I agree with you on the danger of getting culturally stuck. We all know those people who never left 1989 — from their hairstyles to their musical choices — and they are frightening. However, I’m a big proponent of the idea that you won’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been.

I remember being SO repulsed by that Bruce Springsteen “Glory Days” song … I grew up in a small town (but do love Mellencamp’s “Small Town”) and just remember being about 13 and hoping that my life would never, ever come down to thinking my SENIOR YEAR was the best moment of my life. And also living in a small town, many people actually do feel like that.

I really love the nostalgia trips that so many of these books take me on — but it’s somehow dangerous for me. I think I should really be moving forward culturally and not looking backwards. We’re all annoyed by the politicians still arguing about Vietnam — I hope we aren’t arguing about grunge 15 years from now.