Recommended Reading

We often ask people interviewed on this blog to recommend a book. Many insist on listing several. This is a compilation of those books suggested as good reading for screenwriters and filmmakers. The absence of a book from the list should not be construed as implying any adverse opinion as to its value.

• A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno's Diary
• Acting in Film, by Michael Caine
• The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho
• An Actor Prepares, by Constantin Stanislavski
• The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron 
  
• Audition, by Michael Shurleff
• Bambi vs. Godzilla, by David Mamet
• Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande
• Bill Idelson's Writing Class, by Bill Idelson
• Blood & Tinsel: A Memoir, by Jim Sharman
• Bruce Chatwin: A Biography, by Nicolas Shakespeare
• Building A Character, by Constantin Stanislavski 
• Creating A Role, by Constantin Stanislavski
• Dinosaur Theory, by Chris Tugwell
• Don't Shoot the Best Boy!, by John Shand
• Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, by Peter Biskind
• Flicker: A Novel, by Theodore Roszak
• Going Mad in Hollywood: And Life with Lindsay Anderson, by David Sherwin
• Harpo Speaks!, by Harpo Marx
• How to Write a Damn Good Novel, by James Frey
• How Not to Write a Screenplay, by Denny Martin Flinn
• How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000, by Bret Stern
• The Intent to Live, by Larry Moss 
• I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words
• I Was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies
• Invisible Ink, by Brian McDonald
• Kinski Uncut: The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski
• Making a Good Script Great, by Linda Seger
• Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet
• Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now, by Eleanor Coppola
• On Directing Film, by David Mamet
• Rebel without a Crew, by Robert Rodriguez
• Reflections of the Shadow, by Jeffrey Hirschberg
• Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles, by David Thomson
• Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need, by Blake Snyder
• Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter
• Screenwriting Tips, You Hack, by Xander Bennett
• Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade, by William Froug
• Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste, by John Waters
• So You Want to Be a Producer, by Lawrence Turman
• Suspects, by David Thomson
• The 21st-Century Screenplay, by Linda Aronson
• The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, John Truby 
• The Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams
• The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky: The Television Plays
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
• The Director's Journey, by Mark W. Travis
• The Film Director's Intuition, by Judith Weston
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
• The Moon's a Balloon, by David Niven
• The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
• The Shock of the New, by Robert Hughes
• The Short Screenplay, by Dan Gurskis
• The Starter Screenplay, by Adam Levenberg
• The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, by Christopher Vogler
• Think Outside the Box Office, by Jon Reiss
• Top Secrets: Screenwriting, by Jurgen Wolff and Kerry Cox
• Writing Drama; a Comprehensive Guide, by Yves Lavandier
• Who the Hell's in It, by Peter Bogdanovich
• You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, by Julia Philips
• Your Screenplay Sucks!, by Bill Akers
• Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room, by Geoff Dyer