John Green Explains How And Why We Read

Why did J. D. Salinger include a red hunting cap in “Catcher in the Rye”? Why did we invent grammar? What purpose does language serve and why do we read?

These are some of the questions that John Green, the bestselling author of “The Fault in our Stars,” (and several other class-A books) answers in the first video of his Crash Course Literature mini series.

The series is just one out of eight courses on world history, U.S. history, chemistry, psychology, and literature developed by Hank and John Green for their Crash Course channel on YouTube. The channel uses engaging and witty videos to impart science and humanities-based education.

Check out the video below to have all of your literature- and language-related questions answered once and for all! And we promise it’ll be way more entertaining than your high school English teacher was.

For more of John Green, check out the atypical list of his favorite books which never made it to a bestseller list.