Another volume I feel grateful for having somehow missed in high school. All of the classics you read during your primary and secondary education are meant to instruct by example: this is good writing, so write like this to be good.

This sort of education my imitation is helpful, of course, but it also lends itself (at least in my case) to reading works not when they are most spiritually resonant but when they are linguistically accessible. For the mechanics of writing, you want to engage with texts that are at or slightly beyond your comfort level to help you learn. This makes sense. You read this book in high school because a high school student can learn a lot from it – of course.