Why you should read the classics
Distilling books - Number 11
Welcome to Mental Garden. The following letter is part of our “Distilling Books” collection, in which we extract the most revealing ideas from literature. For the complete library, click here.
🏷️ Categories: Literature.
There are two types of readers.
Those who enthusiastically dive into the latest bestseller on display, and those who, from time to time, pause and turn their gaze toward timeless, classic books.
This letter is for the first group.
For those who love to read, but feel distant from the classics. For those who believe that there are already “more important books to read,” or who think they lack the focus or background needed to immerse themselves in those pages that seem so dense.
And yet...
What if I told you that the classics are more relevant today than ever?
In his essay Why Read the Classics, writer and journalist Italo Calvino offers reasons to prioritize these works over your endless “to-read” list. You’ll see why they are more influential—and, paradoxically, more current—than many new books.
Here are the 5 essential reasons why you should read classic literature.
1. They are nexhaustible
“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” — Italo Calvino
Classics are classics because they are inexhaustible.
A modern book is usually limited to its plot. You read it, you understand it, and you move on. A classic? Not at all. Every time you reread it, it tells you something new—something you didn’t see before, something you didn’t even know you needed to hear, quietly waiting for you there.
Why?
Because they evolve with you and offer multiple interpretations. Because they are written in different layers of depth, and you, as a reader, can only access certain layers when your life experience—emotional or intellectual—allows you to do so.
Calvino puts it this way: “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”
The Divine Comedy by Dante can be read as an adventure, a poetic theology, or a political allegory—depending on the reader.
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky can be read as a thriller, a moral dilemma, or a philosophical treatise on repentance.
King Lear by Shakespeare can be a family tragedy, a reflection on power, a metaphor for madness, or an essay on aging and betrayal.
And this is what separates an old book from a classic one. A classic still has much to say, despite the passage of time; an old book does not. The Lindy Effect does this filtering over time and across generations of readers.
That’s why Plato’s Dialogues are as relevant today as the current bestseller.
2. They Are the Foundation of Culture and History
“Classics come to us bearing the traces of previous readings […] and they themselves have left their mark on the cultures they’ve passed through.” — Calvino
A classic never comes alone.
It arrives with its historical context, with centuries of readers who have read, reread, criticized, loved, misinterpreted, and turned it into a symbol. Reading The Odyssey today is not just reading Homer. It’s reading everything Odysseus has come to represent in Western culture: adventure, return, cunning, nostalgia. It’s reading the countless versions of the hero retold in novels, films, poems, and essays.
The same is true for Kafka, for instance.
When you read him, you can’t help but think of the adjective “Kafkaesque.” His style and themes have become a literary category in their own right. This “cultural aura” that surrounds the classics is an invitation to join a much broader conversation about humanity’s culture and history.
Understanding a work in its context enriches the experience even more.
3. They Help You Define Yourself
“Your classic is a book you cannot remain indifferent to, and that helps define you in relation to—or even in opposition to—it.” — Calvino
A classic is a cornerstone.
It’s the book that forces you to take a stance. You can’t be indifferent to it; it makes you say: “I agree,” or “I can’t stand this idea,” or “this speaks to me even though I don’t want it to.” These are high-value works because they make you question your own beliefs.
Calvino himself experienced this with Rousseau.
He read him to argue with him, to contradict him. Still, he couldn’t stop reading him because he always found arguments either to defend his own point of view or to admit that, in some ways, Rousseau was right. And there’s more… they help you understand modern issues from a different angle.
You read Frankenstein and see how it anticipated debates about artificial intelligence.
You read The Brothers Karamazov and understand where today’s moral dilemmas come from.
They help you connect the dots—to see the roots of everything you’re reading now.
In fact, many modern bestsellers are nothing more than ideas from classic books, rewritten in a simpler format for contemporary readers.
