“Look,” I said, sloshing out the last of the wine, some of which actually made it into my glass, “there is simply no question that by any objective standards, Dickens is a better writer than Dan Brown. That ought to be obvious even to a moron in a panic.” I wagged the admonitory finger. “It’s not elitist to say so. It’s not snobbish and it’s not a criticism of your choice of beach-read. I’m just saying…”
“…you’re just saying that hating every word of Little Dorrit would do me more good than enjoying The Da Vinci Code.”
I paused. I don’t like to be interrupted. It makes me cranky.
“Oh, go and boil your-hic-your head,” I told my mother. And having delivered that witty rejoinder, I slipped unconscious under the table just as the groom stood up to make his speech.
Very cool Mark Bastable article on reading the classics at BibloBuffet.
A bang, not a whimper
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When I finished Kevin Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead last spring I immediately did a search to see if the Coca-Cola Corp. had...
Thanks for pointing to this! I love it and agree wholeheartedly.
ReplyDeleteTeresa tweeted about this and I read the article and retweeted it. Great article--loved it on so many levels. I love to read classics, but there are some yawners in the canon that I will never revisit and some that I cannot imagine rereading regularly.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with the current of Brown-bashing these days? Can't I be in the mood for Dickens one day and Dan Brown the next?
ReplyDeleteWell, sure. I don't think there's any rule that says you have to read all of one thing all the time. I myself have been known to stoop to reading fanfic.
ReplyDeleteBut the current of Brown-bashing that you've detected is happening at the same time The Lost Symbol's topping the best sellers list. Can no one point out that the emperor's parading around in his birthday suit because we all have a tendency to want to read junk on occasion?
Isn't it great, really brightened up my day when I read it, so well written and so funny.
ReplyDeletePersonally I do read junk sometimes and I'll admit to it but I like it to be fun junk, not Brown's brand. Now Maureen Johnson reading it for me and writing entertaining updates about it, that I like.