Of all the books I read on writing fiction, this was the one that had the most impact on my work. He makes several suggestions that were like lightbulbs going off. He covers the fundamentals of story, character,description, plotting, style, and so on, as well as anyone I've read, and his section on experimental fiction is priceless.

At the end of each chapter is a "Writer's Bookshelf"--basically a bibliography of literature that illustrates the points made in the chapter. The edition I have was written in 1995 so there is nothing from the 21st century listed, unfortunately. ( )