More randomocity

[danuv]

There's a thunderstorm a brewin' so I'm in my favorite spot for viewing storms on my porch with a glass of white wine. I'm starting to think I really actually prefer white wine despite this nagging feeling that it makes me totally uncool in some way.

Recently I had someone else tell me I was well read. I've been told this by a few people and it always confuses me. Mostly I read a hodge podge of art history books and biographies with the occasional fiction tossed in when forced (generally related to one of the art history or biographies). I don't really think I'm well read, mostly I think I read a little bit more than the average housewife and chose peculiar books. But this has me curious... what is well read anyway?

I'd like to hear some suggestions. I know this is the sort of question that only usually would draw answers from four or five of you on my f-list but really I am very curious. What would you (YOU) say are your top five books that any Well Read person must read? Or if you'd prefer what Sort of books would a well read person read?

Comments

[brododaktula.livejournal.com]

I think generally "well-read" means that you're aware enough of the breadth and some depth of the speaker's field that you're worth a somewhat condescending compliment. Since you've been told this a lot, though, maybe it's from genuinely kind rather than bitchy people, in which case it would mean that you know a surprising amount about a surprising array of things. I guess in each case I'm implying that it's more about what you can comfortably discuss than actually what your reading list is, and I think that is generally how these comments work.

As far as what a well-read person should read, I think much of it goes back to having strong foundations you can build on. So I think all of my recommendations are sort of things that children could read and maybe once did. I think being well-read means picking up on resonances, making connections, and so I look at the reading aspect as just amassing many bits you can piece together in various ways.

A good collection of classic poems, preferably read aloud. I'm not coming up with a title off the top of my head, but I had some sort of Golden Treasury of Poetry as a kid and I pick up on and create quotes and allusions often because poems can dig so deep into the bone.

D'Aulaire's book of Greek Myths. Gorgeous pictures, simple tellings of complex stories. Obviously you can get more detail elsewhere, but you'll have all the basics here.

As far as plays go, there are plenty of options depending on your interest. Again, plays can be good to read aloud in the bathtub if you're me or with friends if you're not. Tom Stoppard's always a delight, and Shakespeare is sort of a given on lists like this. If I have to put down one title, though, it will be The Importance of Being Earnest, which I think is kid-friendly enough and yet brings up all sorts of issues of identity and class and gender and respectability while being totally hilarious.

This is cheating a bit on the "kids" side of things, but everyone needs some Borges short stories. Plenty of his stories would work for kids too, but I remember the delight I felt when first reading metafiction and how twisty and thrilling it made the world seem. Foucault's Pendulum, though longer and quite different, did the same thing, revved me up and made it so I'd look askance at conspiracy theories ever after. Books that change reality (although surely we could argue they all do) are powerful indeed.

This one's definitely cheating, but I said it's all about the resonances and if there's a book you absolutely love and find yourself in (my top picks are Emma Donoghue's Stir-Fry and Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle) it might be worth doing periodic rereadings so you can gauge how you've changed. I'm a big rereader anyway, but it's a neat feeling to recall so vividly how I felt at 16 and still agree with parts of my old self while wincing at others. Seeing yourself in a book helps you see yourself in the world, and helps you connect the things you read to the bigger world, I think.

And all of these are just from my perspective, that if someone dropped a reference to one into conversation I'd get excited and want to talk about it. Maybe that means I'm trying to set up the patronizing situation I described at the top, but I hope not. I think a certain amount of breadth, interesting and/or salacious factoids, and genuine passionate excitement about the topic are what make someone seem not only well-informed but fun to hear from on whatever topic is at hand. And isn't that what we all aim to be? (I don't know actually if it is; writing this was really hard and I may utterly disagree later. But for now it's my guess.)

[danuv.livejournal.com]

Your answers (here and on your lj) are going to add pages to my Amazon list when I get to adding. :P I needed some things the kids could turn to when they are a little older and more interested in books (other than Ramona which is taking Rhiannon months to get through). I'm guessing that books on 19th century prostitution in the Wild West won't really be to their tastes (maybe I should hope not).

[brododaktula.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to imply that your kids have to read these, just that I sort of feel there's an equivalence between broad knowledge and being younger. I guess it's the whole thing about broad basics that in some ways you can't get as an adult because instead you go off on interesting tangents based on parts of what you read. I don't think that's a bad thing either!

[danuv.livejournal.com]

No no, I guess you just reminded me of how it felt when I was young and raiding the 'grown up' bookshelf. I realized that I don't have too much that would really interest them. I need to be planting subversive materials. :)

[brododaktula.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

I wish we still had the book report my brother did in third grade on Kafka's Metamorphosis, which he thought from the title would have a lot more fun bug stuff. "This guy turns into a bug and NO ONE EVEN NOTICES!" It was hilarious.