I want to broaden my horizons. Where do I begin? Music? Books?
I want to gain a better knowledge and understanding of both but I don’t know where to start.
My 2 cents: I’d start with books on topics that interest you (but that you don’t know much about)… they should lead you to other book, which will lead you to other books, etc.
Beware, though! This can be addictive!
I’m already a book lover! It’s just the quality that I’d like to improve…
Quality is elusive. I had teachers who loved old French Lit, and my opinion of it was that it was simply 300 year old porn. Which was close to my take on The Miller’s Tale in Senior English. [sub]Teacher loved me for that comment. Not![/sub]
Anyway, start with things that look interesting, yet are classics. Mark Twain is readable. Good Place to start.
Clifton Fadiman (for years, the chief of the editorial board at Book of the Month Club) wrote a little volume called The Lifetime Reading Plan back around 1960 that he updated periodically. Recently I heard that a second editor has published The New Lifetime Reading Plan (leaving Fadiman as the primary author) that includes non-European/American works.
It is not a bad little book. It contains a thumbnail sketch of just over 100 authors and their principal works, describing their style and their main contributions to thought or literature. It is the sort of book that the cognoscenti enjoy sneering at, but Fadiman could write well enough and he has provided a pretty decent introduction for folks who’d like to have some guideposts before they wander into the forest of literature.
I’m sure the updated version is available through http://www.amazon.com/ (and the page that lists that book will probably have a couple similar books cross-referenced).
My rule of thumb: if it’s more than a hundred years old, and readily available, it’s probably good quality.
As regard to, music, start off with the RCA series of classics, which are easily distinguished by the white cover with red lettering and a caricature of the composer of the subject CD… You can also go for the Mad about series, They will be a little harder to find because of the unaesthetic cover designs. Thse are like the “Best of…” series. Also note that you can get other CDs of the classics for very, very cheap now, like $2.99 for two symphonies by Beethoven. And these are not recordings of high school marching bands, but of highly regarded orchestras, chambers and soloists mastered by prestigious recording companies such as Nonesuch. As you can easily collect 20-30 CD for $100, a portable CD Wallet is a great accesory.
I second the recommendation for “The Lifetime Reading Plan”. It gives you the information you need to decide if you may even be interested in the book, and tells you why it is consider a ‘must read’ book. But Fadiman never made me feel as though he would think I was stupid if I disagreed with him. Plus, he dislikes Faulkner, and a literary critic who dislikes Faulkner publically is a man I trust.
There’s also a great book called “An Incomplete Education” by Judy Jones and somebody Wilson. It has chapters on music, art, architecture, politics, etc., that give a basic run down–terms to know, big names/dates, importance, influences. Again, a book to lead you to other books, or to music, and let you explore from there. You can often find a copy in used bookstores, though I’ve never understood why.
Concerning getting up to speed on literature:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature is a terrific place to start. It provides large excerpts from the best of the best along with some very helpful notes. Lots of colleges use it for introductory/survey courses.
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael7/welcome.htm
Without leaving the comfort of your own computer, you can use the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s entry on English Literature to identify the major authors, their main works, and what these works are about, and then jump over to the Project Gutenberg for free on-line copies of many of these works.
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,108550+1+106051,00.html?query=english%20literature
http://promo.net/pg/
There’s a book ‘Passing Time In The Loo’ (ISBN: 0-9537357-0-2) which has 2-page distillations of a hundred classic books, plus some other stuff.
It’s William Wilson. Maybe the reason you find it in used bookstores is that they did 2 editions - after the original, they released an updated version. Perhaps people traded in the old one for the newer model.