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How well read are you?

B

Boggles

New Member
I'm interested in how many books everyone has read.
I'm 23 and for the last couple of years I've been compliling a list of the books I've read.

At the moment I've just passed the 100 mark. Most of thses have been read in the last 3 years or so.

How many books do you think you have read approximately? and how many do you think the great writers would have read by the time they were 23? Probably a lot more than 100?
 
I have probably read thousands of books, as I love reading and am a very fast reader (at primary school, the teachers never believed I'd actually read the books so quickly and used to quiz me on what they were about. Once I'd answered correctly a few times they stopped bothering!)

I'm not sure whether having read so many books makes me well-read - maybe it's more to do with the type of books you read? In my case, not many have been "literary" works by "great writers" such as Dickens, Tolstoy etc. I prefer to read Pratchett and King! (By the way, I'm not implying here that these authors are "not as good" as others - they are great writers but they are not generally held in such high regard as the literary types.) I worked out that I had read 40 of the Big Read's Top 100, but a significant amount were children's books or books I had read and studied at school.

So - am I well read? Well, I have read a lot of books!:D
 
I had hundreds of books as a child, and I still do now. My bookcases all have double sets of books on each shelf and I tend to buy at least 3-5 books a week though how many I get through depends on how busy I am.
 
Depends on the definition - I have a B.A. in English so I suppose by most people's definition I am well read but sometimes I feel a touch depressed that I will never get to all the books I want to read. If only I could stay at home and read instead of going to work, I might get there.
I used to try and read only "literary" works but now I read 1 to every 2 genre books I read. At this point, I enjoy a good read no matter where I find it.
 
Yeh, it helps to have a lot of free time. Being a student, I spend quite a lot of my time reading - rather than watching Quincy etc.

I wonder, out of all the 'great' writers, who actually read the most books. Someone like Joyce maybe? To be that wordy, he would have to have been quite a feverish reader. I wonder whether working so close up, reading and writing, was in some responsible for the demise of his eye sight? I guess we'll never know.

I wonder if it has more of an impact to be well read at an early age, than to read the equivalent at a later stage in life. Maybe when you are young, and you brain is especially tuned into developing language skills, reading is more beneficial.
 
For some years, I was buying and reading an average of a book a day, so I must have read thousands. I grew up surrounded by books, with a mother who read to us from the time we were babies and who always loved books. By the age of three, I had taught myself to read by asking my mother letters and words as she read to me. I think early experiences with books are very helpful.
 
I've read way too many to count - I have read 85 this year. I read whenever I can, my house is filled with books. (however, Bookgatherer up there with the book a day has me in awe!!).

I would like to just take a month off of work and do nothing but read. Not everything that I read is quality literature, I like to read fluff too, I read to be entertained, not only to learn.
 
i'll admit it: i am not well read. usually i only read novels when i am required to for school :-/ (i write alot though). recently i've been trying to read more on my spare time so i can be more productive instead of brainwashing myself in front of the tv or... this computer lol. but yeah... i have good intentions in reading more.
 
I've read probably thousands of books, but I still don't consider myself well-read. I won't consider myself well-read until I've read all of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Poe, Wordsworth, and the countless others I don't have room to list. And then to be well-read you have to have a good grasp on contemporary authors, so Stephen King, Clive Cussler (in my opinion at least), Sidney Sheldon, Mary Higgins Clark, etc.

The Bad news? That's just English literature...
 
I've read mostly philosophy, a significant amount on international politics, and am beginning to make a dent in literature. I'm starting to gather a significant pile of literature finished on my bookshelves, but there is much more than I can ever hope to get to.

Although I do agree to be well read you should have a grasp on contemporary authors, I would take that to be people like Rushdie, Roy, Achebe, Vonnegut, Naipaul, Saramango, Marquez, Borges, Murakami, Suzuki....authors writing to reflect or say things, rather than to just entertain. Nothing against King or Higgins, they are good writers, they just seemingly choose to use their writing to entertain rather than educate.

Anyway, I think it's significantly more plausible to be well read in certain areas. Making the claim of being well read as a whole is too ambiguous.
 
