The Jungle has entered the chat

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich has entered the chat

Many works of literature are absolutely not there to do something as paltry as "to entertain". You having "fun" reading The Color Purple or The Bluest Eye?

You write so much, but you say almost nothing. Many great writers produced timeless works at 21, and especially given that 21 was different 200 years ago versus today's 21.

And yes, there are hypothetical great novels that never made it to a publisher. Confederacy of Dunces was only published after the deceased author's mom pressed the manuscript on a reviewer.

And yet Jane Austen is well known, and I doubt we've ever heard of any of your work. To say nothing about being a woman back then and having opinions about the economics of marriage

Can confirm that small town kids can be different, especially in more rural areas.

Little known fact, but Agatha Christie was a prolific serial killer.

The answer is "cocaine"

About the only reason I would burn a book is if it was that damaged and unreadable on a physical level, and that I guess I needed the warmth.

Otherwise even with "harmful" books, I can see their use if at least as an example of something. I studied Holocaust denial in grad school (the phenomenon and how to debunk it), so even hateful garbage like that I wouldn't burn.