Why Read the Classics? (1986)
I have found the opposite to be true. I had much greater faith in and patience for the literary cannnon when I was young than I do now.<p>I think that writing just like everything else has improved with the 20th and 21st century&#x27;s obsession with design. As such, not all but the best modern writing is much more expressive, concise and communicative. There is boat loads of super high quality writing rolling off the presses each year. Having taken Carl Sagan&#x27;s axiom to heart that we have a very limited number of books we can read in our lifetimes and should therefore hold them dearly, I read few books older than 200 years. It&#x27;s awfully reductive I know but generally the value&#x2F;lb is just lower.