No classics, you say? Really?

I recently completed an online survey on a fellow blogger’s website that asked a series of different questions about my social mores, political views and pastime activities. At the end of the survey, you are not only presented with your results – and a sophisticated analysis of the kind of person that makes you – but also with a separate ranking that highlights your answers that, when compared to other respondents’ results, are fobbed off as “uncommon”.

In the reading category, for example, I answered that I do read the “classics”. Apparently, fewer than 4 percent of those who had completed the survey before me shared my penchant for good literature and beautiful prose.

I learned from the general analysis of the existing results that the vast majority of respondents before me were Americans. While Canadians, and generally any non-Americans, look down their noses on Americans and their sense of culture, I was still shocked to see such a low percentage.