Recommended books to help me learn how to write

Not OP but I figured this might be a good place to ask. How do I prevent my stories from becoming thinly veiled autobiographies?

>>9750456
This is simple. Don't write thinly veiled autobiographies. It isn't something that happens by accident.

>>9750452
Progymnasmata. Learn by steps and by imitation. You'll always have material to work with, and then you can make it your own as you practice.

The best way to improve your writing is firstly, to do it on a consistent basis and secondly, to have someone evaluate it for you. Which is perhaps the most useful part about going to college/university is access to experienced, knowledgeable individuals who can review your work honestly.

No book will do that for you.

>>9750452
Stephen King 'on writing' is cool.

One of the tidbit's is that if you want to write, make sure you read a lot.

Here's some great guides for you:
The New Oxford Guide on Writing - Thomas Kane
Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student - Edward P.J. Corbett
The Imaginative Argument - Frank Ciotti

All of those texts include multitudes of examples of great writing to serve as inspiration and references.

Explicitly for argumentation and style, this is what I like, but I think this stuff is personal preference to some extent:
Grammar and Style - Michael Dummett
Rulebook for Arguments - Anthony Weston

Let me know if this does anything for you.

>>9750844
Also, check out the Benjamin Franklin method to learning to write better. IIRC, it involved attempting to absorb other people's styles by memorizing, and then rewriting through recall and eventually intuition.

>>9750452
sorry but unless you were educated in private UK/American schools and went to a prestigious university afterward you don't stand a chance.

Is there a list someone of Hitchen's library of books? Someone please post it.

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184KB, 1365x1024px

pic related is one of the worst books written about writing ever.

>>9752182
But it won the Man Booker Prize!

on a related note: Un grand merci to the French poster who reminded me of Antoine Albalat's fantastic guides some time ago. They are all up on Gallica and the Internet Archive, and have provided no end of entertainment (his blatant criticisms and proto-shitposting) and food for thought (his clear and methodical analyses and breakdowns.

AA was a based right-wing literary critic who set out to right literary wrongs and provide a set of pedagogical guides to good writing.

>>9750452
Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers, by the late great Jacques Barzun

Write it Right by Ambrose Bierce
Baskervil's Grammar
Modern English Usage by Fowler