I just want to clarify one thing I said in my last post. I can't think of too many (or any...) contemporary authors whose works I'd consider "literature". King has the most promise in my opinion, even though I don't really like his style. Cussler, though I love him to pieces, isn't exactly on the same level as Mark Twain or Charles Dickens. I just think that it's impossible to consider oneself well-read if they don't read modern authors.
 
I am a really slow reader. But it's weird cause I'm probably the fastest reader at my school but whenever I'm on boards and stuff I'm always the one who seems to be reading at an extremely slow pace :( .

Being a slow reader, I probably haven't read that many books... maybe 20. Should be more though... cause I'm a very avid reader... but slow.
 
I don't know how many I have read but for sure it's well over a thousand.

Am I well read? Not really, but I am getting there slowly. Maybe when I am 60 years old :-D
 
I've probably read around 1,000...that's because I did not read very much during my first four years of college (I was an engineer, this does not require much reading). Like Wabbit, to truly be well-read it will take a while, though I have made some dent as far as English literature. Judging by people's "must-read" lists, I'm about 1/3 of the way to being "well-read" across cultures & genres.
 
I really couldn't hazard a guess how many books I've read in my lifetime (and no, contrary to rumours, I am not Methusaleh's sister!) - but I am fairly 'fussy' about what I read. I have TRIED to read people like Dickens and Walter Scott, for instance - but have yet to finish anything by either of them!

When I was at school we had many 'set' books to be read per term. Also a set to read during the summer holidays (approx 12 books, I recall - with 8 being 'musts' and four being 'if you have time').

I read a lot for research purposes in my daily work. Great excuse for sitting reading!

For the past five years or so, I have mainly read light fiction, thrillers etc... But I do buy the Whitbread Prize book every year - some of which I've enjoyed and some of which I didn't bother to finish. I also check the reviews in the Sunday Times and the TES every week. If a review 'grabs' my attention, then I would normally buy the book.
 
Halo said:
I have probably read thousands of books, as I love reading and am a very fast reader (at primary school, the teachers never believed I'd actually read the books so quickly and used to quiz me on what they were about. Once I'd answered correctly a few times they stopped bothering!)
Click to expand...

The above paragraph from Halo is true for me as well.
I do read " classic" literature, poetry etc but I'm just as happy with junk reading: Pratchett, King, Wambaugh, Gemmell, The Wheel of Bloody Time ....

I'm not as well read as I'd like to be but I do consider myself to be pretty well read. As Ashlea says there will never be enough time to read all the books I'd like to. Unless I live for ever and I'm doing my best on that one so far.

And I do the Times and Guardian crosswords. A good knowledge base of classical literature really helps with them.
 
Anecdotally, John Milton was said to have read every book in existence and that was also the professed goal of Matthew Arnold. In fact, it was very stylish for a while to be, as a gentleman, working your way through a vast library of classics. However, the number of books in existence in Milton's day (17th Cent.) was a tiny fraction of what exists now, and back then there was a LOT less crap. Even Matthew Arnold had it much easier in the 19th.
 
I, too, have read a lot of books since third grade (I had a reading problem) when I discovered Nancy Drew that turned me on to books. Since that time, I have read all types. About six years ago, I read classics for about a year, and although some of them were difficult, enjoyed my time with them.

Right now, I'm reading mysteries, except when some of my favorite authors come out - Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Jonathan Kellerman, Tony Hillerman, Nevada Barr, Marcia Muller, to name only a few.

My surprise for Thanksgiving Day was my husband's brother gave me about 15 to 20 paperbacks to read - a mixture of everything from mysteries to westerns.
 
I have no idea how many books I've read. Even the ones I think worthy of keeping for a second read number in the thousands. I have boxes and boxes of books in storage. But "well read"? I don't know how to define that. If it means lots of different genre, then I'd have to say yes. If it means "having exposed myself to as many possible concepts and ideas as plausible, then probably not. I find I have a taste for certain books, and those books expose me to new ideas and concepts, so that I'll seek out more information.

I don't know of anyone who is "well read", though. It would be all you could do to keep up with new offerings. :)
 
I would say that I have read about 100 books in the last year or so. But now I have started studying again and don't have to much time to read books and I only read about one book a week.
The books I have read so far probably doesn't make me think myself as well read, since I have mainly been reading fantasy.
 
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