Booing Reading Lists

In a piece almost designed to make Harold Bloom's eybrows twitch, John Sutherland disses the curriculum devised by British education secretary Alan Johnson's Department for Education and Skills:

"In 20 years' time, the schoolkids on whom Johnson's reading list has been inflicted will see it for what it was. Dead White Man (with some token feminist inclusion) Lit, with no living connection to 2006. Johnson, leave those kids alone."

Meanwhile, in the New Statesman, Sutherland's book, How To Read A Novel, is praised in terms that seem to have nothing to do with reading novels:

"Sutherland's intention is not to patronise, but to offer a fascinating brief sociological history of the literary industry, exploring, among other things, the incestuous triangular relationship between booksellers, authors and publishers."