Why does every book on books include a chapter on Kafka? He seems to be the one author that all literary critics esteem in equal measure, and he seems to be the one author that everyone MUST write about, as if it hasn't all been written before (and quite possibly better).

I read a lot of Benjamin in college, but always individual essays in the context of a larger body of reading on the subject matter; I certainly never sat down and read a volume of Benjamin's writing for pleasure, so this was a very new and not entirely pleasurable experience. His syntax is notoriously difficult and I'm well out of undergrad, so reading his essays required flexing muscles I haven't used in a long time -- it was unpleasant, but that was completely the point.