At the end of every semester, students fervently rush to catch up on schoolwork, tackle tardy assignments and study for oncoming finals before the blessed winter break.

I should be one of these people, but I find myself using most of my potential study time trying to finish up the last book in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy before the movie comes out later this month. At that time, the masses of escapists will lurch forth from their introverted holes and make their way to the movie theater for the long-awaited premiere.

To say that I’m one of these escapists would be a half-truth. For me, a thing such as “Lord of the Rings” falls into the same category as my fantasy sports teams: an idle distraction that consumes a copious amount of time and contributes very little toward intellectual growth.

It is important not to become overwhelmed with these fantasy books, as most who get involved with them do. If you get hooked on the addictively hyper-imaginative fantasy worlds, you will completely lose your footing in reality. The demand and popularity of elaborate escapist literature has steadily increased, as people try to find a world that is benignly chaotic to balance off the vapid realities of the modern day.

The problem with this crap literature – though admittedly much of it is well-decorated crap literature – is its nearly complete detachment from reality. This detachment causes the meanings and themes of such books, which are usually in small number and too straightforward, to be concealed by over-focalized plots and settings. Most science fiction and popular fantasy literature falls into this category.

My sister is always after me to read her “Harry Potter” books, which I contemptuously refuse to pick up on the grounds that I read enough of this kind of crap literature as it is. If you’re a reader, then a certain amount of crap is OK. However the temptations to gorge upon the intricately woven fantasies of another writer leads to a cerebral obesity, which once it has begun is hard to resist.

Conversely, having given the above rant I feel it is also important to steer clear of works that commit the opposite sin of reading pieces that use too little imagination.

Too many books today are pretty much memoirs and autobiographies taking on the guise of legitimate fiction. Often easily detectable by the make-up of the main character and the illogical progression of plot, these possess a kind of worthlessness that I find to be more offensive than fantasy literature, because such books pretend to hold profound value.

Students who are enrolled in the Commonwealth College’s Dean’s Book or capstone courses (horribly designed programs, by the way) might remember reading Dave Eggers’ lengthy-titled book, “A Staggering Narcissistic Work of an Inflated Ego” (or something like that), or Kincaid’s “AutoBiography of my Mother.” The plot of these books meander from one randomly occurring event to another, which at times can be somewhat entertaining, though they are ultimately purposeless and unfulfilling. Whatever messages these books convey are usually too subjective and unintentional to be taken seriously.

Good art is the skewed reflection of reality. If the reflection becomes too disfigured or if it becomes an uninventive mirrored reflection, then the significance of the work is diminished. The most rewarding part of reading is learning something new. It is the writers’ responsibility to make this experience as fulfilling as it possibly can for the reader.

I’m not saying that all fantasy literature and autobiographical pieces should go unread, but their worth should be taken at face value. The best books to read are ones that include a healthy dose of the imagination within the slightly fixable confines of reality.

Why write cheap entertainment? If you set out to write a medieval hero epic or something, then don’t get hung up the history of magic omens and the attire of sub-human halflings. Keep a firm hold of the timelessness of human experience, and challenge yourself to create characters that the reader can relate to.

Look at what Shakespeare did with all of his characters. Through his imagination alone he reincarnated Julius Caesar and King Lear and gave them a depth that continuously attracts people to his plays. Presently, most works are out of sync with the best methods on the uses of the imagination, and the result has been the ever-growing temptation to write and read crap literature.