Reading Old Books

There's a filter on old books that doesn't exist on new ones: time. A book from 1890 that people are still reading in 2026 is almost certainly worth reading. A book published last month might be worth reading, but the odds are much worse.

This isn't a rule about ignoring new writing. It's a rule about where to look when you don't know what to read. Default to the old stuff. It has already survived the thing that most new writing won't.