I was shocked when Grace told me that she didn't know that The Lord of the Rings was a classic. Or rather, I was surprised that she was surprised when I told her it was. It happened like this: she noticed a copy of The Two Towers on my bookshelf, and when she asked about it, I told her the story of how last December, we had gone on a wild goose chase in search of a movie that wasn't playing anymore, and everyone else ended up watching lord of the rings, but i refused, since i hadn't read the book yet, so i went home by myself instead. Hoang was for some reason fixated on this incident, and eventually ended up buying me a copy of the two towers, to "aid me in my adventure" through the lord of the rings. So Grace said, are you like this for every movie? and I said, no, but this book is a classic, at which point we had to go into what "classic" meant, and why I thought it was one (and why Jonathan didn't), and the fact that it was actually written decades ago was all new information to her. At any rate, I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that people here are less familiar with English-language literature. I guess I never thought about it before. But still, it's kind of sad that, for some people, the only exposure they'll get to lord of the rings is through hollywood.