𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗻𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀

I’m a literary snob. No apologies. Once you’ve read the best, it’s hard to come down.

If you’d asked me to name my favorite authors 30 years ago, the list would look much the same today. I’m not sure what that says about me. Or the current state of literature.

But there’s a method behind my reading habits that I only recently recognized.

I never wanted to go through life without reading 𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 or 𝘔𝘰𝘣𝘺 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘬. There are only so many books you can read in a lifetime, and I figured I might as well aim high.

Here’s how I approached French literature.

First, I asked who belonged among the greatest French novelists.

Flaubert came up quickly.

Next question: What’s his masterpiece?

𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘺.

I read it. Loved it. Then went looking for more Flaubert: 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘌𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘣ô, his short stories.

𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀: find a master, read a masterpiece, follow your curiosity.

Without realizing it, I’d developed a rough version of the 80/20 principle for educating myself.

The same approach works with music, painting, film, philosophy, or virtually anything else you want to explore.

Start at the top. Get a taste of what the field can accomplish. Then work your way outward.

And here’s the important part: 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥.

I’ve encountered famous authors who left me cold or indifferent. Their reputations didn’t obligate me to admire them.

You’ll never read everything. Nobody will.

But you 𝘤𝘢𝘯 read/experience some of the best. These are authors that I keep coming back to, decade after decade and still find more.

𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵
• Gustave Flaubert
• Marcel Proust
• Alain Robbe-Grillet
• Guy de Maupassant
• Alexandre Dumas
• Victor Hugo

𝗥𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻
• Leo Tolstoy
• Nikolai Gogol
• Anton Chekhov
• Alexander Pushkin
• Ivan Turgenev

𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻
• William Shakespeare
• Charles Dickens
• James Joyce
• H.G. Wells
• Oscar Wilde
• Lewis Carroll
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• Mervyn Peake

𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻
• Vladimir Nabokov (he did have US citizenship)
• Truman Capote
• Philip K. Dick
• Herman Melville
• H.P. Lovecraft
• Ernest Hemingway
• Richard Matheson
• Charles Beaumont
• J.D. Salinger
• William S. Burroughs
• Harlan Ellison

𝗨𝗻𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 / 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀
• Homer
• Virgil
• Dante Alighieri
• Franz Kafka