Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Which books should one have read to be able to call oneself "well read'?

58 replies

McDreamy · 02/04/2008 21:54

just wondered

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
poodlepusher · 03/04/2008 13:15

I don't think there is a list. I would say that a well read person is someone who has been actively reading a range of material all their life, (including journals and magazines and newsppapers)and continues to do so, out of interest in those books / subjects / writers and the world around them.

taliac · 03/04/2008 10:36

I remember seeing that list aged 18 and thinking "yeah I can read all of them!"

Now aged 30+ I think - gawd life is way tooo short...

bozza · 03/04/2008 10:27

That first list looks rather hard going....

taliac · 03/04/2008 10:22

There are, believe it or not, approved "Great Books" lists - some American colleges came up with the concept and they teach courses based upon the list.

Theres an example here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books

For me its too much philosophy and too male!

Theres this one too which looks a bit more fun:

www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtfad4.html

chrissnow · 03/04/2008 10:22

I'm trying to read Grapes of Wrath at the mo. On the basis that I should. Finding it a bit hard going and keep dipping into my Lincoln Rhyme novel instead!! Weird as I loved Of Mice & Men.
DH is trying to read The Catcher in the Rye on my recommendation and is hating it although he loved Grapes of Wrath.

bozza · 03/04/2008 10:16

I am of the compulsive reader variety. My current pattern is to alternate something literary/classic/heavy with something more lightweight. Currently on Tess of the D'Urbervilles, so that will be followed by something easy going.

justaboutasleep · 03/04/2008 10:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

suedonim · 03/04/2008 10:10

Lol!

chipmonkey · 03/04/2008 01:10

Feck it, suedonim, why didn't you tell me about that before? I have spent a fortune on books!!!

kneedeepinthedirtylaundry · 03/04/2008 01:00

E M Forster, Howards End and Passage to India.
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Carson McCullers
William Trevor

Joash · 03/04/2008 00:59

LOL @ zippitippitoes - I agree with the richard and judy thing, I actively avoid all the ones with their stickers on

suedonim · 03/04/2008 00:51

Or what about this, Chipmonkey? Books

sallystrawberry · 03/04/2008 00:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

havalina · 03/04/2008 00:13

Ooh thanks Zippi Diary of a nobody/kinflicks and cryptonomicon look great. [amile]

chipmonkey · 03/04/2008 00:12

But of course, suedonim! They don't have to be real books either, just fake covers will do!

LordGodAlmighty · 03/04/2008 00:04

And not just novels.
Poetry too.
I reckon everyone should be familiar with (ie not necessarily have read every word of)
Canterbury Tales
Paradise Lost
Donne
Marvell
Shelley
Keats
Emily Dickinson
Auden
Eliot
Larkin
Ted Hughes
Sylvia Plath
Seamus Heaney
and of course
Shakespeare

cazzybabs · 03/04/2008 00:01

I don't think it is the reading that counts its the being able to discuss them afterwards..which I alwats fall down on.

barnstaple · 02/04/2008 23:59

Bigmouth - yesyesyesyesyes Gaskell counts!!!

suedonim · 02/04/2008 23:57

Does having such titles on one's bookshelf count as being 'well read'?

chipmonkey · 02/04/2008 23:12

Finnegan's Wake
Or if you prefer, you could just read some of Cod's posts on MN, they make approximately the same amount of sense!
I think "well-read" is a term one should never use to describe oneself, only to describe other people!

Ellbell · 02/04/2008 22:37

Dante (But of course )
Proust? (Perhaps just a leeetle smidgeon)
Madame Bovary for sure

[Thanks to beansmum for mentioning Primo Levi - saves me sounding like a stuck record]

JODIEhavingababy · 02/04/2008 22:33

I've never read Stephen King, precisely for that reason!! I can't even watch the films let alone imagine for myself ina book!

Original poster
McDreamy · 02/04/2008 22:33

I've just finished The Stand for a book club I'm in......not my favourite book.

OP posts:
pointydog · 02/04/2008 22:33

maybe 'which books should one have read to hold one's own in a Radio 4 book discussion'

beansmum · 02/04/2008 22:32

I can't read Stephen King anymore, too scary. I actually had to leave the house to find some company before I could finish The Shining. scary scary scary