<p>To QuantMech:</p>
<p>The thing I hated most about high school English class was being compelled to “read the Greats” while in the meantime disliking every last bit of “the Greats”, or being compelled to read other books that the teachers felt were “really good for kids my age” at a time when I thought “the Greats” and those “really good for my age” books were crusty, pedantic, condescending, but primarily, out of touch. I went back recently to those reading lists, as a crusty old adult, and I found that I still ******* hate them. Boring. Depressing. Ponderous. Time consuming. </p>
<p>I don’t want to appreciate them. I want to send them to the dust bins of posterity.</p>
<p>But then again, maybe it’s because I read math books for pleasure. Should adults force kids to listen to music the kids don’t like? How about force them to watch old movies because the adults think those old movies are “so cool”?</p>
<p>I think music and cinema are more effective media than fiction books, and also, more timely.</p>
<p>And finally, this sentence fragment: Reading old lit for historical purposes, notwithstanding, has its purposes; is exempt from my opinion.</p>