Snob

I have become a snob. Yes, it's true, embarrassing, yet honest. In the last 2 weeks I have started three books and put them down, taken them back to the library after a chapter or two. I have become a book snob. I only want to read books where the plot doesn't sound vaguely familiar and gets more familiar as it goes on; nor ones that never use a word that I don't know (e.g. I have to read Martha Grimes with a dictionary or my phone nearby to look up a word per chapter: "antimacassar"); nor ones that aren't excellently written--as in, "I'm no artist, but I know what I like." I'm not a great writer but I know good writing....and it spoils you terribly. I cannot tolerate drivel anymore. Give me Anne Tyler and Margaret Atwood and John Hart, for example.

Now, being a science and math major in both undergraduate and graduate school, I never read many classics, so the whole area of the classic English language books (are they really that good?) is unknown to me. But I don't feel a strong pull, a longing to read them now. There are great writers among us today and I am on a mission to find them!

BTW, it's a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric underneath. Congrats if you knew that. I didn't.

P. S. Clever joke writers, especially of word play, count in my snobbery, too.

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