Why do people read contemporary books is something I can’t really get my head around. There’re so many classics to keep people busy for life - and are 100% guaranteed to be insightful and pleasurable.
It is true though that if you have a culturally diverse set of friends and are open to their experiences and opinions, a lot of “the classics” start to smell bad. Imagine being black and reading Grapes of Wrath. You might think the situation of the main characters as humorous or infantile, considering how relatively fortunate they are.
I've found that it definitely applies to books. Starting at a ~20 year horizon is a surprisingly good filter for quality.
The Lindy effect.
Finding deeply valuable and high quality books is much rarer in today's crop of authors. The best minds are rarely making the medium of literature their highest good, but are instead chasing dollars and relations with the rich and famous.