What is good literature?

So, how is good literature determined? It's a very subjective topic. I love "stories". I love to get engrossed in a different reality and follow compelling characters along their journey whatever it may be. I enjoy certain classics--I enjoy Dickens, I enjoy watching Shakespeare but find reading it tiring. While Hemmingway is interesting, it's easy to get bogged down. I thoroughly enjoy science fiction and especially Isaac Asimov. I think I've read nearly all his fiction works. I don't care for Steinbeck--I like books that lift my mood. I really like historical fiction. I read a series of 9 books on the American Revolutionary period by Ron Carter. Wonderful books!! I highly recommend them.

How many of us have slogged through reading lists of books we really don't care for? That's probably the biggest downside to English or Literature classes--the required reading. My daughter has an interesting (and I use that term in a rather unflattering sense) English teacher who has required them to read all sorts of very off the wall books. I haven't really been too impressed. So this week, they are starting "Lord of the Flies". I despise this book. I find absolutely nothing redeeming in it. It features only that which is base and disgusting. I really would prefer that my 15-year-old daughter not read this book. Unfortunately, I also feel like I can't talk to this teacher without her taking it out on my daughter in her grades and citizenship. It's just the impression I've gotten.

It's really too bad that teachers don't focus on fabulous and interesting stories, classic books that broaden the mind and have an interesting message to ponder and which encourage wondering about how things could be different. There are so many really good books out there and the Sophomore English class is reading "Lord of the Flies"!! YUCK!!!!!

I've read some of the Lord of the Rings--not all of it but I LOVED the movies! I've been wanting to read it through but I haven't had the time to spend and I know I'd get caught up. My daughter read part of the trilogy in 9th grade. Her English teacher wanted to spend several class periods dissecting the symbolism of the story. Interesting. There is absolutely no symbolism in that story. It is merely a fascinating and engrossing story. It's so engrossing that it has had a following for 55 years! Amazing!

Unfortunately, neither of my children love to read. My daughter has learned to enjoy reading over the past year or so. When they were little, we read books every night. As they grew older, we moved into some wonderful fascinating juvenile stories. Emily Rodda has a wonderful story for late elementary school age that has its a quest, magic, strange creatures, an obvious villain and inspiring heroes. The Tales of Deltora held my children riveted for an entire summer. Then the following year had us reading everything that Emily Rodda had written including the follow up series of books--Dragons of Deltora and The Shadowlands. However, we read all these books together. They don't like to read on their own very much. Neither of them will pick up a book and sit and read for hours. That's how I entertained myself growing up and I still read as much as I possibly can. My sister and I joke that if we were stranded on a deserted island, we would have to write a book (now don't get realistic and ask on what) just so we would have something to read!!

Anyway, what is good literature? I know what I like. Not all of it is considered "good" literature by critics (what do critics know anyway?), but I enjoy reading it.