Reading classic literature is more valuable than contemporary fiction for developing critical thinking, but I've seen too many students glaze over Dickens while genuinely engaging with modern novels. My book club spent three months on Middlemarch and the conversations were rich, yet my 16-year-old niece analyzed a Colleen Hoover book with more psychological depth than I expected. Classics offer tested wisdom, but contemporary authors write about the world we actually inhabit. Does era really determine a book's power to sharpen our minds, or are we just romanticizing old books?