|
This topic comes up in my life almost annually in one place or another. Last time it was on another forum I read. I always recall an incident some years back with an acquaintance who stated emphatically that reading just for pleasure was mere gluttony, and without "substance", one might just as well read the back of a cereal box. (I put the word in quotes because getting him to define "substance" always led back to something akin to "I know it when I see it".)
I have no problem with The Classics, per se. I do love Dickens, Poe and a few others on that list. I think my disdain for the topic itself comes from high school. Our 11th grade English teacher would have us spend most of the week reading something and discussing amongst ourselves, then at the end of the week she would join the conversation and tell us that we were all WRONG. That gets old quickly.
|