Journalism Books Archive

100 books every journalist must read

A young journalism student once asked a newspaper editor what she should do to prepare for her hoped-for career as a political reporter. “Read,” the editor said. Absolutely, I thought, sitting between them, waiting for my own interview for a top job to resume. “Read Shakespeare,” he said. “And the Bible.” Forsooth, I thought, that

4 journalism books that aren’t must-reads

My list of the 100 books every journalist should read includes many works that show up over and over on lists like that. However, there were a few standard choices that I deliberately rejected for quality reasons. I’ll be listening to responses to my list and watching for others to come out; some books may

Books that almost made my list

When I started to assemble my list of books that journalists must read, I thought I’d end up with an interesting number like 78. Instead, I kept adding more and more, finally deciding to cut it off at a round 100. Some books from other lists didn’t make mine because I preferred another book by

‘Almost holy’: 14 quotes about newspapers and journalism

My library is stuffed with books (remember those?) about journalism. From the shelves I plucked “That’s What They Said about the Press” by Keen Rafferty (Vantage, 1975). Rafferty was head of the copy desk at the Baltimore Sun after only three years in the business (or so his bio says) and head of the University