Reading fiction has been a constant in my life since I was four years old. I started reading and never looked back, immersing myself in worlds I didn't inhabit myself-- ones with dragons and fairies and rich people and nuclear families. I've been an amass-er of books since then, also. My ideal room is a library full of ceiling high bookcases, with a fireplace and a spot for my pipe and smoking jacket. And a pullout sofa. And a ladder so I can reach the books at the top, because of course I would have read them all.
And I consider myself a smarter person because I read a lot. There's no way today's kids will come close to having a full understanding of the universe with just the internet and Wikipedia to guide them. They have no perspective. But "literature" and books are two different things, and I am afraid I'm just not cool enough to pull of the snooty air of a "literature" fan.
My favorite books of all time: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell; American Gods by Neil Gaiman; and the Harry Potter series. More mainstream, mostly with a fantastical twist, and definitely NOT Vonnegut or Faulkner. Or Upton Sinclair. Or Dave Eggers. I've never read A Confederacy of Dunces. Or The Corrections. I don't read poetry all that often, I find it pretentious and overwrought. I don't like Hemingway, but at least I've read enough to know that for myself. And I'm not a complete philistine, either-- I like Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Steinbeck, Socrates...but if you breath even one word of Camus' The Stranger I will stick you with something sharp.
I guess my point is that I feel safe with my books, I like to show off my books, and I like people to think I'm smart, so I keep a lot of books around. But can an old dog learn new tricks? Can I learn to like Vonnegut if I give him a chance? What about Marquez? Murakami? I don't know. Send me some books and I'll let you know. In the meantime, don't judge me.
Originally written 1.08
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