What If I Don’t Want to Read The Classics?

When you’re a writer who doesn’t care about reading Shakespeare or Homer

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Like all writers, I love reading.

I don’t go one day without picking up a book and reading in bed or while I have breakfast. I keep a list of books I’ve read and make goals to read a specific number of books every year.

I never thought a lot about what I read.

I’d go the library, look at the shelves, read summaries, and have my pick. Horror. Romance. Young adult novels. Literary. As long as it sounded interesting, I’d take it.

But when I started taking writing seriously and began learning more about it, I kept reading one piece of advice over and over again.

“Read the classics.”

So, I did.

But can I be honest?

…I didn’t like a lot of them.

(Is it strange to be afraid of receiving a hate comment telling me I’m not a real writer because I don’t appreciate genuine literary art?)

Some were written in an omniscient point of view that left me confused half of the time, others sounded obnoxious to…