Mr. Joseph Littleshoes Esq. wrote:


> I didn't think much of Walton's "The Complete Angler" or "Zen and the
> Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." And Kerouacks "On the Road" was only
> slightly better.

I didn't like any of the above, although I was told that I was supposed to.

I read through Hemmingway's stuff by the time I was 10 - it was in the
living room bookcase. At that point, nobody had told me what ultimately
became of the man. Based on his writing alone, I thought that there was
something seriously wrong with him. I was right. Don't even get me
started on Salinger...

I am an insatiable, omnivorous reader. Put it in ink, leave it where I
can reach it and it will get read. But I always wonder why some things
wind up deemed "classics", how they end up as required reading in high
school or college? Who decides these things?

Personally, I would get naked for Mark Twain or Terry Pratchett
(assuming the one wasn't dead and the other afflicted with rapid onset
Alzheimer's).