Reading List
Authors by
A Roman emperor writing notes to himself at night. A Vietnamese monk telling his students to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes. A BBC correspondent writing about a hotel in Kabul through decades of war. This page groups the writers on this site by what they share: a school of thought, an outlook, a form, or the kind of life they led. Each list gives a short introduction to every writer and the book to start with.
By Lisanne Swart · 19 lists · Updated October 2026 · Authors by country
By movement
Schools of thought and style.
The best Stoic writers, from Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius to Pierre Hadot and Donald Robertson, with the translation or book to start with.
The Best Stoic Writers to Read →A reading list of 12 American Transcendentalist writers, from Emerson, Thoreau and Margaret Fuller to Whitman, with a first book to start with for each.
The Best Transcendentalist Writers to Read →Twelve existentialist authors, from Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky to Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Walker Percy, with the best book to start with for each.
The Best Existentialist Authors to Read →The best absurdist authors to read, from Gogol and Kafka to Beckett, Camus and László Krasznahorkai, with a first book to start with for each writer.
The Best Absurdist Authors to Read →Twelve Beat Generation writers and the book to start with, from Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs to Diane di Prima.
The Best Beat Generation Writers to Read →From Hunter S. Thompson to Joan Didion — the 7 writers (and one illustrator) who built gonzo and New Journalism, and why each one still matters.
The Best Gonzo Writers →By outlook
Writers on awareness, the self and the mind.
54 prominent authors on non-duality, from Shankara and Ramana Maharshi to Meister Eckhart, Rumi and Rupert Spira, grouped by tradition, with where to start.
Prominent Authors on Non-Duality →Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chödrön, the Dalai Lama, Shunryu Suzuki and eight more Buddhist writers, with the one book to start with for each.
The Best Buddhist Writers to Read →Eckhart Tolle, Ram Dass, Pema Chödrön, Byron Katie, Thomas Merton and seven more spiritual teachers, with the one book to start with for each.
The Best Spiritual Teachers to Read →Freud, Jung, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Viktor Frankl, Esther Perel and six more psychologists and psychoanalysts, with the one book to start with.
The Best Psychologists and Psychoanalysts to Read →By who they are
Writers grouped by the lives they led.
Twelve LGBTQ+ authors to read, from Oscar Wilde and James Baldwin to Audre Lorde and Ocean Vuong, with the book to start with for each writer.
The Best LGBTQ+ Authors to Read →25 authors who wrote under pen names, from the Brontës and George Eliot to Stephen King and Elena Ferrante: the real names, the reasons and where to start.
Authors Who Wrote Under Pseudonyms →Twelve writers who died before 40, from John Keats and Emily Brontë to Lorraine Hansberry and Sylvia Plath, and the books they left behind.
Writers Who Died Young, and the Books They Left →Martha Gellhorn, Marie Colvin, Anna Politkovskaya, Christina Lamb, Lyse Doucet and six more women who reported from war, with the book to read first.
The Best Women War Correspondents and Their Books →Atul Gawande, Paul Kalanithi, Henry Marsh, Rachel Clarke, Chekhov and seven more doctors who write for general readers, with the book to start with.
Doctors Who Write: The Best Physician Authors →By form
Short stories, memoirs, essays, diaries and letters.
Twelve of the best short story writers, from Chekhov and Poe to Alice Munro, George Saunders and Claire Keegan, with the collection to start with for each.
The Best Short Story Writers to Read →Mary Karr, Maya Angelou, Joan Didion, Tara Westover, Annie Ernaux, Patti Smith and six more great memoirists, with the book to start with for each.
The Best Memoirists to Read →Montaigne, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Susan Sontag and seven more great essayists, with the one book to start with for each.
The Best Essayists to Read →Anne Frank, Etty Hillesum, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Pepys, Van Gogh, Kafka and six more diarists and letter writers, with where to start for each.
The Best Diarists and Letter Writers to Read →Frequently asked questions
How do I find authors by type?
Choose a group below: by movement, by outlook, by who they are or by form. Each list introduces every writer and gives the book to start with.
Where can I find authors by country?
On the separate page Authors by Country, which groups writers by where they come from.
