Listening to one of my favorite podcasts, in which experts and outliers give advice. My main complaint? "I only read classics/literature/real fiction." Look, y'all know Dickens was pulp and Willy Shakes wrote for the plebes, right? All fiction is real. We're wired for story.

Any time I hear, "I only read [thing that sounds erudite], that's -10 influence lost. You're telling me you look down on imagination, creativity, exploration, adventure, relaxation. Just because reading isn't 'work' doesn't mean it's not valuable.

I'm now imagining a future culture discovering ours and seeing which books pop up the most across libraries and bookstores and private collections. "Hm. Yes. Those 21st century people were into Twilight and Nora Roberts. These are the new classics for our era's intelligentsia."

Read what makes you happy. If a book isn't floating your boat at 20 pages, give it away. Don't feel like reading a certain kind of book will make you smarter/appear smarter or silly/dumb/lesser. There's value in any book, whether it makes you deeply probe your humanity or giggle.

And some books-- many of the best books-- are going to make you uncomfortable. They're going to tackle uncomfortable subjects that need to be considered and will make you question your humanity and prejudices. Those are worth reading, too. That's why we teach them at school.

Taking this to a dark, personal place, The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper contributed to my suicide attempt in high school, while Tom Robbins, Stephen King, Jean Auel, Diana Gabaldon, Douglas Adams, and Charlaine Harris later helped me navigate the encroaching darkness.