NPR, sheesh

From NPR Books, the late Michael Silverblatt’s rules for reading, with an unfortunate addition in brackets:

If you can’t discard preconceptions that come from bad classroom experiences — for example, A Tale of Two Cities and Silas Marner are not [Charles] Dickens’ or [T.S.] Eliot’s best works — if you’ve X’d them out of your list, you’re missing something of pleasure. You’re ready now. Try them.

I do agree though that Silas Marner is not T.S. Eliot’s best work. Far from it! Four Quartets, hands down.

See also Donne’s “Lycidas” and other NPR “sheesh” posts.