Stephen King: 'I've never read Jane Austen'

Say what? Stephen King, author of a million best-selling novels and probably your favorite movie, apparently skipped his high school English class sophomore year, admitting to The New York Times that he has never read Jane Austen.

I don't have much interest in "relationship" novels or romance. I've never read Jane Austen. I do not say this with either pride or shame (or prejudice, for that matter). It’s just a fact. [The New York Times]

Ah, poor Jane Austen, so often shunted into the dreaded romance and relationship category, where she presumably shares a rack with all the Fabio-adorned mass market paperbacks at your local supermarket, instead of, I don't know, the trenchant-depiction-of-society-and-human-nature category. You'd think the guy who wrote Pet Sematary and It would be the last to be into genre-shaming, but the world is funny.

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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.