Read all the booklists you want. Take all the suggestions, keep up to date on what’s on the bestseller lists – but in the end, leave room for what you enjoy. If a book isn’t speaking to you, no matter how well reviewed, how often suggested, then choose to put it down without finishing it. There are not enough years in a life to read all of the books and if you spend too many of them reading what’s on other people’s lists, you may never be able to compile your own.
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I would say a similar thing about any kind of list or advice. Read all of it you want, take what you need, but in the end you know yourself and what will work for you best. Reading a writer’s list of what worked to get them writing may be a great place to start, but in the end only you know what works for you. Maybe they woke at dawn to write 100 pages before lunch. Maybe you sit down after lunch and write 20 pages. So, you decide to start waking at dawn, only you’re not a morning person so you’re falling asleep and not writing anything at all. Listen to your mind and body. It knows what works for you. Someone who has never even heard of you can’t tell you how to work or play.