What would Shakespeare think?

Have you ever seen some of the books on today's bestseller lists? Last week, Barnes and Nobles' bestseller list included Paul McKenna's, "I Can Make You Thin." This week, "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man," by Steve Harvey. Call me crazy, but I don't think people will be reading "I Can Make You Thin" in the Norton Anthology two hundred years from now. I'm sure Shakespeare and Whitman would be rolling over in their graves if they ever saw what our society regards as top sellers these days.

On the other hand, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga has been a phenomenal hit that has undoubtedly deserved to be on bestsellers' lists since day one. Nonetheless, I'm sure plenty would argue with me that it is pure absurdity that Meyer would be ranked as a topseller for so long, or for that matter, at all. I guess not everyone is destined to be a Twilighter much like myself.

But will Meyer be considered a classic years and years from now? Will people be studying J.K. Rowling in high school English classes? Will Stephen King be a required literature course as Shakepspeare is now? Will Shel Silverstein's famous children's poetry still be read in the year 2984? Will Cormac McCarthy's intense thrillers be a required topic of term papers in the 22nd century?

These are just some of the ideas that pop through my head as I push aside my Shakespeare book to pop open my copy of Breaking Dawn, the last in Meyer's vampire romance saga. Times have clearly changed the way people write and what we enjoy reading. At the same time, as good as Stephenie Meyer and Cormac McCarthy may be, I have a hard time imagining people calling them classics one hundred plus years from now. In reality, can they even compare to the brilliance of Shakespeare? I find it morally wrong to even rank Homer's "The Iliad" with McCarthy's "The Road" though I unquestionably love both.

So what will the classics be?