What Should Young Writers Read?

Dan Chaon was recently taken to task in Salon for suggesting that young writers read literary fiction. Why? Because it's "terrible." I've already had my say about that blanket condemnation here.



But Chaon wasn't recommending that young writers read only literary fiction. His advice was actually more specific than that. What he said was pretty sensible:

The writing community is full of lame-o people who want to be published in journals even though they don't read the magazines that they want to...