The Myth of Bookstore Owners

I think most people believe that used bookstore owners are highbrow readers who read and re-read classics only. In my case nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, truth be told, my favorite genre is historical romance. I often say that what history I know I learned in historical romances and not in school.

This is not to say I never had the intention of reading classic works of literature. While in college I promised myself that after graduation I would read all those great works of literature that I didn’t have time to read before because I was so busy reading for school. That promise lasted until about halfway through Wuthering Heights; then I went right back to reading 20th century fiction and historical romances with a lot of chick lit, a few mysteries and some action/adventure novels thrown in for good measure. I did feel a bit guilty about this because I was sure that I was missing out on something really good since it was so universally agreed that the works of Dante and Hawthorne and Jane Austen and the Brontës are some of the best writing in history. Then one day I stumbled across an article or some sort of item in a newspaper or magazine which explained that while these books may be great literature they were written for people of a different time -- people who had fewer distractions in their leisure time than we do today. The people in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and before, didn’t have the distraction of TV or video games or movies or even radio; and they also enjoyed reading out loud to each other, consequently much of the literature was written to be read aloud in groups. So there it was. I was vindicated and released from any obligation to make myself a more well-read person than I already was.

Maybe someday I’ll go back and pick up the classics again. But who is to say that some of the work of today’s most popular writers won’t be considered classics in the future?