Camp No Friends

Classics for Illiterates

Parsley, 08/07/03

By now you’ve probably had time to read and digest Shakespeare for Illiterates, and with any luck you’re happily hobnobbing with the literati. But you may have noticed that these same losers talk about a lot of so-called “great books” that don’t have anything to do with Shakespeare. What’s a well-meaning illiterate to do? If you didn’t read Macbeth there’s no way in hell you’re going to waste hours of your life reading something like Moby Dick, cultural literacy be damned.

Well, we can’t explain every book in the Western canon for you, but we can try to hit at least a few of the big ones. This list should give you a good start at your local coffeehouse, faculty tea, or mega-chain bookstore. Maybe you can even finally score some of those hot English major chicks.

Remember: just because you can’t read doesn’t mean you can’t be well-read.