Film has a similar problem—there are plausibly low-thousands existing films worth my time, a whole lot of them 30+ years old. I could never watch a film made after 2000 and not run out of good entertainment in my lifetime. They’re damn lucky the Mouse got copyright extended to a century or more.
I will say that it seems entirely possible to relatively quickly see all US animated kids movies …
Decent or better ones… maybe.
There’s a deep bench of poor-to-terrible animated kids’ movies that were straight to VHS/DVD/streaming. For god’s sake, there are like nine Land Before Time movies alone.
It's hard to even find a list; and some are pretty decent, for what they are.
By avoiding current authors or media you miss out on the cultural story and critique/commentary that influences all our media. Sure, the last 5000 years are interesting, but isn't right now pretty amazing too? You might accidently read the best book ever written but you won't know until history plays out. But I think it's important to see how recent history has shaped the narrative of the worlds authors in today's world.
Weve lived through a lot of major events. Everyone does. But these are our events.
[edit] or, hell, not even major. Odds that a recommended-by-people-online got-some-hype-in-review-rags new book is gonna make me happier to have read it than, say, a 2nd-tier Maugham or Faulkner or something? Not great.
I sometimes read/watch/play something if a friend recommends it. But I've no time/interest in sorting through the random deluge of media in the hope of finding diamonds. I'll let someone else find the diamond and tell me about it.
It would have to be a technical book on a subject I'm interested in (and even then moderately rare) or something that someone I know well personally strongly recommended.
Wow. Can't wait for the next Harry Potter / Avatar / Celebrity book / Spiderman movie !!!!11!!!1! Great works!
> but isn't right now pretty amazing too?
No.
Have to say I'm kind of surprised about the bibles part. Aren't those usually printed by smaller church-associated publishers?
welcome our overlords.
Seems almost poetic, somehow.