Robertson Davies' [0] lecture, "Reading" (1990), has a nice a answer to the intro of this post: > Our grandparents used to say that we must eat a peck of dirt

Robertson Davies' [0] lecture, "Reading" (1990), has a nice a answer to the intro of this post: > Our grandparents used to say that we must eat a peck of dirt before we die, and they were right. And you must read a lot of rubbish before you die, as well, because an exclusive diet of masterpieces will give you spiritual dyspepsia. How can you know that a mountain peak is glorious if you have never scrambled through a dirty valley? How do you know that your gourmet meal is perfect of its kind if you have never eaten a roadside hot dog? If you want to know what a masterpiece The Pilgrim's Progress is, read Bonfire of the Vanities, and if you have any taste -- which of course may not be the case -- you will quickly find out. So I advise you, as well as reading great books that I have been talking about, read some current books and periodicals. They will help you to take the measure of the age in which you live. (I encourage reading the whole lecture [1]! It's a fun read and there are a lot of great bits in there that I could have quoted here. But I contented myself with just the one excerpt.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Davies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_Davies [1] https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_resources/documents/a-to-z/d/davies92.pdf https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_resources/documents/a-to-z/...