Well, I’ve done programming and personal security, so I may as well do writing. I will confine myself to the writing of non-fiction in English.

The first book on my list is obvious: William Strunk and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style, often simply known as “Strunk and White”. I haven’t found a better manual of English style than this little book — it is clear, concise, and a delight to read. Chief among its virtues is its habit of putting the most important points first — if you do nothing more than read the very first page of the main matter (“1. Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding ’s.”) and remember what you have read, you will make yourself a better writer of English than eight tenths of the Internet. (Perhaps more.)

You may be better off re-reading Strunk and White than reading other books on non-fiction writing: it’s that good.

Next on my list is Richard Mitchell’s Less than Words Can Say. For one thing, it’s a brilliantly caustic attack upon turgid bureaucratic prose, and enjoyable on that level alone; for another, it’s a call to arms against imprecise, obfuscatory, and sloppy language. Mitchell’s work is fun to read, and makes you question your writing — is this as clear as it could be?

Third is William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. Zinsser’s book isn’t as much fun to read as Mitchell’s, nor is it as brilliant as Strunk and White, but it gives a detailed account of writing procedures — and that’s worth the price of admission.

Finally, you should pick up a Fowler’s. When writing non-fiction, you should strive for precision — if you don’t believe me, re-read Mitchell — and Fowler’s is the archetypical guide to precise usage.

You do not need a dictionary. You have the Internet, and it will suffice.

Beyond these four books: read the sort of thing you want to write, and pay attention to the writing. Make note of the things that annoy you, and the things that impress you. Expunge the former from your writing, and strive toward the latter.

Further, read good writing in any and every genre. Beyond Strunk, White, and Mitchell, I can recommend (in no particular order):

• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Marc “Animal” MacYoung
• Brian Kernighan
• Rob Pike
• Jeff Cooper
• Mark Twain
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• H.P. Lovecraft
• H.L. Mencken
• Robert A. Heinlein
• Bill Starr
• Winston S. Churchill
• Brooks D. Kubik
• Neal Stephenson
• Chuck Palahniuk

Find authors whose work you enjoy on technical merit as well as for its content, and read a lot of their work.