Illustration by Josh Hagler

Keats, Dickens, Hemingway, Steinbeck. Back in grade school, these authors were an integral part of the required reading. They gave us delicious morsels of intelligence that provided subjects for endless essays and analyses.

But as college students, we find that Western authors, while influential in their own right, are not the center of literature. In fact, the broader spectrum of world authors is overlooked and often ignored.

This ignorance spreads into all aspects of life. The written word has an underestimated power that can transcend the lines of rich and poor, black and white, religious differences and country boundaries.

I love reading the Western literary geniuses, but it is also important and fun to read the Eastern authors as well. An analogy to explain my train of thought would be: When you go to a buffet, how boring would it be to eat the same old burgers and fries? It's much more satisfying to at least taste what else is out there.

Reading international novels is as important to your brain as is having many different tastes for your tongue. Sometimes the meaning of these novels can be lost in translation, but these books have something extraordinary considering someone took the time and energy to translate them into English.

I was recently introduced to the books of a fabulous Egyptian author and Nobel Prize winner: Naguib Mahfouz. I began to read his "Cairo Trilogy," which follows a family living in early 20th-century Cairo, and was instantly hooked. One particular chapter discussed one of the sons, Kamal, who wanted to be a philosopher.

He believed in learning about theories of life beyond the Islamic teachings taught in Egypt, and he wrote an article called "The Origin of Man" and discussed Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

When his very religious father read it, he became beyond furious. He yelled at poor Kamal about how the theory was against Islam and how he should apologize and write only to shed light on the truth, not "Satan's teachings."

As I read the story, I began to think about how some ideas were and still are taboo for discussion in schools all over the world. We are lucky in America to have free rein over what we read and write - we should take full advantage of this right.

Unfortunately, this freedom is accompanied by laziness and ignorance. Some people simply choose not to read beyond what they have to, and others pretend that Western authors are the only ones that really matter to our society. This encourages dangerous thinking since our society was born from a foreign womb, just as all major American authors were direct or indirect children of immigrants. But still, people refuse to read.

This lack of education leads to many of society's problems of hatred, prejudice and war. If we only felt it mandatory to read about other cultures as much as our own, then we might not encounter as many problems. The spread of information on the Internet goes to show how much more accessible knowledge is today than in the past. It's all at our fingertips; we can't keep our hands clenched with the satisfaction that our education is complete.

I wish that when we learned about Western poets and philosophy in high school, we also were required to learn Eastern teachings. It is sad to say as a general public that we don't know too much about the "other" side of the world, although in reality those people are just like us. Now President Bush's broad declaration of the "axis of evil" probably further widened the gaps, but I urge you all to read up on the countries that our government is unfairly alienating. Despite whatever their corrupt governments do, there are college students there just like you and me trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. I bet you they know who Dickens and Hemingway are. Chinese students know what the difference is between California and New York, but what do we know about what differentiates the Chinese provinces of Gansu from Jilin?

Ignorance isn't justified. Reading, or any other form of gaining information, is essential to a harmonious existence on this Earth. Open your hand and never be satisfied.