To wonder what exactly you need to have read to be 'well read'?

[joogle]

I read a lot of books but not sure I would be considered 'well read'.....

And the more you read the more you realise how little you know.

True, I know two fifths of fuck all, but I read lots of books, even forrin ones. I'm so clever really

I think it's about how much you pick up from whatever you read - just ploughing through the Booker list for the sake of it won't make you well read (I mean 'one' not 'you' OP but feel poncey typing it ).

Tis like that bit in The Pursuit of Love when Fanny, for all her 'education', when questioned about King George, can only stammer 'He was king. He went mad'. But Linda, from reading anything and everything, prattles on with all kinds of random information about kings and dogs (and possibly trousers). I reckon only reading widely can give you that smattering of knowledge about anything and everything - whether that's a good thing or not is arguable I suppose.

Plus reading leads to reading more - I spent my entire teenage years mooning over the metaphysical poets after following a John Donne reference from The Darling Buds of May . Book, not Delboy telly fest but still...

I can't read Kafka or Harry Potter though .

I used to be a voracious reader until I had a baby. Now whatever is easy and light and only very occasionally.

When it comes to 'worthy' material, it's what you get out of it. I remember being blown away by crime and punishment when I was eighteen. In later years, my memory of 'A suitable Boy' (which was super) is the cat called Pillow. Pillow was a whopping thug of a cat who had next door's dog shaking in his boots.

Much too tired for something I have to work at or something that needs continuity.

SuPurblybilt - I got into the poet WB Yeats through reading Jilly Cooper.

Me too Annie . And Georgette Heyer from Rafaella Barker

next stop Take A Break/Closer

JohnStuartMills my main memory of A Suitable Boy was 'paan'. They were on it all the time but I never actually worked out what it was. I read the book more than 10 years ago and now of course there's google so I've just looked it up

Fantastic book though, so many characters and stories interwoven. A bit like The Sopranos in Indian novel form.