Pragmati-Learning Reading List

What I've read, am reading, and am planning to read as I write my novel

Has anyone ever called you out for reading when you could (or should) be writing?

One of the most common pieces of writing advice given to authors is to read, and that bit of advice comes from the reaches of the literary community past and present:

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

“As you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.” – Ursula K. LeGuin

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” – Maya Angelou

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: Read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” – Ernest Hemingway

The list of well-known authors who’ve offered their thoughts on the importance of reading is so vast it seems that reading—copious amounts of reading—is a prerequisite to authorship. Consuming books means you’ll pick up on structure, technique, and story-weaving processes naturally, absorbing them, as if by osmosis, from the works you read.

And the benefits of reading extensively—critical thinking, writing style development, contextual grammar use, vocabulary building, and inspiration—are well-documented. But if reading provides you so many benefits you now have choice-paralysis when it comes to writing, reading is then a distraction, a form of procrastination.

Since books are as nourishing to the author as organic whole foods are to the human, we cannot starve ourselves, intellectually or physically, and still hope to produce quality writing. For the pragmatic writer, the helpfulness of any book read comes down to its ability to teach you something about the book you’re writing now.

Read Books Relevant to the Story You’re Writing

I had just closed the cover of my 27th book for 2024, Michio Kaku’s The God Equation, and it was a great little physics primer on the quest for the unifying theory of everything, which has eluded the scientific and mathematical communities for centuries. Before that, I read LeGuin’s Steering the Craft. And before that, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. This is normal for me. I frequently have between three and five books going at any given time spanning fiction, non-fiction, memoir, self-help, even textbooks.

To say that I’m a literary omnivore is a vast understatement.

If you, like me, find yourself ever wrapped up in one book or another while your manuscript sits untouched for an embarrassingly long time, I’m here to tell you that there’s another way. You can continue to enjoy the escapism and general benefits of reading while leaning into the additional benefit of research for your writing. But to do this, you must read with intention and that may mean royally mucking up your to-be-read (TBR) list to get it into a better shape for your in-progress work.

A quick note before we get into it: Don’t get caught in a genre trap.

Reading varied works has a unique ability to make connections we otherwise may not make when reading only a specific genre. If you’re writing a space opera, for example, don’t limit your reading to other space operas. Sure, read a few to get the general how of things. But there are more important aspects of reading for research that are genre agnostic.

Start With Perspective

This should, perhaps, be a no-brainer, but just in case it’s so obvious you haven’t thought of it, choose books written in the literary point of view you’re using for your novel.

The Speculative Fiction Writers Association conducted a survey in 2019 and found that 60 percent of the most popular speculative fiction books are written in the third person; about 40 percent are written in the first person. This makes sense, and those two literary points of view, first and third person, are the most popular for book writing, broadly. If you’re writing in one of these points of view, you have a veritable ocean of novel material from which to choose to gain insights into the point of view you’re using, why one uses that point of view, and the limitations of it for the story at large and for your readers.

But if you’re a chaos agent dabbling in less popular points of view, mining the literary ocean for selections can become a frustrating experience. For example, there are few novels written in the second or the objective person, and many of the novels using those less-popular perspectives do so in controlled sections balanced against either the first- or the third-person point of view.  So do your research and find a few books using the same point or points of view you’ll be using so you can pick up on stylistic techniques to upskill your writing.

For my novel-in-progress, I’m balancing the objective, which will make up the bulk of the story, with the first-person point of view. While I won’t share the first-person books on my newly reshaped TBR list as there are hundreds of them, here are a few objective point of view works chosen for research to give you an idea of what reading for perspective looks like:

Objective POV Reading List

• The Lady With the Little Dog, a novel by Anton Chekhov

• The Cathedral, a novel by Raymond Carver

• Our Souls at Night, a novel by Kent Haruf

Here are the books I chose as pragmati-learning research for my novel-in-progress. When I’ve already shared my thoughts on a work in a Books & Bullshit review, I’ve linked to the review here.

Add Thematic Lenses

Perspective isn’t the only thing to consider when reading for writing research. Themes and motifs are also an important part of writing and reading. But before you can choose your thematic reads well, you’ll need to identify the potential themes and motifs in your novel-in-progress, which isn’t always easy.

Many authors pen their manuscripts and then figure out what the motifs and theme are so they can enhance them during revisions. But when you’re reading for research so that you can write, you’ll want to get clear on your purpose for writing your novel and work out what you think your motifs will be. Theme is a form of reader interpretation more than a tool for creativity, so once your story is out in the world, your readers will own and define your motifs and may come up with different messages than you intended.

When I sat down to figure out what I needed for my novel-in-progress, I had a hole that needed to be filled: What happens in the middle?

The characters in my story had an adventure that I’ve never had. I know where they started at the story’s open; I know where they ended up at the close. But I had no experience in my life that matched, exactly, what my characters dealt with, not to mention the lay of the proverbial land in which they found themselves. To wit, I didn’t know enough about what a group of folks in their situation would encounter or should be prepared to encounter in a life on the road.

It’s difficult, however, to tell you exactly which themes or motifs you should choose since I’ve no idea what you’re working on at the moment. If you want a reference point for thinking about themes, check out this list of The 25 Most Common Themes in Literature and Why They Matter, which provides a robust and comprehensive dive into theme and should help you get those thematic gears turning.

Since I have worked out the likely motifs of my novel-in-progress, here’s some insight into the themes I chose for my research reading and a few titles in each theme to get you thinking about the titles you may select.

