Start Here: Read Your Way Into 25 Amazing Authors

by · 2012

+ Want to read

There are so many fantastic authors and great books out there that sometimes it's hard to know where to begin. Start Here solves that problem; it tells you how to read your way into 25 amazing authors from a wide range of genres—from classics to contemporary fiction to comics.

Read more

Each chapter presents an author, explains why you might want to try them, and lays out a 3- or 4-book reading sequence designed to help you experience fully what they have to offer. It's a fun, accessible, and informative way to enrich your reading life.

A wide array of writers, critics, and bloggers offer their expertise and passion for these authors to help you get started reading authors you've always wanted to try.

Includes chapters by Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus) on Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box) on Bernard Malamud, Linda Fairstein (The Alexandra Cooper Series) on Edgar Allan Poe, and Kevin Smokler (Practical Classics) on Sherman Alexie.

Also includes chapters on reading your way into:

Margaret Atwood

Jane Austen

Ray Bradbury

Italo Calvino

Philip K Dick

Charles Dickens

E.M. Forster

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Ernest Hemingway

Zora Neale Hurston

John Irving

Stephen King

Cormac McCarthy

Herman Melville

Arthur Miller

Alice Munro

Haruki Murakami

Richard Russo

Zadie Smith

David Foster Wallace

Colson Whitehead

Themes
writerswritersMore like thisLess of this
Setting
2010s2010sMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
short · 174 pages
Form
essaysessaysMore like thisLess of this

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare pricesHardcover

Liked Start Here: Read Your Way Into 25 Amazing Authors? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Start Here: Read Your Way Into 25 Amazing Authors. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Stop What You're Doing and Read This! Carmen Callil, Mark Haddon, Michael Rosen, Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson, Blake Morrison, Maryanne Wolf, Tim Parks, Jane Davis, Nicholas Carr · 2011 Shares nonfiction, books about, essays
  2. The Bookshop Book Jen Campbell · 2014 Shares nonfiction, books about, books on
  3. My Ideal Bookshelf Maira Kalman, Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Alex Ross, David Chang, Michael Chabon, Thomas Keller, Malcolm Gladwell, Alice Waters, James Patterson, Jonathan Lethem, David Sedaris, Stephenie Meyer, Rosanne Cash, James Franco, Kim Gordon, Tony Hawk, Nico Muhly, Thurston Moore, George Saunders, Nancy Pearl · 2012 Shares nonfiction, books about, books on
  4. The Book Lovers' Companion: What to Read Next · 2007 Shares nonfiction, books about, books on
See more recommendations →

“People who read Start Here: Read Your Way Into 25 Amazing Authors tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers Nancy Pearl · 2010
  2. Read This Next: 500 of the Best Books You'll Ever Read Howard Mittelmark, Sandra Newman · 2010
  3. Is Heathcliff a Murderer?: Great Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Fiction John Sutherland · 1996
  4. The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classic Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded Clifton Fadiman, John S. Major · 1960

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Now and at the Hour of Our Death Susana Moreira Marques · 2012
  2. The Secret Language of Flowers Samantha Gray · 2011
  3. Me and Mine: A Memoir of an Irish Immigrant Family Anna May Mangan · 2011
  4. Buried in Books: A Reader's Anthology Julie Rugg · 2010

“If it was the books about that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created · 2016
  2. Why Not Catch-21?: The Stories Behind the Titles Gary Dexter · 2007
  3. Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult Bruce Handy · 2017
  4. Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages Michael Popek · 2011

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Start Here, Volume 2: Read Your Way Into 25 Amazing Authors · 2013
  2. Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary Charles H. Bohner, Lyman Grant · 1989
  3. The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books · 2017
  4. Contemporary Fiction: A Very Short Introduction Robert Eaglestone · 2013

Report a problem