"Why Read the Classics?" #4

In Italo Calvino's essay "Why Read the Classics?", there were several passages that stood out to me and caught my attention. The first idea I noticed was all of the definitions that Calvino put in his essay. My favorite definition is on the fourth page of the essay. It says that classic books are ones that exercise the reader's imagination, and they will never forget it. That book will always be in their memory.

"3. The classics are books which exercise a particular influence, both when they imprint themselves on our imagination as unforgettable, and then they hide in the layers of memory disguised as the individual's or the collective unconscious."

Writing out definitions of classic books is one thing that stood out to me. Another thing that I noticed and admired was how Calvino used examples of other authors and their writing. An example of this is on page 143 of the essay. He used an excerpt from the diary of young Cesare Pavese. This shows that he admires other authors and their work. And that is what I admire about Calvino. There were many other things that caught my attention in this essay, but these were the two things that I enjoyed the most about "Why Read the Classics?"