What do you consider to be 'well read'? I think it can be either fiction or non-fiction.

[applegrove]

Or both. My twin brother for instance reads non-fiction all the time. He's no rocket scientist but does have an opinion of the issues of the day. You?

[Xipe Totec]

1. Me? As a matter of fact, I am (was) a rocket scientist...

And I read both fiction and non-fiction. But those categories are too broad to have much meaning.

In one letter to a friend, just a few days ago, I mentioned four books (five, if you count the references within the books to other books)

1.- The Day the Universe Changed
2.- A History of the Warfare Between Science and Theology in Christendom
3.- How to Win Friends and Influence People
4.- Science, Scientists, and Society
5.- Molloy, by Samuel Beckett (indirectly reference in 4)

[bemildred]

2. I think you need both to be well read. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. To be well-read, you need to read real books, not

just the sports pages or computer magazines.

One year when I was still teaching, I asked my students (language teachers can ask snoopy questions if they fit into the linguistic structures being taught) how many books they had read over the winter break, which was six weeks for those who didn't take a January Term class. Out of a class of 15, seven had read no books. Zero. (I thought, "What did they DO for six weeks?" but then, one student said that her hobbies were "cheerleading and listening to the radio.&quot Of the rest, most had read one potboiler. Only one student had read anything serious: Gore Vidal's Lincoln and whatever Stephen Jay Gould's latest book was at the time. If that student has kept up that habit, he is now very well-read.

[dimbear]

5. Nobody can be well read nowadays. Not that many hours in a day.

500 years ago you could have read every book ever written.

Now to read 1% of them would burn up your life.

[phasma ex machina]

6. The Bible and Shakespeare form the basic foundation of literacy.

Only the story of David's relationship with Uriah or Iago's relationship with Othello can reveal some truths.

[craigmatic]

7. Any history book dealing with the US from beginning to present maybe animal farm

, communist manifesto, or grapes of wrath. Anything by Hemingway or Walter Mosley.

[RC]

14. The problem with too many history books are

they are merely propaganda pushing the views of the authors. The plains Indians versions and the US military's are a well know case in point.

[bhikkhu]

8. Here's a good list:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3672376/110-best-books-The-perfect-library.html

Both fiction and non-fiction, of course.

[JDPriestly]

9. I have read a lot, but I hope that I can read, read, read much more.

I own a lot of books I have not yet read. I love history and mysteries.

[Morning Dew]

10. As I age, I read more non-fiction.

If I could only have one book, though, it would be East Of Eden.

[exboyfil]

11. I have made it a practice to read

whatever my older daughter has been assigned to read for English so that I can interact with her on the books. I also read the books I assign to my younger daughter for her Homeschooling in English.

Next semester I get to read a favorite of mine once again, 1984. This semester I got to read Death of a Salesman, In Cold Blood, To Kill a Mockingbird, MacBeth, Fahrenheit 451. Brave New World, and Anthem. I am also personally working my way through the Oxford History of the United States (through audiobook) along with A People's History of the United States.

I try to keep up with some of my kids' popular reading like reading the Harry Potter series in a little over a week (that was done by combination audiobook and actual reading).

I probably average a book a week. In addition to the literature which my kids read. I enjoy reading history and science books. I leverage my exercise time by also listening to audiobooks.

The biggest time waster is the idiot box (or the idiot rectangle now). Probably next biggest waster is DU.

I am also currently reading a marvelous book now that comes highly recommended: "A History of the World in 100 Objects".

To be well read means that you should have read the best exemplar of a wide variety of authors and/or ages.

[pinboy3niner]

12. Depends on what you mean by 'well read'

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. imo it has to be both

you read non-fiction for your field of expertise & interests and fiction for literature.