My freshman year of college I took a basic psychology class and the professor asked us how we would define insane. When she asked us if straying far from the norm made us insane the class foolishly agreed. She then told us that less than ten percent of adults have more than ten books (not related to work or school) in their houses, so, by that definition, the entire class was insane. I have no clue if this statistic is true but I am still shocked by the possibility.
I read everyday of my life. I can comfortably say I own over a hundred books (even if I can’t find them all) and have read many of them twice. I probably have 20 of Tina’s books and I have read them all twice. The idea of never reading books is something I simply cannot fathom. Now the question of the quality of books I read is a different issue.
Yes, I am a pretentious ass when it comes to certain books. I do not give romance novels the respect they deserve. I have all kinds of derogatory names for them like pulse and throbs, bodice rippers, trash. There are levels of trashy too. Some books have an attempt at plot or character development while others follow the paperback romance formula down to the minutia.
Then I look at my book choices.
I mostly read fantasy or sci-fi. It is not the purely mind numbing Lifetime Movie Network stuff but it is hardly great literature. So, my gentle readers, I probably should resolve to read one “good” book a month. Once a month I should hunt down a classic example of literature and read it to become a better more well-rounded person. I should, and I have thought about it, but I know I won’t do it.
First of all, how should I pick this mind expanding book? Do I go back and read all of the classic authors? The problem is that I have read quite a few of them and I really don’t like them. I have enjoyed two Jane Austin novels: Sense and Sensibility with Sea Monsters, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I tried reading Oliver Twist and I hated every freaking word of it. I have an overwhelming dislike for most of the writings of the British Romantic era. I have wrote an essay over the reasons for and the depth of my hatred for these poets and turned it in as a paper over Don Juan. I actually enjoyed Don Juan but mostly because it is making fun of the other British Romantic writers.
Do I start with the gods of pretentious writing and read Ayn Rand or James Joyce? I have no desire to ever read anything Rand ever wrote. I know I should purely for intellectual curiosity and that strange arrogant camaraderie that Rand readers seem to have with one another. They remind me of snotty survivors of some horrid illness, like since they have read Rand they have lived through something that makes them stronger than us mere mortals. I expect them to come out with a ribbon at any moment.
I have read two of Jame Joyce’s short stories and I have mixed feelings. I know the man is brilliant. Scholars and people far more knowledgeable than me tell me so. I actually really enjoyed The Dead but I am just not smart enough to enjoy the full complexity of Araby and I am pretty okay with that.
So no I am not going to intentionally set out to torture myself with books just for snobby bragging rights. I will resolve, though, to pick up more books that are from authors I have not read and are about more than wizards or spaceships.
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I tried to force myself to do this very resolution several years ago. I read “The Scarlet Letter,” “Gone with the Wind,” and got 3 chapters into “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” before I gave up. I will admit, the first two held my interest. I really thought Hunchback would make it, but it was a no-go. But I did discover a short story about my great (x10) grandfather, who was the first governor of Mass., at the back of my copy of “The Scarlett Letter.” I thought it was so cool when I saw his name, and so I started to read and promptly fell asleep. I suck at this. I’ll never forget “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” by James Joyce, a book we were forced to read in AP English my senior year of high school. I remember reading each sentence several times. I don’t remember ever having such a great string of naps in my life.
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I loved senior year English because we read things like “1984” and “Animal Farm” but it was junior that I hated with books like “Grapes of Wrath.” I think this is a silly thing we do to ourselves. I believe in intellectual curiosity but forcing yourself to read something just because smart people say you should and find it great is silly. If I did everything people told me I should do because they find it great I would have had an even stranger college experience, and possibly a drug addiction and children.
I know this is really belated but I am back-reading Selinafish’s blog, I just got hooked a couple weeks ago (I just realized that sentence has a really lame pun, forgive me). I agree that we should not read something just because someone calls it a classic. I have always loved reading but there was so much to do for grad school that I didn’t read for fun until recently. I love mysteries and I think I will go through the Fairplay library’s whole Mary Higgins Clark section by June (when I hope to be finished with my dissertation). She may be a bit mainstream but I dig her.