# How to become well read. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907 "2005-04-24T21:55:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cadabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@Cadabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cadabra)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/1 "2005-04-24T21:55:45Z")
Hello all. Back in High school there was a teacher I had who arrogantly announced that he was well read. The meaning was “I have read the great classics of literature and therefore am better than you.” It wasn’t even a hidden meaning, he basically just said it. To add some fun to the mix he offered, much to his altruistic nature, to prepare a list of books one must read in order to become well read also. Being the adventureous sort I put my hand up and said “I’d like a copy of that list please.” The look on his face was priceless. I was far from being a perfect student (allthough I was far from the worst) and the sarcasm was dripping when he replied he would arrange one for me. I never recieved that list, but the question of how one became well read stayed with me. I even started keeping a list of books that I had read for some strange reason. (I doubt the existance of that list made me any better read, especially with the number of “Star Trek” novels that were on it.) Anyway, here I am with a question that has been on my mind since the late 80’s, what books do you feel one must read to become well read? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/2 "2005-04-24T22:06:06Z")
I think I can say that \*The Illiad \* and \*The Bible \* both belong on that list. Both works are crucial to understanding Western Civiliazation. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/3 "2005-04-24T22:14:06Z")
I recommend The Straight Dope Message Board. To much knowledge to pass up. I’d be lost without it. I must say though, your teacher really sounded like he was full of it. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/4 "2005-04-24T22:55:52Z")
Well, I’ve been through the Humanities series at UCSD, which is essentially an evolution of western religion and philosophy class. A list of what we read (by no means comprehensive, and some books are rather unnecessary): Old Greek stuff: Oedipus the king - Sophocles Prometheus bound - Aeschylus The Birds - Aristophanes The Clouds -Aristophanes The Bacchae - Euripides The symposium - Plato The Oddyssey - Homer If I were to skip any from the Old Greek stuff, I’d skip The two by Aristophanes, and the Bacchae. Also, The republic may be a better choice than the symposium for Plato slightly less old Roman stuff: The Aeneid - Virgil ok…that didn’t deserve it’s own label… Early Christianity: The Divine Comedy - Dante Confessions - St. Augustine Early European politics/science: Utopia - Thomas More Discourse on Method and Meditation - Descartes The Prince - Machiavelli Lost Atlantis - Bacon Later Christianity: Spinoza (don’t remember title) Bayle - some massive dictionary - we read part of one entry Lebitz (don’t remember title) Candide - Voltaire (there’s probably a better choice to read for Voltaire) Philosophy: The fable of the Bees - mandeville (Just read the footnotes, not the actual poem) Foundation of the metaphysics of Morals - Kant Shopenhauer as educator - Nietzsche (read one of Nietzsche’s later works instead) Revolutionary and modernish politics: An essay concerning the true original, extent and end of civil government - John Locke The Social contract - Rousseau Common sense - Thomas Paine On Liberty- Mill Communist Manifesto - Marx Misc: Beowulf Civilization and it’s discontents - Freud Shakespheare - we read the tempest, but should read more The Decameron - Boccaccio (very amusing) Well, I hope that gets you started 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/5 "2005-04-24T22:56:24Z")
You might want to check out [The Western Canon](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0151957479/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-2704860-8274429?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155) by Harold Bloom. Bloom is a professor of literature at Yale, and is a strong critic of the school of thought which dismisses the traditional “great works” as being nothing but “Dead White Males”. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/6 "2005-04-24T23:15:09Z")
I would add Le Morte D’Arthur, Thomas Malory The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser Pilgrim’s Progres, John Bunyon Wordsworth and Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads (including Wordsworth’s Preface to the 1802 edition) Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice Henry Fielding, Moll Flanders Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Ernest TS Eliot - Wasteland, J. Alfred Prufroc James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist Mark Twain, Hucklebery Frinn Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (This is from my Well Read List, English Edition.) ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/7 "2005-04-24T23:32:19Z")
Lately, I’ve been working on becoming more well-read myself. I have had some fun comparing different lists of “great books,” and choosing which to put on my own to-be-read list. Here are some of the sources I’ve used–I hope you enjoy them too. 🆒 [_The New Lifetime Reading Plan : The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062720732/qid=1114385283/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-6282177-1943252) by Clifton Fadiman and John Major [Great Books Lists](http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/greatbks.html)–a collection of just about every ‘best books’ list ever written [Great Books Index](http://books.mirror.org/gb.home.html)–a list of books in the “English tradition”–with links to online texts [_The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393050947/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/002-6282177-1943252?v=glance&s=books&st=*), by Susan Wise Bauer–basic instruction in how to give yourself a literary education [_How to Read Literature Like a Professor : A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006000942X/qid=1114385688/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6282177-1943252?v=glance&s=books), by Thomas Foster–the book I wish I’d read before going off to college as a literature major. Fun to read, too. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/8 "2005-04-24T23:36:31Z")
Read everything by Homer, Shakespeare, and Milton. Follow it up with a dessert of the Romantics, including their critical essays, and finish with Samuel Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![zoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71c47a/32.png) [@zoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/9 "2005-04-24T23:49:07Z")
Issac Asimov, Fiction: The Foundation Non-fiction: Everything!!! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/10 "2005-04-25T00:08:35Z")
I’d say that being well-read is not so much a matter of having “gotten through” a specific list of works, as it is having read at least a few of the acknowledged classics and near-classics from a wide variety of genres, styles, and periods. But you probably have to have at least some familiarity with the Bible, Shakespeare, and Greek mythology/literature, since so much of what has come since involves allusions, echoes, and reactions to these. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/11 "2005-04-25T00:15:54Z")
