As a writer, I am the first to tell you that everyone should read more. I am an avid reader. But, I have actually been strugling recently with a pretty heavy bout of a reading slump. I typically read about 2-3 books a month. I am a huge fan of a bang, bang, shoot em up, but I expanded my genre to include everything from horror to legal thrillers, autobiographies, and historical non-fiction. I was asked the other day if I thought I was well read and I had to pause. My instint is to say yes, but then I thought about the definition, and all of a sudden I was in the middle of a philisophical conversation about whether or not I was, in fact, a well read man. So, I dove deep into the subject and came back with this thought: Being well read is different for most men, and here is how you should look at it.
The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. – Mark Twain
Is it a TBR?
A to-be-read list is when someone like me, who gets distracted by shiny things, decide that they have to have a book simply because there is a great synopsis on the back, simply because there is the author on the byline that you love, or because the cover art makes you think it will be an awesome representation of everything you love. In short, a TBR is just a list of books you want to leave because it is up your alley.
So, being well read, does it just mean you have read a lot of books? If I read all thirty plus Alex Cross novels by James Patterson, am I well read? If I read all of the thirty plus Jack Reacher novels, does that make me well read? What if I dive into everything Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings franchises have to offer? Does that make me well read? I am unsure.
If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads. – François Mauriac
Is it a certain checklist?
Ok, so if your TBR doesn’t make you well read, does that mean it is the content of your books? Does that mean you should be diving deep into a bunch of books you must read lists? I read Dracula. I read The Art of War. I read Masks of Masculinity. At the end of the day, I felt almost nothing after readign them. When I read Dracula, I actually had to wear spikes on my feet simply to stay awake. When I read The Art of War, I was fourteen years old and might as well have been staring into the human brain. And when I read Masks of Masculinity I was in a place where the book really hit home with me.
So does the content matter? Or is only if you are in a good place to read it?
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
What does it mean?
Are you well read? Well, here are my criteria:
- Are you inspired? You can read something you like, but where does it go? If I read Jack Carr’s Terminal List series, am I inspired by James Reece’s actions? Or entertained by his badassness? Both are valid. But to be well read, you need to find your inspiration for change or progress within the pages.
- Do you come away from it a different person? When I read Free Fall by Kyle Mills, it was a turning point in my life. Is the book life altering? No. But it was the book that turned me into a reader. When I read that book, I started picking up books by Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, and Matthew Quirk. The entertainment may not have taught me a lot, but it created a curiosity I chase every day.
- Finally, do you find yourself able to critically think for yourself? The truth is, there is a difference between comprehending what you are reading and using it to form your own thought process, and memorizing and regurgetating the information you consume. If all you are doing is the latter, then there is little value to what you’re reading.
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all. – Abraham Lincoln
Looking at this list, are you well read? Or do you just read?
