National Geographic guilt

That's Shelly Reuben's term for a certain kind of good intentions, in a column at The Evening Sun (Norwich, New York). Among the other examples, alas...

"And since I’m throwing my intellect under the bus, I may as well admit to the worst indignity of all. The Great Books of the Western World. I have the complete 54 volume set. I positioned them on special shelves that fit inside a beautiful mantelpiece that occupies pride of place in my living room. They are opposite an over-stuffed armchair, which I have designated as my “learning center” for when I actually sit down to read them.

"Listen to the authors. Hear me, oh my brethren, as I articulate their names: Homer. Plato. Aristotle. Virgil. Aristophanes. Plutarch. Aquinas. Dante. Machiavelli. Chaucer. Locke. Milton. Spinoza. Galileo. Goethe. Darwin. Freud. And more, more, more.

"In my imagination, the wisdom, knowledge, irony, philosophy, epistemology, and poetry of these writers have illuminated every crack and crevice of my mind. In fact, however, all of the books remain crammed on my shelves, their spines un-cracked; their pages unread."