Hm. A well-read person will be both a generalist and well-read in his “area”. Was that teacher an instructor in literature? I suspect that a science teacher could truthfully make the same statement and offer a different booklist. For an introduction to, “what an educated citizen of the world should or might want to know about the world outside the borders of the United States”, I’d recommend [World Access](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684810166/qid=1114387913/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-2690111-2205713). I’ve looked at it sporadically over the past several years; I’m about halfway through. It’s a fun read. Speaking of fun, I’d say that **Thudlow** has the right idea. I’d start by dipping into a Great Book list (or anthology), rather than feeling obliged to slog one’s way through it. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/12 "2005-04-25T00:18:35Z")
Read what you want. Just read a _lot._ I’m one of those folks who feel that all books have value, even “brain candy” like _Star Trek_ or romance novels. Never have I read a book where I didn’t learn _something_– some little tidbit about history, or human nature, or a quote from a poem . . . . there’s always something you can take away from it. I do think one should have at least a nodding acquaintance with the classics. Not many people today feel like sloughing through some of the ancient philosophers, but if you can read something about the philospher himself, his theories and ideas, you’ll at least be able to discuss the subject intelligently. Sometimes I prefer good biographies of the philosoper, rather than reading the works themselves. I don’t think being well-read is something that can be concretely defined, as in, “If you haven’t read _this_ and _that_, then you aren’t well-read.” I think it comes from being a voracious reader who reads a wide variety of different types of books. I think a person who is truly well-read is a person who just loves to read for the sheer pleasure of it, not one who reads classics they don’t really enjoy just so they could brag about it and look smart. (God help me, don’t get me started on those people who have expensive leather-bound editions of the classics on their living room walls which still have that “virgin book” crackle when you open them.) ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/13 "2005-04-25T00:36:25Z")
[Moderator Hat ON] To Cafe Society. [Moderator Hat OFF] ---
**Author:** ![parsnip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parsnip/32/4564_2.png) [@parsnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parsnip)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/14 "2005-04-25T02:23:19Z")
If you want “western civ”, the reading list at St. John’s College should keep you bust for a while. In your spare time, you might consider taking up croquet. [http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/asp/main.aspx?page=1302](http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/asp/main.aspx?page=1302) ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/15 "2005-04-25T02:29:35Z")
And read _Cosmos_ by Carl Sagan. I think some first-class scientific works should be on Old Bloomie’s list as well. (Don’t huff and puff, I respect the dude’s expertise in literature, I have a few Bloom works sitting on my shelf. I just think that the average person should make an effort to know more about how the natural world works). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@The\_Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hook)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/16 "2005-04-25T03:33:57Z")
Oh, for crying out loud, why doesn’t anyone ever suggest the work that modelled what novels would look like for a few hundred years after its creation? Las Aventuras del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/17 "2005-04-25T06:47:42Z")
I second **dangermom** ’s suggestion of [A Well Educated Mind](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393050947/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/104-4809946-8740739?v=glance&s=books&st=*). Not only does it have good sugestions on what to read, but it talks quite a bit about how to go about reading in a way that I for one agree with. > [@Northern Piper](#): > > You might want to check out [The Western Canon](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0151957479/ref=dp_proddesc_0/002-2704860-8274429?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155) by Harold Bloom. Bloom is a professor of literature at Yale, and is a strong critic of the school of thought which dismisses the traditional “great works” as being nothing but “Dead White Males”. Bloom is a pompous ass! 🙂 I read a lot of what he has to say, but none is more arrogant than he. All reading Bloom ever did was make me angry with him. But, he is an expert, and very very bright; he’s certainly got knowledge worth absorbing, if you can stand his attitude. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/18 "2005-04-25T07:19:29Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > I recommend The Straight Dope Message Board. To much knowledge to pass up. I’d be lost without it. > > I must say though, your teacher really sounded like he was full of it. He was probably lamenting the fact that most of his colleagues weren’t. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/19 "2005-04-25T12:26:45Z")
Read the unabridged versions of classic texts, preferrably facimilies. If you ever get the chance, _carefully_ read first editions, really rare books, and books signed by the author. There is nothing quite like it. And if you pardon me for being blasphemous, it can often be a religious experience. My advice on the method of reading is this: read _for_ something, anything. Find question you want to answer and then narrow down your reading into a field of study. It could be questions like what is the human condition, can the human condition change? By exploring reading from the Greek classics to today, you may find your answer. Keep quotes in journals. Sometimes what one author wrote that is controversial, inspiring, or intriguing may lead to other questions. Whatever you do, do it for yourself, not for your teacher or anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907/20 "2005-04-25T12:36:29Z")
> [@Cadabra](#): > > Hello all. > > Anyway, here I am with a question that has been on my mind since the late 80’s, what books do you feel one must read to become well read? If you’re talking about being well-read in fiction then its good to read novelists who can clearly be described as being influential, rather than just being good. Their books provide reference points for trends and movements in literature, that can help you piece it all together. Two of the best American writers in recent times are Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthey, IMO. Pynchon is enormously influential, his style and ideas have been stamped across a generation of young writers. Required reading for being “well-read” in modern American lit. CM, on the other hand, despite being (nearly) as great, is never considered an influential writer AFAIK, and wouldn’t be high on a list of books that bestow well-readedness. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-become-well-read/300907.md?page=2)