I think it's totally fair to want to take a sampling of a lot of great authors to try out their work and then maybe follow up on more of their stuff if you find

I think it's totally fair to want to take a sampling of a lot of great authors to try out their work and then maybe follow up on more of their stuff if you find it compelling. True, they might not have the same level of appreciation for the book as if they'd been more familiar with all of their work, but if you try and tell people "you're not going to 'get it' without reading the 17 novels and 8 novellas he wrote before this", then if you're right you're going to just turn people off from trying. Maybe this is the "plebian" opinion, but I see nothing wrong with wanting a taste of Dahl, Feynman, Homer, and Tolstoy rather than devoting your life to just one. He's reading for pleasure, not writing a dissertation.