I press backspace/delete. There's my list of spells. I tried simply highlighting "Shock", but on leaving the screen, no spell can be cast. I double click "Shock", and I can fire the spell. However, it steals a chunk of MP to do so. Not a big deal, except it means resting, which isn't always possible in a dungeon. The situation is further aggravated when I die and have to reload, and my readied spell is no longer readied. It means only saving before readying a spell and resting, and never after. Is there a better way to do things? God forbid I have a spell that costs most of my mp, for I wouldn't have any mp to cast it after readying it.

Right, a spell doesn't stay readied through a save|reload, but it does while you rest. I understand you wish to be able to keep a spell readied while you replenish your magicka (essentially getting a free cast), but as you've noticed that can be aggravating. Clearly you shouldn't be holding onto the readied spell so long, as if you are getting killed then you are obviously meeting enemies on whom you should probably try casting.

Also, Shock is a terrible spell. Get yourself to a mages guild and use their spellmaker to make something better and less expensive. Then you won't have to worry about resting between readying and actually casting the spell.

I did end up going to the spellmaker, and I made a series of trainer spells to get all my primary and major skills to 99. Then I went and did some mage guild quests at my questionably earned (I say I earned it because my wrists are killing me from jamming Q and right mouse for what must've been 4 hours straight, lol) level 25 - only the "retrieve notes from person X who's at Y location and avoid necromancers" quests. They're no harder than at level 1, but they give 1100 gold instead of 100. After a handful of those, I was able to make a cool custom spell that kills every time. I aim to make one per element, and one per cast type.

Continuous Health Damage Magic Touch
1 round plus 60 per level
1 to 100 damage plus 1-100 damage per level.

It really does seem to kill guaranteed which is good for unexpected ambushes, since I don't plan on dungeon diving till I'm content with my spellbook.