Kathleen wrote:
> 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).

Then you'd also might like to try Tom Sharpe and Douglas Adams.

Cheers,

Michael Kuettner