A friend and I have a running disagreement.  We both adore reading but we disagree on taste.  To him, the act of reading is everything, what is read is immaterial.  I disagree.  Yes, reading is better than illiteracy, but not all written works are equal. Quality is one reason why some works disappear why others are revered and reread for centuries.  This isn’t due to an edict of teachers or a ruling from the some vicious, artsy elite.  It’s because some stories are so well formed they become enduring works of art, works that instruct as well as entertain.  They are the classics and there are good reasons to  they should be read. Classics are the building blocks of literature. Willa Cather once wrote, “There are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they’d never happened before.” If that’s true, those stories have also become the backbone of world literature but some versions are told so well, they become the standards other writers follow. For example, once The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh jointly created the perfect template for road stories, authors have been stealing from and writing variations on these … Continue reading Why Choose to Read The Classics