A few weeks ago I blogged about this cool, themed birthday party I went to where everyone was supposed to come as their favorite literary character. It was awesome, and the crowd went all out. Did I mention I met Miss Havisham?
One of the best parts was that I made a new friend who invited me to join her book club. She told me they only meet a few times a year, because they intentionally pick difficult books that take time to read. I said “sure, sign me up,” and few weeks later I got the email telling me when and where and what: the book this time around was Italo Calvino’s “If On A Winter Night A Traveler.”
As I mentioned in my last post, it was not an easy read, but it was only 250 pages, so I did manage to get through it. It’s actually pretty awesome, and I don’t think I would have read it (and I certainly would not have finished it) if I hadn’t wanted to be able to talk about it with some fellow book nerds.
But, as I learned on Saturday night, there are book nerds, and then there are book nerds (and lest anyone get their feelings hurt, I’d just like to clarify that book nerds are some of my favorite people – this is not meant to be derisive in any way) .
I’m no slouch. I kept up and all, but man, these people know their literature. The evening started out over wine, with a casual conversation in which I learned that one of the other women catalogues her own, personal bookshelf via the dewey decimal system. I was relieved to learn she is a librarian.
The get-to-know-you chatter (this is before we jumped into the book of the night) then turned toward what the kids these days are being taught, which was kind of funny because at 36 I definitely was among the older of the group’s 6 attendees. The librarian said she was concerned that kids aren’t being taught the classics because they’re hard to read, and that, in fact, that is exactly WHY they should be taught. Her fear was that if kids never learn to read hard books, they will never read hard books. They will be condemned to reading the likes of “The Hunger Games.”
At which point, I felt compelled to step in. “The Hunger Games” rocked. Especially the first one. You could argue against the second two, but that’s a different blog post. I asked her if it wasn’t better to have kids reading something, rather than nothing. I LOVE books, but I’ll tell you, I didn’t read most of what was assigned in high school. Those books were boring. They were dated. I just didn’t care. But I tore up “Interview With a Vampire.”
Now, that said, I do think there is value in reading older books, but what’s wrong with mixing it up with some current fiction? If my English teacher had said to me “Okay, we’re going to read ‘Moby Dick,’ but then we’ll have a little fun with ‘The Lost World,'” I might have hung in there a little tighter with the Dick, because really – that’s a tough one to get through when you’re sixteen and all kinds of impatient.
Anyhow, it just got me to thinking about what people should read, and you know what? I say F the shoulds. Read what ever gets you excited. And that goes double for writers.
However, if you’re interested in learning more about what people do or have done with fiction, you might have to stretch a little outside your comfort zone (which is why I am totally sticking with this group), but if you’re just looking for a good story at bed time, don’t sweat it, I say.
What do you think blogosphere? Should kids have to read hard books so that they learn how? What is the value in reading hard books? What is the value of reading at all? I’m actually really curious to get some opinions.
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