There are some things that I would like to hide about myself. I have a few guilty pleasures, a couple little obsessions and one or two nasty habits that I indulge in behind closed doors. Conversely, I have a few things that I absolutely detest, yet pretend to adore for the sake of others’ opinions and my own reputation.

For example, I really try to be an academic. I make honest attempts to watch the classics and documentaries, but quite frankly, I fell asleep during Citizen Kane three times. On the other hand, I am positively smitten with Gossip Girl. And I don’t just watch one episode of Gossip Girl at a time—no, no, I wait and TVD that thing so I can just have hours of drama at my disposal and eat Cheetos while I am doing it.

Perhaps it is especially because I am an English major, but I feel this certain pressure to read only classic literature. Because of this self-induced stress on my reading selection, the idea of simply choosing a book fills me with a dull dread. It takes me hours, days and sometimes weeks to narrow my reading choice down to a single book due to a condition that I have self-diagnosed as snobbery.

Trust me, I researched it etymologically in the Oxford English Dictionary, read about it in perfect iambic pentameter in Shakespeare’s sonnets, found some cross references in some of Faulkner’s stream of consciousness, finally read a newspaper article about it (and I only read The New York Times) and my symptoms very closely resemble snobbery. It must have a recognizable title and a reputable author and be well known among my peers and be well known among my professors and be able to generate talking points. So even if it looks bloody horrible (like 1,000 Years of Solitude), I am going to read it and I am going to like it.

The question becomes, where am I as an individual in my book selection? And why? Why should I read something like Slaughter House Five when I hate science fiction and black humor and all I really want to read anyway is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

I do, of course, acknowledge the importance of watching and reading the classics, but I think it is important to remain true to the organic likes and dislike. A professor once pointed out to me that I, in fact, was the most important subject in my life. It sounds narcissistic on the outset, but is a mere extenuation of an age-old adage—nosce te ipsum, or know thyself. In order to live the most full and honest life possible, one needs to aware of their own likes and dislikes, to say the least.

The first step to this self-knowledge is, of course, to acknowledge with unequivocal honesty what one likes and dislikes. The second step is to really think about why this something is loved or abhored.

OK, so I have confessed to my infatuation with Gossip Girl. Why do I like it? Frankly, I love the clothes that they wear and the places they go. It’s like watching a fashion magazine with a plot. From this nugget of information, I can safely pull away the idea that I have a sort of fascination with fashion and urban culture.

Secondly, I think that Serina and Blaire are completely mesmerizing, I love watching the intricate webs they weave to get what they want. After some self-reflection, I think I am really quite bewitched by this sort of raw drive to obtain one’s desires. Maybe this is because I suffer from hyper self-consciousness and pragmatism to ever truly go after to my more trivial longings. Thus it is somehow very alluring to watch these women allow their desires turn into power as they contrive various ways to achieve them.

t is thus so important and really very interesting to think about one’s personal likes and dislikes. Being honest about fascinations and obsessions (even if that means admitting a love for Twilight) allows one to come to know oneself as a person rather than an unattainable ideal of social pressures. An increased sense of self-knowledge and comfort with what one finds can increase an amount of calm with the self and can guide future life decisions.

Of course, likes and dislikes cannot be truly known without trying new things, but that is a subject for a different column.