Every writer will tell you that writers should have a healthy reading habit. The more you read, the better you write.
But what happens when you have no reading inspiration?
The website What Should I Read Next? solves your dilemma by suggesting books based on your favorite authors.
I tried it out and had mixed results. I typed in “On the Road” and out came:
- Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain – Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond
- William S Burroughs – Junkie (Traveller’s companion series-no.114, four Square books)
- Allen Ginsberg, Williams/William Carlos – Howl (Pocket Poets S.)
- Gregory Corso – Gasoline
- Lucius Apuleius, Apuleius, Robert Graves – The Golden Ass: The Transformations of Lucius
- William Burroughs – Naked Lunch: The Restored Text (Harper Perennial Modern Classics S.)
- Gary Snyder – Turtle Island (A New Directions Book)
- Paul Auster – Leviatan
- Kesey Ken – One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
- Rick Moody – Purple America
- Siegfried Sassoon – The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (Faber Paper-Covered Editions)
- Charles Yu, – How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: A Novel
- Tracy Barrett – Anna of Byzantium
- Katsuhiro Otomo – Akira 2
So on and so forth. Kind of a random list. The related Beat Generation works make sense, and I can see how a few of the others speak toward a vision of America, but some of it seems just bizarre.
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
I know what you mean … ever go to youtube … pick a song? … and next to your song are all these OTHER song choices. Same thing on NetFlix….I love looking at their SUGGESTIONS based on your prior rentals …. I guess the computers have us all figured out….or do they???
Linda, you’re so right! It’s a vortex!! I go on to do one thing and suddenly it’s two hours later because I’ve clicked through so many so-called recommendations. But so often the suggestions are absurd.
Hey …what about our Greek heritage inspired reading worth a fresh reconsideration, such as Kazantzakis – Freedom or Death in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Love Kazantzakis! The Last Temptation of Christ was brilliant.