10 Reasons You Should be Reading the Classics
By: Jamie Leigh
1. You’ll increase your vocabulary. Whether you want to impress your in-laws, boost your SAT scores, or deliver more effective presentations at work, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with words that instantly reflect your intelligence. Reading the Greek and Latin Classics, in particular, will develop your personal word bank, since many English words have roots in these two languages. English has made a habit of widespread borrowing, but over 60% of English words are derived from Greek and Latin alone.
2. While you’re at it, you’ll also improve your social skills. A 2013 study showed that reading the classics, in contrast with commercial fiction and even non-fiction, leads to better social perception and emotional intelligence. Character-driven novels can even strengthen your personal ethics, if you’re in the market for that sort of thing. Just make sure you’re clear on the distinction between the good guys and the bad guys.
3. You’ll be reading something of value. The classics, and their typically universal themes, have stood the test of time; these are books in which we still find characters, experiences, emotions, and perspectives relevant today. Often an individual classic is the iconic work within a literary movement or the period in which the book was written. Usually, they are also somewhat challenging, so these are books you’ll be proud to be seen tackling. There will be no need to hide behind the anonymity of your e-reader in cafes or on public transportation. Will you like them all? Probably not. But the classics span every major literary genre, from fantasy (Lord of the Rings) to science fiction (Brave New World) to romance (Sense and Sensibility) and even children’s (Charlotte’s Web), so you’re bound to find something appealing.
4. Literary references won’t go straight over your head. You’ll be a walking encyclopedia of major cultural references, cited at the original source. Media, entertainment, and everyday social allusions to concepts and characters such as “Big Brother” (1984), Frankenstein’s monster (Frankenstein), Oedipus (Oedipus the King), and existentialism (The Stranger, among others) abound. And it’s common knowledge that hundreds of popular words and expressions come straight out of Shakespeare.
5. You can “reward” yourself with the film version when you’re finished reading. Almost every classic has been made (and remade, and remade) into a movie, from Gone With the Wind to On the Road to The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird. Some film versions of the classics earned excellent reviews in their own right, but you’ll be informed enough to say whether the book was better. It probably is. Still, it’s always intriguing to see these unfailingly rich and penetrating stories brought to life on the big screen.
6. The classics provide an opportunity to understand history and culture in context. In his 1970 Nobel Lecture in Literature, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said that
2. While you’re at it, you’ll also improve your social skills. A 2013 study showed that reading the classics, in contrast with commercial fiction and even non-fiction, leads to better social perception and emotional intelligence. Character-driven novels can even strengthen your personal ethics, if you’re in the market for that sort of thing. Just make sure you’re clear on the distinction between the good guys and the bad guys.
3. You’ll be reading something of value. The classics, and their typically universal themes, have stood the test of time; these are books in which we still find characters, experiences, emotions, and perspectives relevant today. Often an individual classic is the iconic work within a literary movement or the period in which the book was written. Usually, they are also somewhat challenging, so these are books you’ll be proud to be seen tackling. There will be no need to hide behind the anonymity of your e-reader in cafes or on public transportation. Will you like them all? Probably not. But the classics span every major literary genre, from fantasy (Lord of the Rings) to science fiction (Brave New World) to romance (Sense and Sensibility) and even children’s (Charlotte’s Web), so you’re bound to find something appealing.
4. Literary references won’t go straight over your head. You’ll be a walking encyclopedia of major cultural references, cited at the original source. Media, entertainment, and everyday social allusions to concepts and characters such as “Big Brother” (1984), Frankenstein’s monster (Frankenstein), Oedipus (Oedipus the King), and existentialism (The Stranger, among others) abound. And it’s common knowledge that hundreds of popular words and expressions come straight out of Shakespeare. 5. You can “reward” yourself with the film version when you’re finished reading. Almost every classic has been made (and remade, and remade) into a movie, from Gone With the Wind to On the Road to The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird. Some film versions of the classics earned excellent reviews in their own right, but you’ll be informed enough to say whether the book was better. It probably is. Still, it’s always intriguing to see these unfailingly rich and penetrating stories brought to life on the big screen.
6. The classics provide an opportunity to understand history and culture in context. In his 1970 Nobel Lecture in Literature, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said that
The only substitute for an experience we ourselves have never lived through is art, literature. They possess a wonderful ability: beyond distinctions of language, custom, social structure, they can convey the life experience of one whole nation to another… Literature conveys irrefutable condensed experience… from generation to generation. Thus it becomes the living memory of the nation.
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