Saturday, June 27, 2015

Well Read... What Does That Mean?

Back in May, the topic of being "well read" came up in three different conversations I found myself in and all of the conversations occurred within a seven to ten day time span.  While not completely unfathomable, I did find it highly unusual that this random topic kept coming up, especially given that the conversations were with various friends, co-workers, and family members, all of which come from different aspects of my life.

All of the conversations were intriguing and most everyone involved offered an opinion as to what he/she thought being "well read" meant.  Some stated that they thought it was based on the number of books a person has read; others stated that it was based on the diversity of the books.  Most, like me, stated that they had a vague notion of what being "well read" meant, but had no clear cut criteria.  


So, here is the question at hand.  If someone is said to be "well read," what exactly does that mean?  Is it based on the number of books that a person has read and if so, what is that magic number?  Or, is it based on the variety of books that a person has read?  If being well read is based on diversity, are there specific genres that must be read from and if so, what are those genres?  Is a specific number of genres required or, to muddy the waters even more, is there a specific number of books from within each genre that must be read?  


See how confusing this can be?


So, what are your thoughts on the subject?  




4 comments:

  1. For me, being well read means a person who read a variety of books which lead him to be quiet knowledgeable... well, It's definitely not me, I do love to read all sorts of blogs though.

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  2. I think this is definitely a description that is open to all sorts of interpretation. As I reader, I'm not even sure I have a personal definition of "well read".

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  3. To me it is about knowing things, a wide variety of books rather than all the same topics, I guess it's open to interpretation really.

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  4. hmmm i always assumed it meant someone read a wide variety of books, or was well educated. ie not me haha no matter how many books i read!

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