Everyday Canvas

Reading Is an Acquired Taste

Prompt: Think of something (book, movie, song or the like) that you once loved but over time it lost its appeal to you. Tell us about it and why did your feelings for it change.


The only book I remember in the context of liking and then not liking is a romance novel that belonged to my mother. At nine years of age, I stole it and read it, hiding under the table. Reading under the table hidden by the tablecloth with its skirts touching the rug was my modus operandi when it came to banned books. That book had practically no sexual content, except for a kissing scene or two, but still, it opened up another horizon for me. I thought, then, it was the best book ever.

When I turned fifteen, I read the same book again, and it was a flop, since at that time I was into Dostoyevsky and other Russian literature. For the life of me, I can’t remember the title of my mother’s book.

In any case, I don’t like reading the same thing twice, but I am now reading—again—Anne of Green Gables series and appreciating it more. This time, the tables have turned. I see the beautiful descriptions, the sense of place, the strong settings, and the characterization. Even if written for children, those stories are literature, from where I stand.

My reading taste is a complex phenomenon, since I read a lot. Truth is, I read a lot more than I write. Instead of the haphazard way I used to read in my childhood and early teens, my reading developed through my lit teachers in jr. high and high schools. I was lucky to have the same teacher for three years in a row, who was deeply into Russian and French literature. While we read the American and English authors in class, she took me aside and supplied me with the translations of Balzac, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy, etc. Those books became the base of how I judged others. For example, I found Mark Twain, then, to be lightweight in comparison. Nowadays, I am appreciating him more.

It used to be that I never left a book unread, even if I didn’t like it much in the beginning; however, with the beginning of the E-Book era, especially with carelessly written books, that practice has been reversed. When a mostly self-published book is unedited with bad to no characterization, I don’t bother with it any further. It is a pity that most writers, just to be published, take no care with their work. I think this practice cheapens our literature and is of no benefit to its writer.

On the other hand, there are some self-published, well-written books that can easily rival Pulitzer winners in the past. In this way, e-books are great because they have given voice to authors who, otherwise, would find their manuscripts in the slush piles of the self-serving publishing companies.

Every reader has a different taste, which might have been stamped by his backstory or ego. Literary taste is usually developed as a preference for the artistic against the inartistic, but even that depends on the person’s interests and experiences.

I think one thing that is shared by all reading tastes is a sensitivity to language and everything that has to do with being human. In this way, it is the most evocative of all other intellectual dynamics.