This often happens, not due to willful neglect, but underdeveloped appreciation. There s a reason certain works defy the decaying influence of time while others do not. We ll review, reconsider, and reexamine classic works, not as academic experts, but as enthusiastic amateurs. If we do this right, then you might find yourself tasting something old, or long, or different, then wonder why no one else is enjoying it. In every canon, there are classics and then there are touchstones.
Classics are on the long lists in a syllabus.
Touchstones are those books that everyone in every state from every walk of life seems to have read at key moments in their development. As a baby it is Dr. Seuss or Mother Goose . As a child, it is Charlotte s Web , or the Narnia Chronicles. For a teen, it is often Dickens, The Catcher in the Rye or The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Thus, I find nothing more frustrating than to be in conversation when one of these touchstones is discussed and I haven t read it.