I like to read Classics myself, but sometimes I indulge in more recent publications if I think there's merit to it and isn't simply recycled garbage. As others had put, most people don't bother to read in general so the fact you're doing so is already something that puts you out of the ordinary category. People also don't tend to think critically either, which is also rather stupid when it comes to reading in general. It should stir your mind to think thoughts that it might not otherwise entertain, but you should be able to accept or reject them on your own.
I remember one time I got in an argument because this woman who was all about literature went on about how J.D. Salinger and Albert Camus were wonderful writers and how she loved Catcher in the Rye. My sin was that I told her that I thought it was overrated and that Holden Caulfield was not "genius" but just an obnoxious teenager, and was also unimpressed with Camus. I don't remember if it was The Stranger or the Plague that was being discussed, either way the books didn't do much for me and I dared to challenge the notion that he was as great as a writer as men like Goethe.
As somebody else already said, just because you read the same books doesn't mean you necessarily have to think the same, and most people just parrot the same opinions because that's what "educated" people do and is a way of virtue signalling.
I remember one time I got in an argument because this woman who was all about literature went on about how J.D. Salinger and Albert Camus were wonderful writers and how she loved Catcher in the Rye. My sin was that I told her that I thought it was overrated and that Holden Caulfield was not "genius" but just an obnoxious teenager, and was also unimpressed with Camus. I don't remember if it was The Stranger or the Plague that was being discussed, either way the books didn't do much for me and I dared to challenge the notion that he was as great as a writer as men like Goethe.
As somebody else already said, just because you read the same books doesn't mean you necessarily have to think the same, and most people just parrot the same opinions because that's what "educated" people do and is a way of virtue signalling.