The members of my reading group had a conversation about choosing which books to read the other day. We all agreed that one ought to read widely, but what does that really mean? What about escapist reading? Is that okay? What do you make of this: you should only read books that you are willing to pay for. I wonder about that, especially since most of the books I read are from the library. Does that mean those books aren't really worth my time? Perhaps having access to free books lowers the standard of what I ought to read, thus I'm reading books I shouldn't.
Regardless, how do you choose which books to read? Taste? Do you read books because you feel you ought to? Mark Twain famously said that a classic book is one in which people praise but don't read. Perhaps it would be easier to make of list of books I won't read. Here, I'll start...
1. Catcher in the Rye.
2. Heidegger, Being and Time
3. Contemporary Christian fiction
4. The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
5. The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure by James Redfield, Carol Adrienne
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
And you?
Posted by Tim at November 28, 2003 10:30 PM