Dog-Eared Classics

In your March 2012 issue, I read of the death of one of my classmates, Tania Lipschutz ’68, who was as attractive in her photo as I remembered from 45 years ago.

I also remember the books listed by Bill Nelson ’62 in “Dog-Eared Classics” in the same issue. They are the same ones I read 45 years ago. I suppose Tania had them on her bookshelves, too. Why, though, are people reading them now? Are these the only books for sale at Bill’s “Marketplace of Ideas”?

Hesse and Asimov and Yogananda were stimulating in their time, but I’ve moved on. I discovered that there were women writers, that there were science fiction books published in the last four decades, that some minority writers published good books, too. I understand that the titles on this list are not supposed to be new, but these “classics” represent what young white men read in the 1950s.

Bohemia is a lovely place, but I wish it were more inclusive.

—Suzanne Greenfield Griffith ’66

Bremerton, Washington

Editor's Note: The purpose of that (all-too-brief) list was to show that certain titles and authors have remained student favorites for 50 years. Bill says today’s Reed students are passionate about a wide range of authors, including Emily Dickinson, Anais Nin, Jane Austen, Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, Ursula LeGuin, and Barbara Ehrenreich ’62.