I assume you are here to look over a fellow writer’s reading shelf. And to nod your head, scowl, discover a new reading lead, and/or see what everyone else is still reading these days.
That’s what I do, at least.
What I won’t do, though, is attempt to rank these fine penslingers. Would you do that to family? Publicly? Besides, I’m positive we can all agree objectively who should rightly top this list anyway.
So let’s compare our literary DNAs and celebrate those who hinted at what’s possible in our own writing.
- Achebe, Chinua
- Eddings, David
- Barnes, Djuna
- Borges, Jorge Luis
- Bradbury, Ray
- Brontë, Charlotte
- Browning, Robert
- Carver, Raymond
- Clemens, Samuel Longhorne
- Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
- de Maupassant, Guy
- Dickinson, Emily
- Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
- Eliot, T. S.
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo
- Frost, Robert
- Hein, Piet
- Hurston, Zora Neale
- Ipsum, Lorem
- Irving, Washington
- Joyce, James
- McCaffrey, Anne
- McIntyre, Vonda N.
- O’Connor, Flannery
- Rilke, Rainer Maria
- Salinger, J. D.
- Shelley, Percy Bysshe
- Shelley, Mary
- Stewart, Mary
- Thoreau, Henry David
- Tolkien, J. R. R.
- White, E. B.
- Woolf, Virginia
- Wilde, Oscar
So there you have it. My impromptu list of nostalgia, biases, and the subsequent embarrassing gaps. Also, the keys to most of my passwords.
To those of you legends accidentally omitted: well, thank you for stopping by and reading this list. Also, rejoice! You are still living, as of the date of this posting. (Bonus: you can also figure out my arbitrary working definition of “classic,” as opposed to “contemporary.”)
Now, please pardon me as I go in search of a Norwegian forest cat I can name “Bysshe.” In the process, I plan to stumble over a book and kick myself for not having remembered its author in time. [Spoiler Alert! It’s going to be A. A. Milne.]
WREADITOR 
Hi again,
Sorry I am making my way up your blog. I like to start at the roots – imagining it to be like a bean stock. Obviously if you post a list of writers you will get people like me converging. So I am proud to say that I have read a few of the writers you mention and i am a huge tolkien fan too. 🙂 These days am reading the short stories of Hemingway and Alice Munro – amazing writers. Totally recommend them also both Nobel laureates. Now that that name dropping is out of the way. Once again welcome and nice post.
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No need to apologize for reading–it’s much appreciated. Thank you for your thoughts on this (including the image of climbing up from the roots). I wish I’d been introduced to Munro sooner. Everything she writes feels inconspicuously fresh and engaging. For Hemingway, I had to come around to appreciate the style. Your journal has been a great read, btw.
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Thanks. Yes so true about Munro. It almost seems that every year I find an awesome author I totally click with in style, in the issues they target and the use of language in general. Last year I found Jhumpa Lahiri and this year I am sure it will be Munro. Amazing writers.
Thanks for liking our journal. We always wanted to start one. Currently, polishing this new post I aim to put up hopefully tonight or tomorrow.
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Looking forward to your post. My spouse and I have discussed co-authoring a blog–what a neat endeavor. In the meantime I’ll put Jhumpa Lahiri on my list to explore.
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Thanks its fun to do with my wife cause she can edit my writing and two heads are better than one. 🙂
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Ha! And who couldn’t use an extra pair of eyes before hitting Publish?
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