Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
If you don’t already, writing can make you feel like a weirdo, but feeling odd is worthless psychology for the job, therefore this tiny book. Mason Currey has meticulously documented the daily habits and personal quirks of 161 famous writers, painters, scientists, and thinkers, including one who stood on his head to cure creativity block. Our carpet-glue habit appears typical at the end of this book.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and EB White
The norms of modern writing have been established for a century, and they spent all of that time in this tiny text. At the close of World War I, William Strunk Jr, a professor of English at Cornell University, privately printed the book for his pupils. Although it has been updated, it still smells like chalk and tweed and inspires us to do things correctly, if only because we fear being yelled at if we don’t.
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Originally written as a guide for kings, this gem of realpolitik teaches who should be trusted and how to kill them if they can’t. The frightening thing about The Prince, which is no doubt responsible for its 500-year durability, is how well it fits any level of the human powerplay, from a typical Thursday night for a courting teen to that lonely, bitter man on the wheelie-bin committee.
The Chambers Dictionary
Although all of the words are available online, the 2.37kg weight of our actual dictionary serves as a beautiful daily reminder of what we’re doing and what our toolkit looks like. Thinking isn’t writing, nor are ideas; only writing is writing, and we should make it exist in reality, not on a screen. When words are exposed to fresh air, they behave differently, and Chambers collects them on silky paper. If you’re passionate about it, tote it around and browse it at random. It’s a writers’ zoo, and the battery life is unparalleled.
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