The Canon that has Served me Well

I am an elitist. I'm not saying it's a good thing; I'm just saying that it's what I am. I am discriminating in my taste of books, and rarely deviate from the literary canon, or at the very least, the good opinions of those friends I think should be allowed to have them. I really do prefer a good red wine, and French pressed coffee. Maybe I'm using the term too loosely, but there it is; I am an elitist.
But I have to wonder what's lost when I ignore culture. If you want to find out what people are reading, you go to the best seller list, or pick up one of many shmarmy romance novels/ mystery thrillers. If you want to know what they're watching, you turn on CBS.  If you want to know what they're eating, you go to your nearest obliging Applebee's. Who doesn't go to Applebees? Or Walmart for that matter. You can find every type of person in a Walmart.
I don't really know what I'm trying to say. I have never once had a desire to read a novel from the romance section (except maybe a little), and I stopped pulling from the best seller list a long time ago.  I guess it's just that there is this whole group of people out there that I've ruled out and I don't think I like that. Everyone has value. Glee is a pretty damn good show if you like choral music. Sometimes, people in the top forty deserve to be there. Only sometimes, but sure.
So I guess you could call this my new year's resolution. And no I don't mean that I resolve to eat at Applebees more often. I might read a romance novel this year just to see what's up. But the point is, I resolve to care less, and maybe in doing so, become a little more open to the weirdly wonderful complexity of life that lies in the ordinary.