Journalism books

Writing for Story by Jon Franklin.

 

I've heard good things about the Zinsser book, and definitely Stephen King's On Writing as good books about writing. I agree, however, with the notion you can learn more from good writing anthologies than anything. As a fellow Canadian, I'd suggest Stephen Brunt's The View From Here as a great starting point... some of the best contemporary Canadian sportswriting.

 

Ooh, I second this one.

 

Personally, I think On Writing Well should be read by every college student in America, and by every working journalist once a year. It's a great book.
Strunk & White is nuts and bolts. Good to have and good to know, though not particularly inspiring.
Art & Craft of Feature Writing is a bit more dense, and more specific to a certain style of news feature. But if you want to write WSJ-style features (and you could do a lot worse than to emulate the Journal), it's a how-to guide, and certainly worth the read.
But I'd agree with your friend, those are probably the three best books about writing journalism that I've read.
And, even though I cringe to agree with DyePack on anything, any reading of how-to guides ought to be well-supplemented with reading of actual journalism.

 

Toss strunk & white. Buy "Spunk and Bite" by Arthur Plotnik. Get Stephen King's On Writing diatribe... grab a book of Hunter S. Thompson's letters... then on your way out of the book store of choice pick up a copy of the latest Best American sports writing book, any random Best American Newspaper Writing book (a lot of goodies are in the late 1980s editions and can be found for 2 bucks on Amazon.com used store) and top it off with one of the Best American magazine writing books.

 

Agree.

 

On Writing Well is essential. You'd be a fool to go into the business without reading it. The Elements of Style is a no-brainer. If you get the version I purchased, I believe it includes a forward by Roger Angell. For those unaware of his connection to the book, his stepfather was E.B. White.

I've never seen a copy of the other book, but I'm sure it's excellent based upon it's inclusion with the other two.

Dyepack's suggestion of reading great writing is another key. Subscribe to a major daily and a few magazines. Toss in a dash of humor and read the yearly collections of best feature writing, best travel writing, best sportswriting and so forth.