Are you well read?

I saw a post on Book Riot about being well read.  I think it was a very good article because it addressed the fact that there are various notions about what being well read looks like. The article, which I will link at the end nailed it perfectly.  And I feel better about myself now.

Being well read isn't based upon someone's list of requirements.  You know. those lists of books that come flooding by telling you 17 books that should be read by the time you are 16; 20 books to read in your 20's; 12 books to read to your 2 year old. Yeah, those.  And every time you look at those lists, you see how you failed to be well read.

Well, it's time to take heart.  Just because you didn't read that author's/blogger's/editor's picks doesn't mean you failed.  It means that maybe you've enjoyed a lot of things others missed.  

I mean, if your list includes The Odyssey, The Inferno, The Brothers Karamazov, Little Dorrit, a Jonathan Winters biography, a few other obscure biographies, and a mish-mash of non-fiction, vs. The Bell Jar, A Passage to India, Frankenstein, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and biographies about JFK, MLK, and Harry Truman, how are you any less well read than the if the list were switched? 

The point of being well read is to read.  Just read.  Pick up a book and devour it. Let the fictional characters beat you up; live life with those in the biographies; learn something useful from the non-fiction.

Isn't that the point of reading? Variety is the spice of life. Being well read means you read things that aren't by your favorite author. It means picking up things that might be a little hard and persevering through them and being richer at the end. 

And if you and I cannot discuss what books we have in common, we can still converse about books we don't have in common because we will share recommendations. 

Go forth and read, Friends!

Are you well read?