Lit-Ra-Chur

Booking Through Thursday

• When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)
• Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

I’ve actually already written a piece that answers this question, and seeing as I’m a little lazy today, I’ll just link to it:

Advice for Serious Literary Types

Here’s the synopsis:  I tend to read genre fiction, and I have encountered more than one “literary” person so snobbish and disdainful of my reading choices that, even if they had a good book recommendation or two, I certainly never would have listened to them.   I’m only now admitting to myself that Madame Bovary was, in fact, a good book and that T.S. Eliot’s poetry has its merits.  So, if you think a friend of yours should have better taste in books, and you’re trying to recommend something, regardless of what it is, just remember that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.