Disliking Books is an article written by Gerald Graff. In the article that Graff discusses his transformation from hating and fearing the whole spectrum reading any kind of serious books, to becoming a college professor. According to Graff, he was unable to relate to any books other than comic books, and sports magazines. Graff recalled that the ethnically mixed neighborhood that he grew up in put him in danger of getting beat up by the rougher children that considered bookworms to be sissys. Graff’s father was frustrated with him for not reading, he kept him supplied with a variety to read. The books that his father would bring would excite the average person, they included: the hardy boys, detective, adventure, war and scientific discovery. Graff contended that out of all the various subjects he …show more content…
He had no interest in law or medicine and found himself in the liberal arts and surprisingly majoring in English. Graff learned to deal with his reading problem and managed to get good grades and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1959. Graff admitted that he didn’t finish reading any of the assigned classics, this included the contemporary works of Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald, whose work was said to be close this own experience. Graff didn’t find anything that he could relate to from any of these authors work. When called on to discuss his assigned reading in class, Graff was extremely uncomfortable, and didn’t feel he had the intellectualism or vocabulary to present his assignments. According to Graff it was several years of transformation that made history and literature and other intellectual purists interesting. Graff points out that it wasn’t until after his first teaching position at the University of New Mexico, and then Northwestern University he became interested in critical