When I was younger you would seldom find a moment when I was without a book in my hand. I read and read, but I read crap. I read basically just Babysitter's Club books until grade 5 or 6.
So you'd be surprised if I told you the truth, which is that I've never really read any classics before. Except for The Picture of Dorian Gray. But that's it. I was never assigned any Grand Work of British or American lit in high school English class and I've never felt compelled to read any of them by myself. It's not like I'm avoiding them or have a natural hate for them; I've just never found a reason to read them. I've wanted to many times - in the library I've always wandered over to the Jane Austen section, I've checked out Middlemarch and pictured Anna Karenina in my hand.
I feel just a bit guilty because I love post-modernist fiction and my friend said to me, "All the subsequent authors were influenced by classics, right? You need a base, right?" And I thought that was true but that still didn't get me to want to read them.
Even if I wander over to Jane Austen I find myself inevitably wandering back to more modern fiction. Maybe I think they're good, but they don't knock me over like the post-modernists do.
On a related note, I find myself always trusting recommendations from online strangers (especially on Amazon.com) than I do my friends. They don't read the stuff I do (re: above). It's been three times that I've borrowed a book from close people and I read a few pages and then went on to other things. It was the Wild Swans, and then the Time Traveler's Wife and Freakonomics I was like...uh...no. And then I was given a read copy of East of Eden for free! But then I threw it away because I thought it was dirty (the case for my hating library books). Then yesterday I found out that new copies of the books had covers like that too - the 'dirt' was part of the design of the cover, and that was my excuse for having thrown out a potentially great great book! Of course, if it had been post-modernist stuff I would've kept it. I feel so stupid.
Classics? What Classics?
Interests
If someone were to ask me what I would spend my money on right now, I would tell them these things:
I would read and buy books about Mythology, especially Greek myths. Architecture and art introductions. Photography by Elliot Erwit (sp?). Anthropology books by people like Said and Levi-Strauss. Books on justice - Simone Weil, John Rawls. Self-help books about meaning to life. Books on genocide, its causes. Books on South East Asia, history and culture, mostly history of the 20th century. Books about the Third Reich, its reasons and consequences. Vegetarian cooking books. Indian cooking. Travel guides, Italy, Brazil. Surreal, oulipo-like or post-modernist literature. Multicultural fiction. Works about society and the city, and the meaning of place. Clouds. Wolves. Submarines.
I love films. I started as an excuse to eat popcorn and will never stop.
I listen to jazz, mostly jazz of the contemporary piano-as-premier kind. I listen to folk rock and folk pop, singer-songwriter. Not really country, but almost, without the twang and more authenticity. I listen to a lot of electronica. This came out of a past love for anything post-rock. Trance? Yes. House. Groove. Anything with a hard bass, beat, repetitions. Revivals.
My non-passive interests are photography, writing, collecting stamps, collecting business cards, receiving and sending postcards, going to vegetarian restaurants, trying new wines and cheeses, yoga, learning languages. I used to collect quotes but realize I haven't done so in the longest time.
These are a snapshot of my interests right now. They have and will change slowly over time, and before I know it I will be looking back fondly over my old interests without even knowing they have changed.
