What to Read: Advice from Ernest Hemingway to a Young Writer
Struggling to find the next book worth reading? Ernest Hemingway is here to help. Read the list of recommendations written by the renowned classic.
Relaxation After the Holidays
When the holiday hustle subsides, you might find yourself encountering an intriguing phenomenon — leisure time. You could sacrifice it to the digital friends of humanity, or you could use it wisely.
The blog “So List” wants to be your ally in the second direction and found in the book “Lists of Note” [1] a list that Ernest Hemingway once wrote for aspiring writer Arnold Samuelson.
It seems that the list didn’t help Arnold much. Only one book emerged from his pen: “With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba”, which recounts the year he spent with the acclaimed classic author.
On the other hand, we weren’t planning to write anything ourselves just a few paragraphs ago. So, no need to worry.
The List of Books Recommended by Ernest Hemingway
Regular readers of this blog know how much we enjoy sharing images of original sources. Take, for example, Thomas Jefferson’s list of rules or the myths about William Shakespeare — in both cases, original images accompany the articles. We’ll stick to this tradition here as well. First, let’s look at the image.
Now let’s decipher the list. Books are available for reading in the online libraries, and I’ve included links to them:
- Stephen Crane, “The Blue Hotel”,
- Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”,
- Gustave Flaubert, “Madame Bovary”,
- James Joyce, “Dubliners”,
- Stendhal, “The Red and the Black”,
- Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage”,
- Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina”,
- Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace”,
- Thomas Mann, “Buddenbrooks”,
- George Moore, “Hail and Farewell”,
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”,
- Oxford Book of English Verse,
- Edward Cummings, “The Enormous Room”,
- Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights”,
- William Hudson, “Far Away and Long Ago”,
- Henry James, “The American”.
Have you read any of these books?
Are you familiar with any of the works listed above? Do you share Ernest Hemingway’s enthusiasm for them?
Was it satisfying to discover literary recommendations from someone who often finds himself on such lists? Subscribe to the “So List” blog — there are many more amazing lists from other remarkable people to discover. You’ll also learn how to solve many issues using these simple but powerful tools.
List of Links
[1] Shaun Usher “Lists of Note: An Eclectic Collection Deserving of a Wider Audience”, ISBN 978-1452144573
