What is a Classic?

In my attempt to vary my reading, I've decided to include classics. But what is a classic? Is it something written before 1900? This question came up after I finished reading the very bloody and brutal Die Trying by Lee Child. It is the second in the series. My brother loves these books and if you don't mind the random acts of incredible violence, they are pretty engrossing. This one involves a kidnapping that has inadvertently included the protagonist of the series, Jack Reacher. He's a match for any kidnapper on the face of the earth, but the target of the act is a woman who has recently hurt her knee and needs to be protected. You know that Jack will succeed in the end, because this is the second of many. But a lot of fairly innocent or at least incredibly gullible people are savaged along the way.

One fun fact is that the majority of the book takes place in Montana. I know Montana now! One of the FBI agencies involved is in Butte. The Chicago FBI make fun of that until they get there and see how pretty it is. At least, that's how I interpreted the dialogue. Traveling makes reading more interesting, and vice-versa.


To get the heavy taste of brutality out of my mouth, I decided to read one of the classics in my library, Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. It's a classic, right? Well, at least it isn't on the current best seller's list. It was written in 1936, between the two wars. My mom was 16. Did she read this when it was on the best seller's list? I hope so. It was another one of those romance novels that have been creeping into my library. It was a suspense/mystery novel as well; a nice antidote to mindless killing. Although, a little killing does take place. It takes place in one of the moors of Southern England. Adrian and I went there when we were traveling through the island. He was 9. We saw the wild moor ponies that are referred to in the book. We didn't see the darkly intriguing Jem or the Jamaica Inn. But I could add those touches to my memory.


And I finally almost finished The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb. This book starts well and then keeps circling around the major thesis. Over and over and over. Can you buy a half of a book? It's taken me forever to read because he has a point, that the world is looking at the probability of something happening, trying to use formulas to predict the future, then suddenly a black swan appears and throws the calculations off. But he explains it from every angle. What are examples of black swans? Let me tell you and explain why they are black swans. What is probability? What is the future? Why do people want to predict what's going to happen? What happens when you make the wrong assumption?

And on and on and on. Okay, it's not like I have anything better to do than read this. Humm, maybe I do. What's the probability that by not reading the very end, I've missed some major point? Only statistics can tell.