Snobby bibliophile rant

Sometimes you can be upset about one thing, but it's really about something else.

Another gorgeous day, following two days of pissing-down rain. And who's off? Me! I think it's another day of sitting in the sun and reading. I'm taking down Hugh MacLennan's Voices in Time. I didn't know MacLennan could do science fiction, but obviously I don't know what the ol' boy has in him.

I love Canadian fiction. I don't know why it has such a bad wrap. Whenever a teacher in high school brought up reading a Canadian author, there was a collective groan and the discussions sucked. A book is a book, people. Either it's good or it's not; doesn't matter who wrote it. Eleventh grade was when I first read MacLennan, and I loved it. Grade 12, Margaret Laurence. Second year university, I took a course that was nothing but Canadian fiction. Fred Wah, Thomas King are fabulous writers. And I hate that no one would look at them unless assigned. If you're not Margaret Atwood or Michael Ondaatje no one cares.

And maybe it's not just Canadian writers this happens to. If you're not the "hottest" new thing on the market from the states, no one cares. Unless you're Nora Roberts or James Patterson, shooting out a book a month, you don't get face time with the public because those fuckers get top billing.

Marketing to kids is also hard. Hardly anyone writes decent novels for teenagers anymore. Working at the bookstore, I was flipping through some of the books that are aimed at the 13-17 bracket, and they're full of crap. It's the same shit they get on tv; sex, gossip, fashion. I don't remember reading that shit when I was younger. Why can't there be good writing for once? Or at least good writing that gets published?

Every book has some value, I will agree; and every book is going to mean something to someone, not necessarily everyone. It just saddens me sometimes to see people walking out of the store with Nora Roberts under their arm. Why can't they try something new? Something classic?

I love classics. Books are here for a reason, and if it wasn't for the beginning of the printed word, you wouldn't have your damn Nora to read. Why not go back a few centuries and read the ones who started it? Gilgamesh; The Oddysey; Chaucer; Henry James; Fielding; Defoe; Aphra Behn.

I'm not ragging on the choices people make for their reading selection. As long as you do read, I can't find fault. But I guess what I don't understand is why someone would close of their preferences to one kind of literature. Read everything. These authors wrote their books to be read, and if someone doesn't read them because of some preconceived notion that it's going to be horrible, or because you "don't read those kinds of books" you won't know if you like it.

Hm ... that applies to so many things. Perhaps that should be a mantra for life, not just reading: Don't knock it 'til you try it. Yes, that will work nicely. Hello new experiences!