Treasure Island
...no, it's not what you think.

When I was about 14, my mum decided that I was reading the 'wrong' books - mostly non-fiction, newspapers or magazines, and needed an injection of Literature(tm). To that end she attempted to force me to read the aforementioned Treasure Island along with Kidnapped and The Hobbit.

In one of my earliest acts of teenage rebellion, I sped-read Treasure Island so fast I don't remember a thing to this day and simply pretended to read the other two. I carried on reading what I wanted to read, and continue to do so to this day. I don't think I've lost anything, quite frankly.

Refusing to read Treasure Island proved to me that I should develop my own voice as a reader, and, later, as a writer. I won't learn anything about language by reading 200 year-old books; English has moved on since then. You can learn more about effective use of English by reading a Charlie Brooker or Jeremy Clarkson column than you will from reading Shakespeare. And you won't gain any imagination from reading "classics" either, it's something you have or you don't. There's only about 6 basic plots anyway, and they're recycled over and over in every book, film and video game.

So now I write, not for a living (although I have been published once or twice, and, in my proudest moment ever, made the b3ta newsletter last week, yay!), but for joy and to express myself. Skill with English has always helped me in work, and as I have a fairly creative job at the moment I can derive satisfaction from that.

And I still haven't read Treasure pissing Island.
(Axeman Jim, Thu 15 May 2008, 19:46, Reply)