Below are some books that I find valuable. Read my description to see if you think they’ll be useful for you, too.
In the interests of full disclosure, if you purchase through the Amazon links on this page, I will earn a small commission.
R.L. Trask’s Penguin Guide to Punctuation is easily the most readable book on punctuation I’ve come across. If you’re not interested in reading it cover to cover like I did, it’s also very easy to dip in and out of as you need it. Each type of punctuation mark gets its own section. Within those sections, each use for that mark gets its own short chapter. The only warning is that you should largely ignore the section on writing for the internet. The book was written in 1997 and Trask wasn’t convinced this whole email thing was going to take off.
Though Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem is for people who want to write novels, the writing advice in it is great for all sorts of writers. The book does what it says on the cover, so if you want to write a novel, you absolutely need this. If you write other types of things and you need help with writer’s block, committing to writing a messy first draft, and so on – this book will help.