Narrowmindedness will make you Dead.

Do you really think Dan Brown wanted anything but to make money? He used to Hollywood formula of "take an old story and make it newer" with the Da Vinci Code--which is my epitome of Pop Novel Trash. Sure, it's a gay romp through the land of Illuminati and fictitious bullshit, but so is National Treasure. I'd much rather waste two and a half hours of my life watching Nicholas Cage battle for the Declaration of Independence, than spend three days with the protagonist of the Da Vinci Code. No, I have not read the book. So what? With all the hype it's getting, and the fact that a movie was made of it a little over a year later says that its job as a novel was completed; but it's job as a work of literature was not.

With that ideal I propose a ban on Pop Novel Trash. Buy not, borrow not, rent not, steal not novels from authors like Danielle Steel, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, the author of Artemis Fowl or the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (They're CHILDRENS novels), all of the Romance Section, all of the Mystery Section, all of the Graphic Novel Section, all of the Science Fiction section. Focus yourself on finding yourself in Literature. This may seem radical, this may seem harsh, but, really, do you want to waste your time on a book then say, "Well, that was fun" or do you want to say, "That book changed my life." I like the latter.
As a blanket, don't buy books at Grocery Stores, Targets, or Walmarts but rather at Borders or Barnes and Nobles or, better yet, online where they're cheaper and there's a better selection. Border's pisses me off with their small Philosophy section. And the fact a whole shelf of it is devoted to the Philosophy of Buffy and Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.
The books you read in class are literature. Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath--Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Kerouac, Thoureau, Bronte, O'Brien (loosely), Rand, Eliot, Hughes, Frost (even though I don't like his poetry, you may). These are novelists who had something to fucking say, not money to be made. And we teenagers hate them for it. I swear to God, we're one ignorant bunch of adolescents. I hope we grow out of it.

To be frank, Oprah's book club is a good reference point for good books. So the hell what if James Frey is a liar? He's an author. We stretch. But East of Eden and Night and the other books. Good jumping points.

Read Pop Novel Trash as a mental catalyst, but don't dwell in the shitfields for too long because you will gain nothing but lost time. At this point in our lives, dear brethren, we should be reading true novels to inspire us, to make us think. We need to think in our TV age and computer age. We need to live in our TV age and computer age. Novels offer up such a multi-faceted, universal knowledge that is so relative to the reader. Watch an episode of the Mythbusters of the Discovery channel and you'll get the same message: blowing stuff up kicks ass. Read "Portrait of a Lady" by T.S. Eliot and you'll come out with different interpretations of what the symbolism means to you.
I'm writing this as a commission since we are the writers of tomorrow. Sure, the writers of today severely fucked up--but we can change that. We are the future, you know. And the future isn't as bleak as some would think. There will be books and they will be written by us.
So for Christ's sake, write something worth reading; write something that's more than a story. It's like Jack Kerouac said, "I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down." We are all the same. So fish down as deep as you can and spin the greatest tales of Universiality that you can. Put your biases not aside but on paper. Put your prejudice not aside but on paper. Put your thoughts not aside and into a couch or unto a television but on paper.

This is my commission to you, my brothers, sisters, lovers, liars, sinners, failures, losers, users, undyingly faithful, tirelessly hopeful. It's up to you to bring literature back unto the forefront of culture. Write something. Make something. Start something. It's like Smalls' mom said in the Sandlot, "Scrape your knees, get dirty, get into trouble for crying out loud!"