books I've read

Anne Hawn's books

Who Moved My Cheese?
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans
Scientific Secrets for Self-Control
Just One Damned Thing After Another
The Vanishing
Exercises in Knitting
The Good Dream
The Very Best of Edgar Allan Poe
The Chosen
BT-Kids' Knits
Talking God
The Professor
The Christmas Files
The Finisher
Home Decor for 18-Inch Dolls: Create 10 Room Settings with Furniture and 15 Outfits with Accessories
Dracula and Other Stories
A New Song
Christy
All Quiet on the Western Front
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents


Anne Hawn Smith's favorite books »

I'm reading 150 Books

2019 Reading Challenge
2019 Reading Challenge 19614 members
<b>Are you ready to set your 2019 reading goal?</b> This is a supportive, fun group of people looking for people just like you. Track your annual reading goal here with us, and we have challenges, group reads, and other fun ways to help keep you on pace. There will never be a specific number of books to read here or pressure to read more than you can commit to. Your goal is five? Great! You think you want to read 200? Very cool! We won't kick you out for not participating regularly, but we'll love it if you do. Join us!

Books we've read

The Help
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Night Circus
The Golden Compass
11/22/63
The Little Lady Agency
Catch-22
The Good Father
A Discovery of Witches
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Fahrenheit 451
Frankenstein
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
A Christmas Carol
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
The Color Purple
Matched
Cloud Atlas
The Princess Bride
The Catcher in the Rye


View this group on Goodreads »

Monday, January 06, 2014

What are "Classics?"

From a discussion on Goodreads:

I think we might need to clarify what we mean by the term "classics." In college I took a class in philosophy class with one of the worst teachers I ever had, but I learned a number of important concepts. The one that is germane is the definition of the terms.” If you don’t agree on the definition of the term “classics” then the arguments keep going in circles.

 In another post I wrote the dictionary definition of “classic” because I was struggling with the concept even then, but it didn’t really gel until Martha mentioned a “need-to-read” list. Those two terms are not interchangeable. I think that a “need-to-read” list is something informal and it mixes books that you might call “book-group books,” and “potential classics.” I’d put the latest best sellers, books by writers like Isabel Allende, Barbara Kingsolver, William Styron, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Anne Tyler, Lee Smith, Paulo Coelho, Khaled Hosseini and many more authors, some of whom write to entertain, but some because they have something important t say. Only time will weed out the ones that have no staying power. In this group I think you will find popular books that are a waste of time to read as well as good literature.

 Classics, on the other hand, have passed the test of time. They are taught in high schools and colleges because they meld exceptional language with ideas that have a lasting impact on society. If you take a class in American Literature, you will look at the literature that our country produced on a continuum. It is like archeology of the mind. You can compare American Lit with French Lit and not only see a difference but you can see a national personality. Classics have also been reprinted again and again and in different languages. They were valuable in their day and continue to have value. You can teach a class on the meaning of the books and how the style of the author conveys his or her ideas. I think this is why some of us say that classics can’t be over-rated.

No comments: