Reddit reviews The Invisible Cut: How Editors Make Movie Magic

This is pretty much the book version of what you're looking for. Quite a good read.

I'd agree. It's not a great manual, but it's big picture view of editing is essential.

I think people get too wrapped up in the technical stuff sometimes though. The best editing books for editors, rather than for people with a general interest in film are The Invisible Cut and On Film Editing both of which focus largely on examples that predate NLE systems. If all you want to do is learn Avid or After Effects or whatever, you're probably just as well watching tutorial videos or the like.

Thank you! It's crazy that it's been almost 8 years since that night.

I'm currently trying to get a crew together to do some short films so I can practice my editing but also learn things like sound design/editing and cinematography.

I'm currently reading a book called "The Invisible Cut" by Bobbie O'Steen. I won't say it's the definitive book on editing, but it analyzes the editing techniques used in some classic movies like The Graduate, Chinatown, Rear Window, and Twelve Angry Men, just to name a few.

http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Cut-Editors-Movie-Magic/dp/193290753X

If you can afford a Macbook Pro and the Final Cut Pro Software this is a great book that'll get you through the basics easily. I switched from Avid to FCP using it and it was pretty painless. Stay away from FCP X though. It's gonna be a while before they get that one where it needs to be.

As far as the creative aspect of editing the only real way to learn any filmmaking craft is to do it. But there are some great books that did a better job than any of my professors did. This is the best book on editing I've come across. I just got it recently but it would have been really nice to have it back when I started. And this is my favorite directing book. It's written by a film professor but it does a beautiful job of breaking down the creative process. And The Film Director's Intuition is a great place to start with how to work with actors.

For lighting I'd recommend Matters of Light & Depth by Ross Lowell and Film Lighting by Kris Malkiewicz.

Also indispensable is The Pocket Lawyer For Filmmakers.

Those are all great books chock full of practical advice. And if you're interested in screenwriting Story by Robert McKee is pretty amazing. People shit all over that guy but nobody teaches story structure better than him.