Reading and Unanswered Questions

I love to read. I don't get very much time for it anymore, but when given the chance, I can read a 400+ page in just a few days. Right now I’m reading an historical fiction novel called Washington’s Lady by Nancy Moser. It’s a story from the viewpoint of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington from the death of her first husband through the American Revolution. I’m just over halfway through and I really like it so far. I’m a big fan of historical fiction, especially anything from Tudor England. I’ve read a lot of Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory. This is the first novel I’ve read by Moser.

I wish Hunger Games Trilogy author, Suzanne Collins, would put out some more books already! Lol, I understand it takes time, but they were so good! I hope that whatever she publishes in the future is as good as that trilogy. I know she wrote a 5-book series called the Underland Chronicles before the Hunger Games, but I have not had a chance to read those.

I’m not one of those people who reads books to discover the underlying meaning or implications and I always hated that in school the goal was always to understand the author’s “true meaning”. Why not enjoy the book for what was written on the page, not for what was missing and what it could possible mean. I know there are some books that were written for that specific purpose, such as George Orwell’s Animal Farm, but there are many that I believe have been taken far out of context and we’re at a point where the author cannot refute what is being postulated, therefor it stands as almost fact.

I often wonder what books, if any, will be considered the “classics” of our era. What books do we have now that will be taken above and beyond, and passed down and taught to future generations? I know in school I had to read many books, such as Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, etc. They were all great books, but what was it about them that made them stand out above all the rest that deemed them to be worthy of mandatory reading? I know they were seen as representations of society and life at the time, but many books can do that. So I wonder, will books like Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games also be used as representations for this generation? Simply because of their popularity? Or will they be ripped apart, line by line, by people trying to find the author’s hidden meaning or underlying message, when really it seems now there isn’t one? Yes, there are morals to the stories, but I haven’t heard anything from any of the authors to suggest they are representations for our society, or our government, or our anything else radical or life changing. Please correct me if I’m wrong; I would love to know what the true purpose of the Twilight novels are because I see no point for them as of now.