Music Reading List

Music plays a major role in my novel-in-progress. Evelyn is the girlfriend of a guy in a band, and she struggles to self-actualize because her life is intrinsically entangled with her boyfriend’s life, up to and including the assumption that she will accompany his band on a nationwide tour. Evelyn spends a lot of time trying to find space for her own creativity while actively supporting the creative ventures of her boyfriend’s band.

Thing is, I’m no musician. I’ve never been on tour, stepped foot on a tour bus, and haven’t traveled extensively enough to say so. I have no idea how the mechanics of touring work, what actually happens in green rooms and behind curtains, or the psychological hellscape of bandmates who stop getting along but must continue to play together as if nothing happened.

Works selected:

• Does the Noise In My Head Bother You?, a memoir by Steven Tyler

• Janis: Her Life and Music, a biography by Holly George-Warren

• Girl In a Band, a memoir by Kim Gordon

• Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes

Identity Reading List

Evelyn’s pre-frontal cortex has recently matured, and that reality has caused some shifts. As many young adults do during this time, Evelyn battles with her sense of self and her identity within a world which seems mostly to chew folks up and spit them out. Rampant economic tension and job loss, the fight for creative and artistic freedom, and drowning under collective pressure test Evelyn’s identity over and over as she learns who she is, what she wants, and what she’s willing to do (or who she’s willing to forget) to get it.

There’s a difference between one’s individual identity and one’s identity as part of a collective, something Evelyn must contend with as she walks along her growth path to self-discovery.

Works selected:

• The Bell Jar, a novel by Sylvia Plath

• Beloved, a novel by Toni Morrison

• Homegoing, a novel by Yaa Gyasi

Coming of Age Reading List

Coming-of-age stories are fairly young-adult and new-adult centric, so finding coming-of-age works centered on adults nearing their 30s is not easy to find. However, I know, based on my own life, how we change and grow with each passing decade. The person I was at age 17 was not the person I was at age 27 was not the person I am now at age 37. There’s been a coming-of-age with each phase of life.

Evelyn is dealing with her coming-of-age from adult to adultier as she grows into her next phase of life amidst a host of unexpected changes that threaten her stability and force her to question and challenge her beliefs.

Works selected:

• Real Life, a novel by Brandon Taylor

• The Bell Jar, a novel by Sylvia Plath

American Dream Reading List

I still believe in the American Dream, and according to Psychology Today, this belief provides a net good not just for me but for Americans, old and new, broadly. When folks think of the “American Dream,” most cite things like financial security, living “the good life,” and being able to pursue happiness.

Everyone’s American Dream looks a little different. For Evelyn, the main character in my novel-in-progress, the American Dream evolves from a mythological thing that sounds nice but isn’t real into the ability to live life on her own terms, to find her path to safety and security, and to follow her creative pursuits to success. For folks like me, the Dream tells us anything is possible.

Works selected:

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel by Michael Chabon

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a novel by Hunter S. Thompson

• On the Road: The Original Scroll, a novel by Jack Kerouac

Collect and Compile Your Lessons

What is the point of reading for research if you don’t actively read to collect, compile, and process your lessons learned for understanding the practical application?

Seriously. That’s not a trick question. If you’re passively reading just to flip pages without absorbing the lessons you’re actually taking away from your research selections, you may not be quite understanding what I’m getting at here.

Instead of flipping pages just to say you’ve “done the research,” make sure you have a good spot to keep your collections of notes. More recently, I’ve started writing about the books I read and share favorite quotes on Substack. But I also have a Word document for all the other quotes and moments of intrigue I don’t share here on Substack, especially if I haven’t worked out exactly what those quotes mean for me or my novel-in-progress. For example, Steven Tyler’s memoir, Does the Noise In My Head Bother You? gave me some much-needed insight into what happens when small-time kids make it big, fast, and the lessons I pulled from that book helped me flesh out the muddy middle of my novel-in-progress.

For books I borrow from the library, sticky notes keep me organized while keeping me in reading flow. For books I own, I love my highlighter and some margin notes.

Find a method that works for you to collect and compile your lessons, and use them as you write or prepare for writing. Jot down events you think of, angles you may take, moments that come to mind, character personality traits you wish to save, and more.

By the time you get through your research reading list, you should understand your manuscript fully, and it’ll be much farther along in development and progress than it is today.

TL;DR: Reading is writing research when the lessons learned are applied with intention.

Keep your annual reading goal and make progress in your novel when each book you read informs your writing.

If your novel-in-progress sounds anything at all like mine, I’ve given you roughly fifteen books you can add to your TBR list for research now.

If your novel-in-progress is nothing at all like mine, check out listicles on sites like Goodreads for inspiration. And don’t forget about those all-important sages of the written word: Your local librarian.

When in doubt, go spend some time in a library chatting with a librarian. You may be amazed at the books you may have otherwise overlooked but which may prove to be critical for development of your work.

So, what are you reading?

Happy writing.

♥ Fal

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P.S. Being a literary omnivore means I like—nay, prefer—bouncing from one kind of book to another. Even with all the lovely variations in my selected pragmati-learning books, I still find myself daydreaming about other books from time to time.

Astrophysics, really, science and mathematics in general, light up my heart fires. After all, mathematics and physics represent the language of the universe, a sacred language that connects us all no matter where we are on the planet. Language itself would not have existed in written form were it not for early Homo sapiens creating a system to calculate the longevity of their food stores.

As such, and because I’m an imperfect human with a squirrel brain, I read the occassional palate cleanser before diving into the next pragmati-learning research book.

Here are the non-research books I’ve read that taught me something about myself, my characters, or life in general while on my pragmati-learning quest:

The Palate Cleansers

Works selected:

• The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles by Bruce H. Lipton PhD

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari