing with Pleasure, Helen Sword
  • Learn to Write Badly, Michael Billig

Artificial intelligence

  • The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking, Shannon Vallor
  • Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao
  • Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, Ethan Mollick

Religion and historical belief

  • Religion and the Decline of Magic, Keith Thomas
  • The Pursuit of the Millennium, Norman Cohn