My turn! The fine folks at Book Riot have compiled a list that supposedly defines being well-read, From zero to well-read in 100 books, where they pose the question: what exactly is “well-read”? I’m in the camp that feels as long as you read across a few genres, step out of your comfort zone once in a while, have a passable knowledge of the classics, and read regularly, you are well-read. Book Riot has a great, lively argument and discussion on its original post (I especially like the well-heard and well-seen retort for music and movies. Right on!)
Below is Book Riot’s list. I’ve crossed off the ones I’ve read for sure, and made some other miscellaneous notes in bold.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay by Michael Chabon
- American Pastoral by Philip Roth
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Brave New World by Alduos Huxley- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
- The Call of the Wild by Jack London
- Candide by Voltaire
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller [DNF]
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerCharlotte’s Web by E.B. White- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson [some]
- The Complete Stories of Edgar Allan Poe [some]
- The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Da Vinci Code by Dan BrownDeath of a Salesman by Arthur Miller- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
- Dream of Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
- Dune by Frank Herbert
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran FoerFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green- Faust by Goethe
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
- The Golden Bowl by Henry James
- The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn- The Gospels
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Great Expectations by Charles DickensThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldHamlet by William ShakespeareThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood- Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Help by Kathryn Stockett- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien- House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
- Howl by Allen Ginsberg
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- if on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
- The Iliad by Homer
- The Inferno by Dante
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Life of Pi by Yann MartelThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. LewisThe Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Odyssey by Homer- Oedipus, King by Sophocles
On the Road by Jack Kerouac- A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
- The Pentateuch
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Rabbit, Run by John Updike
The Road by Cormac McCarthyRomeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- The Stand by Stephen King
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale HurstonThings Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeThe Things They Carried by Tim O’BrienTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee- Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
Watchmen by Alan MooreThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
1984 by George Orwell- 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James
I’m at 35 read, a few in there I’m unsure about whether I’ve read or not (less than five), and quite a few here that are on my TBR. What about the countless books I’ve read that aren’t on this list? What about authors: I’ve read books by King, Hemingway, Steinbeck, for example, but not the specific ones listed here. Could those count in the place of these listed ones? and I definitely don’t feel like this is an end-all-be-all list—there is PLENTY on here I have absolutely zero interest in reading and do not feel badly in the slightest.
The most important thing above all (in my opinion) is to read what you like, what will make you think, and what you’ll enjoy. Ultimately I read to learn and keep my mind active, to escape and have an experience, and to have fun. I think if you get all that from books, you’re doing all right.
What do you think of the list and the term “well-read”?
I had quite a few conversations about this post and it’s contents (at work) and it generated quite a bit of discussion on my library’s Facebook page (we might even do a “well-read Lawrencian” list). I appreciate how they were mindful of genre, of a balance of male and female authors, and even featured several YA and children’s novels. I counted 52 that I’ve read, but I’m only interested in reading half of the others. I think it’s completely reasonable to substitute out Faulkner or Hemingway titles and still count them. I agree that people should read what they like, but also venture outside their comfort zone. This list and the way the term is used seems to mean able to discuss literature in terms of culture, both in a historical context and in popular culture.
Lawrencian… as in Kansan? I’m in KC! Small world 🙂 I agree that this is a very diverse list—some others I’ve seen like this are very classics-heavy, and honestly I have a lot of trouble getting into the classics, but still feel like I’m well-read! Thanks for stopping by.
I’ve read 32 and have another on my bookshelf. It’s an interesting list, I’ve seen similar lists over the years and I think that’s the most updated of them.
Yes, it is interesting and diverse. I don’t even have a problem with 50 Shades of Grey on there. I’m not personally interested in that one, but it’s popularity does warrant some acknowledgement, I think.
Awesome. I totally wanted to substitute OTHER books I’d read by authors listed, too! I mean, dude. I’ve read Virginia Woolf. It’s just that I read To the Lighthouse instead of Mrs. Dalloway. I want credit for it! LOL
Right?? 😉 thanks for stopping by!
I want to make my own list darn it 😉
“Ultimately I read to learn and keep my mind active, to escape and have an experience, and to have fun. I think if you get all that from books, you’re doing all right.” YES, this!
😀 Thanks, Jen! Hope you have a great weekend!