The Allen List

When I wanted to be a copywriter, I didn’t know how to write. My girlfriend’s mom had to buy me Strunk and White’s Elements of Style because I didn’t even know if you capitalized the days of the week (you do). I also wasn’t a big fan of reading. But I remember a teacher of mine saying, “If you want to write, write, write, you have to read, read, read.”

I was a huge Woody Allen fan. So I read a biography on him by Eric Lax. I started writing down every author, playwright, poet, and philosopher Woody mentioned in the book and made myself a reading list. This was like twenty years ago and I think I’m almost done reading everything on it.

This is the original list from 1991, maybe someone will get a kick out of it. The quote on the top, “Aim High” is advice from Woody’s sister Netty Konigsberg when Woody was starting out on his career at age 15.