What Does "Well Read" REALLY Mean?

In this podcast we take a trip to Andy's new Apartment, where we sit down to discuss what it means to be "well read", if you should intentionally try to "read diversely" and of course, we talk a lot about books.
What does it mean to you to be "well read"? Are you there yet, or do you think it's a lifelong pursuit?
Books discussed in this episode:
Vulture Capitalism by Grace Blakeley
bookshop.org/a...
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
bookshop.org/a...
Broughtupsy Christina Cooke
bookshop.org/a...
The Brother by Rain Raud
bookshop.org/a...
Lost Empress by Sergio De La Pava
amzn.to/3Vxf36a
Tell them of Battles and Elephants by Mathias Enard
bookshop.org/a...
The Instructions by Adam Levin
bookshop.org/a...
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
bookshop.org/a...
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
bookshop.org/a...
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
bookshop.org/a...
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
bookshop.org/a...
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
bookshop.org/a...
Women and Men by Joseph McElroy
bookshop.org/a...
The Lost Scrapbook by Evan Dara
amzn.to/45Bu7UI
#literature #books #guyswhoread

[@jackwalter5970]

A well-read person explores what there is to read, reads some books, loves some, dislikes others, and keeps joyfully exploring. Andy is spot on about the concept of a "personal canon."

[@kurtfox4944]

Excellent discussion! When thinking of the average number of books read in America and the sheer volume of people who read nothing, I am constantly reminded of this quote: "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read" - Mark Twain

[@Lifeonbooks]

@@kurtfox4944 Twain knew a thing or two

[@brockeldon444]

I liked your discussion about high school education. I read "One Hundred Years" of Solitude" in Canada in high school. Rough book but perfect for that reason. I lot of giggles. I also got to pick an "end of course" author, where I got to read "Blood Merdian." I was just lucky to have a creative teacher. A lot of Shakespeare, Huxley and Orwell. The best thing about the teacher was his positive response to negative comments.

[@Lifeonbooks]

A great teacher can make all the difference.

[@brockeldon444]

@@Lifeonbooks And it's hard to do well! I taught for ten years and loved it, but it is very hard separating one’s love of a book from student responses to it. The most constructive conversations I had really were noting specific complaints from students and: a.) Letting them be heard, and; b.) Interrogating the claim with a class to determine if it was a valid critique. A major mistake (I'm guilty of it) is pedestalling ANY book for any new audience and letting your feelings get in the way of a dialogue. That's probably the most valuable lesson I got from that teacher (besides reading some pretty badass books where he had the freedom to choose).

[@kintrap5376]

1. The Peregrine Falcon - fastest moving animal on the planet, diving at speeds up to 240 mph 2. The Wild American Turkey - I agree with Ben Franklin, who argued for this to be the official bird of America. Other parts of the world have eagles, which are essentially buzzards-“a bird of bad moral character … too lazy to fish for himself” (Franklin). Turkeys are indigenous specifically to America, “a true original native of America … a bird of courage” (Franklin) 3. Shoebill Stork - Dinosaur.

[@giovannib1834]

For what it’s worth, I graduated high school in 2016 and one of our mandatory assigned summer readings included The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Not Blood Meridian but close.

[@Lifeonbooks]

@@giovannib1834 that's pretty cool!

[@santiagolopezmoskovits132]

The "readers" that selected this list left out Virginia Woolf's best book, The Waves. I truly recommend it to you, Andy and Tony, it's short, but dense, and beautiful. Oh, and apart from that the only unforgivable thing to which you said no is Kafka! You have to read him ;) I found your podcast on the NYT list and your own selections, and have been working my way up through these episodes for the past few days. Love listening to these convos.

[@Lifeonbooks]

@@santiagolopezmoskovits132 glad you're enjoying it!

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

Here's to a great reading summer. Best wishes.

[@griffofella740]

Love this podcast, only recently found it. Must pull you up on P.G. Wodehouse - it is pronounced Woodhouse, the Jeeves and Wooster stories are whimsical satires on British manners from back in the day. It was turned into a very popular TV series in the UK starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. They are very funny if you like that sort of thing.

[@Lifeonbooks]

@@griffofella740 good looking out!

[@kurtfox4944]

Current read 0:00 to 17:52 What Does "Well Read" REALLY Mean? begins 17:52

[@mopete9830]

In high school over ten years ago for me we read, Romeo and Juliet Beowolf The Canterbury tales Macbeth The doll house Both of homers works Enders game A brave new world To kill a mockingbird Lord of the flies Of mice and men The Scarlett letter The diary of a young girl The adventures of huck Finn Frankenstein Dracula A midsummer nights dream Most of Edgar Allen poes works Out of the dust The bell jar Julius Caesar And when I was a librarians assistant in middle school she forced me to read the twilight books. I didn't love all of those but there are several I have reread as a adult. This list is from a Texas high school from 2008-2012

[@marcelhidalgo1076]

More like Life on Birds. Am I right?

[@jurgenmeyer7602]

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a serious literary scholar who would argue that Gravity's Rainbow isn't in the canon. The literary canon isn't what you read in high school, if you read something in high school that means it's probably in the canon AND it's short and somewhat easy to understand (which basically means anything post-modern won't be talked about). Also Kafka is great, I would recommend The Trial which is a short masterpiece and also quintessential Kafka, also like a hundred times better than The Metamorphosis, which is his most well known work (probably because of high school reading).

[@Lifeonbooks]

Very true!

[@kurtfox4944]

Penguin's Must Read Classics as chosen by the readers. hahahahaha That's like the Democrats (or Republicans, or Tories, or Whigs) giving you 5 candidates and you have to chose your favorites from that already narrowed/selected list that consists only of books that Penguin publishes. Whenever I see these sorts of polls/lists, I gotta question the methodology. How did they poll the readers? Or was it based upon sales and these were the most Purchased books in a given year (or two, or five) at Penguin, hence the most popular? Like the recent NY Times top books of the 21st Century. How did they chose which 503 authors, etc that received a poll to begin with? You can skew the results by only sending to folks that you think are support your agenda (if you have one). Did they only send the poll to American/Canada and UK authors?

[@williamrelihan9295]

I think, objectively, the stimulus money was a shite idea. Increased national debt while simultaneously decreasing substantially the value of the US dollar. It’s the equivalent of someone taking ten dollars from me, giving me 7 back, then telling me that the rest of my money and assets are now worth substantially less.

[@marcelhidalgo1076]

Heart of Darkness is a horrible book. I never say that about books, but I think it is true for that book.

[@Lifeonbooks]

Why do you say that?