What books do you recommend to other writers?

Books that help teach the craft: (pick one...pick more, your choice)
On Writing by Steven King
Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes
How to write a Da-- good novel Parts I and II

Books you MUST have near your pen/typewriter/keyboard:
A thesaurus
A dictionary
Strunk and White, The Elements of Style

Optional:
The Chicago Manual of Style
Encyclopedia/Wikipedia/Google

Books that are just darn good: (you can actually learn a bit about writing by reading them, or you can cry in your coffee, cause they are that good)
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway (pacing, narrative, masculine description)
The Lust Lizard of Melancoly Cove and Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore (humor, pacing, characterizations, dialog)
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (political complexities, social issues, complex characters)
The Dark Arena and The Sicillian - Mario Puzo (plot, foreshadowing, and structure)
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (anti-structure, character development, prose, and plot)
Hop on Pop - Dr. Seuss (word use. Seriously.)
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (world building, epic story arc implementation, and anti-heroes)
Tomcat in Love - Tim O'Brien (word manipulation, plot, foreshadowing, unreliable first person narratives, unlikely lead character, dark humor)
A Secret Rage - Charlaine Harris (Plot, texture, culture/location influenced word use/dialog, pacing, and foreshadowing)
Demons - John Shirley (horror, description, word texture, visceral imagery)
Dead Beat - Jim Butcher (zombie dinosaurs. Who needs another reason?)


Amy

On Writing, Stephen King
How to Write SF & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card
Creating Unforgettable Characters, Linda Seger
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell
Self-Editing For Fiction Writers, Browne & King.

Write Faster, Write Better: It is for non-fiction writers, but his ideas on organization and his concept of "write only the stories you can write" are worth a look.

The Power of Point of View: The author offers an in depth look at all the POVs, along with modern examples--including omniscient (this viewpoint usually gets the short end of the stick in anything that discusses POV). The author also has a blog.

The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing: I couldn't outline a novel the way Marshall suggests, but he brings up several important parts of a novel in plain language and explains them. He wrote the book because a writer at a conference asked "How do you write a book?" and another guest speaker started talking conceptual.

Non-Writing Books:

World Book Encyclopedia: This is always the first encyclopedia I go to when I need a quick summary about anything. Can be subscribed to online.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer: If you're having trouble writing about scent, try this book. The entire story is about a man who sees the world through smell (and turns into a serial killer).

What the Nose Knows: A new non-fiction book. A lot of discussion on elements of smell that could be used for description in a book (odor phobia, desensitization, even recommendations of novels to read).

I hate Bird by Bird. Hate it, hate it, hate it. It's 200 pages of self-indulgent, attention-seeking mindwank.

Love On Writing, though. Read it three or four times. So far.

Wannabe a Writer by Jane Wenham-Jones is fun even if it does play up the stereotype of all women being diet-obessed.

And the NaNoWriMo book of course - Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem!. It helped me just swtich off the internal editor and get the first draft done.

For horror writers, Stephen King's Danse Macabre.
Colin Wilson's The Strength to Dream.

Just remembered - Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer.

Self-Editing For Fiction Writers, Browne & King.

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Seconded. This book has helped me more than any other

She_wulf said:

Strunk and White, The Elements of Style

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That is all.

The rest is the same as I recommend for readers.

The Divine Comedy- all three. If for nothing but an occasional line of divine inspiration.