Calvino's "Why Read the Classics?" Reaction

Overall I enjoyed reading "Why Read the Classics?" by Italo Calvino. The layout of a definition and then one or two paragraphs that follow is a nice touch to the essay, considering most essays are just a bunch of paragraphs. In the essay, authors and reading were the two main subjects. I enjoyed reading about the different authors that Calvino talked about. One person that he mentioned a few times is "Leopardi" who was the only author from Italian literature that he actually cited in his paper. I feel that Calvino was trying to encourage people to read the classics but also other books. Reading this sentence made me think this, "All that can be done is for each one of us to invent our own ideal library of our classics; and I would say that one half of it should consist of books we have read and that have meant something for us, and the other half of books which we intend to read and which we suppose might mean something to us." (Calvino 9) This essay made me have both an emotional and a logical reaction to it. My emotional reaction was that I like to read and he doesn't say you HAVE to read the classics, but that you can choose other books to call your own classics. My logical reaction was that he talks about all different authors and classics while giving definitions of the word "classics." Italo Calvino did a wonderful job writing this essay.

Calvino, Italo. "Why Read the Classics." Lecture.