Introduction The importance of literature in our lives is impossible to exaggerate, partly because it represents the accumulated knowledge of the best minds of mankind through the whole course of human history, partly because it is the manifestation of knowledge every individual is able to obtain, to master and to apply further in his or her life. One can say that the literary heritage of the humanity is the potential limit of knowledge one can generate at a definite moment without creating something of his or her own and without enriching it. Knowledge is the most precious treasure in a human life, which more than that gives wisdom and guidelines for future improvement and initiates contribution to the overall wisdom of eternity. This is what every individual who has doubts or considerations on the issue of whether he or she should read or not and what reading may give to a person. It is clear that reading should not be conducted in an unorganized way – this activity may only pollute the human mind and give no structured knowledge to the reader, which is likely to eliminate the motivation and generate disappointment in reading in general. It is desirable that every person should identify for him- or herself what areas are interesting for them and focus their attention on these particular materials. But still, there is always such a notion as general knowledge – the materials that give the enrichment to the human soul, that contribute to his understanding of society, the surrounding world, spirituality, morale and empowerment. These materials may be met in the whole scope of literature produced within dozens of centuries unexpectedly and open up the boundless horizon of activities, discoveries and inferences the reader may have not even supposed to reach. In order to choose the right path of cognition in the literary sphere it is always desirable to choose certain patterns, some authorities on whose opinion the individual may rely in the choice of literature. Identifying these authorities is purely individual, as every person will have a subjective opinion on this issue. Some people turn to parents, others to friends, tutors or mass media idols. However, one should not forget about such an option as turning to literary giants who themselves achieved a tremendous success in the literary sphere and share their experience on where they took the source of their inspiration and wisdom, on who they relied and what they learned from the experience of the past. The works to be discussed in the present paper are the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson “The American Scholar”, Henry David Thoreau “Walden and Civil Disobedience” and Frederick Douglass “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: an American slave‎”. These authors have made an enormous contribution to the development of American literature on the whole, being at the same time the propagators of purity of literature free from politicizing or any other impact of tendencies, people and events that do not have any connection with the greatness of the human mind’s expression. What is more particular about these books is that the authors include their guidance of reading, their recommendations on what works a reader should pay attention to in order to make anoth