A Tantrum on Classics

I cannot count how many times I have heard someone regard someone else’s love of books as lesser, simply because they do not favor the classics.

Classics are classics for a reason. They should be remembered and studied and used as great examples of grammar and flow.

However, disliking classic contemporary fiction does not lower your own reading abilities. Because I can not really stand the story of Pride and Prejudice does not make me illiterate. I can revere them, study them, and learn from the writing styles, but it will never make me relish romantic fiction.

Personally, I love stories like “Great Gatsby”, “Dracula”, “1984”, “Wuthering Heights”, and “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. I just can’t stand Jane Austin. Or a majority of the Bronte’ sisters (Wuthering Heights excluded).

So remember: Taste in books, the genre of a book, really even the kind of publishing does not measure skill in reading. That can only be determined by how the book is written.