Author Richard Ford on reading classic literature

Richard Ford, award-winning author of the Frank Bascombe novels, talks to Minnesota Public Radio's Kerri Miller about his dyslexia and reading classic literature Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul, Minn. In Ford's new book "Let Me Be Frank With You," he reinvents Bascombe in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

[@JoachimderZweite]

When Americans say classics they never think of the Greeks or the Romans. A good friend of mine encouraged me to go on a great read which has been going strong for 58 years of reading.

[@77777aol]

Richard Ford never disappoints.

[@ryangerardcomedy425]

I love hearing writers talk about the craft

[@222333aaaaaa]

Yea, this was really interesting. I’m only just now getting into Ford’s writing

[@artiesolomon3292]

Bleak House is a terrific mystery, a little long but worth the trouble.

[@charlespeterson3798]

I like Ford, all the way back to Inside Sports, but he misses the mystery of time and being in E.H.

[@user-qb3jg8ep9t]

What a Chad!

[@johnalbert5786]

I didn’t anticipate Ford being jealous of Hemingway. Petty. Hemingway will still be a huge literary icon in 50 and 100 years.

[@albertog.8001]

I’m sorry Richard, but you can’t be more wrong: readers don’t read for engaging language. Readers read for living other people’s life, experimenting things that otherwise they would never lived, and to explore emotions and dive into thrill and put themselves in someone else’s shoes without the risk or the consequences of doing such things in real life. That’s why they read. That’s why we read. And it’s been like that since Homer and Virgil. And it’ll be like that for centuries. For ages. Forever.

[@JoachimderZweite]

There are so many bright lights. Why bother to interview this man - let him go read his unread books - slowly - that is read slowly not go slowly.

[@eedrelisdufrayne15]

You seem not to be a fan sir. yet here you are watching his videos. And not content with that - you are compelled to leave a pernicious comment. Bizarre behaviour. Why not save yourself the time and just not bother?

[@kelman727]

Because he won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. And your next question?