How to Be Well Read

If you want to be well-read, then, in the words of William Faulkner, you'll have to "Read, read, read. Read everything..." You can start at the very beginning, or just make your way down an eclectic list of books that you'd like to read. What's important is that you pick books that are lively, challenging, and which broaden your horizons. If you want to be well-read, here are some tips and recommendations to get you started. EditPart 1 of 3: Reading the Classics 1Read the classics before 1600.Reading the classics is the very first thing you have to do to be well-read. If you want to build a solid foundation for your understanding of the books you read, then you can't avoid some of the earliest plays, poems, and oral tales ever written down. *.The Epic of Gilgamesh(Unknown author) (18th – 17th century BCE) *.The IliadandThe Odysseyby Homer (850–750 BCE, 8th century BCE) *.Medeaby Euripides (431 BCE) *.Oedipus the Kingby Sophocles (430 BCE) *.Aeneidby Virgil (29–19 BCE) *.One Thousand and One Nights(Unknown author) (700–1500) *.Beowulf(Unknown author) (975-1025) *.The Tale of Genjiby Murasaki Shikibu (11th century) *.The Divine Comedyby Dante (1265–1321) *.The Decameronby Boccacio (1349–53) *.The Canterbury Talesby Chaucer (14th century) 2Read the classics from 1600-1913.Though a large amount of material is covered in these measly 300 years, reading the books from the time period when the novel emerged until the beginning of World War I will give you a sense of the progress that the novel and other works had *.Don Quixoteby Cervantes 1605 (part 1), 1615 (part 2) *.Othello,King Lear,andHamlet,by William Shakespeare (1609, 1608, 1603) *.Gulliver's Travelsby Jonathan Swift (1726) *.Pride and Prejudiceby Jane Austen (1813) *.Faustby Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1832) *.Le Père Goriotby Honoré de Balzac (1835) *.Dead Soulsby Nikolai Gogol (1842) *.Wuthering Heightsby Emily Brontë (1847) *.Moby-Dickby Herman Melville (1851) *.Madame Bovaryby Gustave Flaubert (1856) *.Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens (1861) *.War and PeaceandAnna Kareninaby Leo Tolstoy (1869, 1877) *.Heart of Darknessby Joseph Conrad (1899) *.Crime and PunishmentandThe Brothers Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866, 1880) *.Middlemarchby George Eliot (1871) 3Read the classics from 1914-1995.This time period spans the advent of Modernism, an experimental form of fiction, as well as a rebellion against traditional narratives. Reading the classics of this time period will help you gain an understanding of the dramatic transformation of *.In Search of Lost Timeby Marcel Proust (1913–27) *.Ulyssesby James Joyce (1922) *.The Magic Mountainby Thomas Mann (1924) *.The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) *.The Trialby Franz Kafka (1925) *.Mrs DallowayandTo the Lighthouseby Virginia Woolf (1925, 1927) *.The Sound and the Furyby William Faulkner (1929) *.The Strangerby Albert Camus (1942) *.The Fountainheadby Ayn Rand (1943) *.Nineteen Eighty-Fourby George Orwell (1949) *.The Catcher in the Ryeby J.D. Salinger (1951) *.Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison (1952) *.The Sun Also RisesandThe Old Man and the Seaby Ernest Hemingway (1926, 1952) *.Lolitaby Vladimir Nabokov (1955) *.Pedro Páramoby Juan Rulfo (1955) *.Things Fall Apartby Chinua Achebe (1958) *.Rabbit, Runby John Updike (1960) *.To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee (1960) *.The Golden Notebookby Doris Lessing (1962) *.The Bell Jarby Sylvia Plath (1963) *.One Hundred Years of Solitudeby Gabriel García Márquez (1967) *.Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut (1969) 4Read more contemporary classics from 1980 to the present.Though these books haven't stood the test of decades of time, there are still a number of contemporary novels that are so popular that it may feel like everyone has read them. In fact, reading these books may make *.Midnight's Childrenby Salman Rushdie (1981) *.The Handmaid's Taleby Margaret Atwood (1984) *.Belovedby Toni Morrison (1987) *.The Wind-Up Bird Chronicleby Haruki Murakami (1997) *.American Pastoralby Philip Roth (1997) *.The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy (1997) *.Disgraceby J. M. Coetzee (1999) *.White Teethby Zadie Smith (2000) *.Atonementby Ian McEwan (2001) *.The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klayby Michael Chabon (2001) *.Everything is Illuminated by Johnathan Safran Foer (2002) *.Middlesexby Jeffery Eugenides *.The Kite Runnerby Kahled Hosseini (2003) *.The Known Worldby Edward P. Jones (2003) *.Gileadby Marilynne Robinson (2004) *.The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007) *.2666by Roberto Bolaño (2008) *.Swamplandia!by Karen Russell (2011) *.The short stories of Alice Munro EditPart 2 of 3: Becoming Well-Read in Different Genres 1Read short stories.Short stories are an incredible genre all their own, and if you really want to be well read, then you have to read the short stories of classic masters as well as some contemporary short stories.