J Daniel Sawyer has a long but very interesting post up titled Literary Studies, Anyone?, discussing the dubious value of formal Literary Studies.

Having been a biology major, I freely confess I snarled my way through the required “literature” classes in college and otherwise avoided the English Department. It’s not that I don’t like “literature,” (see my post in which I am head-over-heels for the novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle). It’s just that my idea of a great book didn’t include much of what I was required to read in college. On the positive side, we were required to read books, but not to analyze them.

My only experience with analysis is second hand, via an honors class my daughter took in high school. I talk about it in this post, Pick Books You Like. We learn to be avid readers when we like what we read–and we learn to be writers by reading, by studying diverse fields, and by writing, writing, writing.