What is Literature?

some says it's the cannon. those books that have stood the test of time and remained valueable. why do they make it? various reasons include:

• someone values them and keeps them around.
• people relate to them--enduring themes.

The reason we like best avoids the hypocrisy of former prejudice, etc.

Enduring Themes:

Though each one of us must make our own way through life's obstacles, answering the same questions in millions of unique ways, life contains pretty much the same ingredients for everyone--trials, troubles, some joy, companionship, love, disappointment, dreams, hopes, peace, etc.

some books are easy to read (things fall apart) some have lessons more obvious than others (the alchemist). does this mean they're not literature? some have stricter definitions, but for our purposes, as long as the reading is valuable, we include it in our broad definition. we don't care about the opinions of stuffy old English professors and the ancient cannon as we can't see much use in adopting their views.