Everyone is familiar with classic books – most think they’re long, boring and hard to get through.

Older books such as Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein are some of the most well known classics. Then there are books like The Catcher In The Rye, Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby that are classic books read in school. These books are considered not just classics but standards for specific genres. 

So, why? There are hundreds of ‘great’ books out there, but why these books?

A classic book is simply a piece of writing that has made a huge contribution to literature, and represents whatever genre it’s written in. Theoretically, these books are superior, lasting, and timeless. 

So how did these authors accomplish such a thing? What makes their book so special? The number of copies sold? Pure talent? Or maybe just popularity? 

Italo Calvino, an Italian writer and journalist, addresses classic books in his 1991 collection of essays, Why Read the Classics? 

In these essays, he explains a certain criteria for what makes a book classic. To Calvino, there are 14 ways in which a book can be made a classic. These include discovery, previous interpretations, culture, and representation. 

He says that, “A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.” 

After reading this book (or merely flipping through his reasons), it makes sense why people continue to study these books years after they were written. Discovery and originality is what makes these books classic. 

However, a classic doesn’t have to be something written hundreds of years ago. With these standards, any book that has a significant impact on an individual could be considered a classic.