but george o'hare's books are as witty as jane austen, similar to it. it is a shame to dismiss such books without really having tried them. the point of this book, classics for pleasure, is to encourage people to try different kinds of classics because there's a lot of pleasure to be had from this. >> editor at the washington post, washington post book world, nearly 30 years, you have four prior books about reading. when did you -- what was your reading habits as a kid? >> my mother taught me to read before i started kindergarten. i came from a very working-class steel town. my parents were not readers. my father was a steelworker. as i grew older, i read more and more, he would occasionally get annoyed by this and would order me down to the basement to build something, or outside to play. he wasn't sure he likes his own son becoming such a book worm. they had mixed feelings about it but the more he was critical of my reading, when you are young teenager, the more you want to do it. if parents don't like it must be cool, so i did it more and more often.