4. They Lighten the Weight of the Present
“A classic is a work that relegates the noise of the present to a background hum.” — Calvino
We live in an oversaturated world.
Endless information. Opinions about everything. Trends that last 24 hours. In the midst of this avalanche, reading a classic is an act of resistance. It’s slowing down and tuning in to a quieter, more reflective voice.
I experienced this with Plato.
His dialogues operate on another level. They show you how today’s seemingly urgent, noisy issues are actually fleeting discussions. When you read him, the present feels smaller, more understandable, more relative. You gain perspective.
The same happens with Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Reading Meditations in the 21st century—amid emails, packed schedules, and notifications—is like sitting down to talk with someone from another era… who nonetheless fully understands your struggles.
Calvino doesn’t propose abandoning the present—he proposes balance.
“To read the classics, we must first understand from where we are reading them; otherwise, both the book and the reader will be lost.” — Calvino
Only then can you truly know the present and grasp the weight of current events.
5. They Teach You How to Truly Read
“Schools make us believe that criticism is more important than the text. But no book that talks about another book says more than the book itself.” — Calvino
Many readers feel distant from the classics because they were introduced as something inaccessible or reserved for “experts.” But Calvino clearly states that prologues, analyses, and bibliographies are useful only if they don’t replace the direct experience of the text.
Reading a classic without intermediaries is the highest form of connection.
It’s the book speaking to you, not the commentary about it.
And if you need help—great! A solid analysis, historical guide, or well-explained context can elevate your reading to another level. It will help you see invisible connections, implications you hadn’t considered, and open your eyes to themes you didn’t know interested you. But everything begins with the direct encounter with the text.
Use external resources to deepen your understanding, but read the original book.
That’s when the classic begins its real work: teaching you what true reading is.
Reading classics isn’t an obligation—but it is a way to take care of yourself in this fast-paced world. It helps you see beyond passing trends and converse with the brightest minds of other eras.
And if you still hesitate, remember this story about Socrates:
“While the hemlock was being prepared, Socrates was learning a melody on the flute. ‘What use will that be to you?’ he was asked. ‘To know this melody before I die,’ Socrates replied.” — Emil Cioran
That’s how useless it seems.
That’s how urgent it feels.
That’s how deeply human it is to sit down and read something that serves no purpose… except to remind you who you are.
✍️ Now it’s your turn: So—what will your next classic be?
💭 Quote of the Day: “Literature was the only religion his father practiced. When a book fell to the floor, he would kiss it. When he finished a book, he’d try to give it to someone who would love it.” — Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
See you in the next letter, read a lot in the meantime! 👋
References 📚
Calvino, I. (2014). Why Read the Classics?
My college experience was rather haphazard to say the least, but I did benefit to some extent by one or two excellent professors. That said, I bought sets of classics and engaged many of those books as if I'd picked them up at the local bookstore. I read them without supplemental material, taking their stories and characters in as if they were "bestsellers," which at the time they were written, many of them were sold. At that time, people who were literate at all, which wasn't the majority of society, read them in the evenings as entertainmnent. Frankenstein's Monster, Lade Chatterley's Love, Wutherings Heights, Secret Garden, etc etc. were not deep tomes for professorial analysis, but were pleasurable readings for those brief leisurely periods over a glass of sherry or a cup of tea. I truly enjoyed those books with that in mind so I wouldn't feel burdened with academic expectations. And watching movies made from the classic stories has helped me develop a visual library of the eras in which they took place and offered meat for discussion with others about the differences in how various media approach the stories.
thank you, alvaro. it's all so meaningful, what you explain. i like the journey of the hero so often found in classic and modern literature. that motif is everywhere, today. i recall a gifted teacher of mine in high school saying that any voyage saga (the iliad, for example, or jason and his argonauts) is an exploration of the subconscious. the ocean, our subconscious. i like what you said; classic literature can help to slow us down in the frenzied world we are in. keep going. i so much enjoy your essays. j.