Okay Then

At first glance, this article by Yale literature professor Amy Hungerford would seem kind of counter-productive. A lit prof saying she doesn't read, and advocating more people follow her lead? For this, parents say, we go in debt to the tune of a small midwestern house?

But actually, Dr. Hungerford is not advocating that people quit reading altogether. But they should be more selective and deliberate in their choice of what to read. She says that the volume of novels published in a year -- and the machine of literary celebrity -- combine to offer a distractive level of work that does not reward the time one might put into it.

Stop reading crap just because all of the people trying to shout out how smart they are insist that in order to be smart you have to have read it? Sounds good to me.