...should be well read. And I mean, very well read. I've always loved the Lord Peter Wimseys and Francis Crawfords of the literary world, characters that could only be written by a truly erudite author. Ever since I could really read, I've tried to chip away at The Important Books. (This has actually backfired a bit, since reading Anna Karenina at fourteen isn't likely to end with much of an understanding of Tolstoy.) In fact, I think I'm going to end up rereading everything I read in high school for that reason...with the possible exception of Vonnegut, who I will reread because he's fantastic.
Recently, I've started trying to create a list of everything I want to read, a sort of personal canon. It's slow going. For one thing, I want this to be truly encyclopedic. For another, it's hard to make certain decisions.
Take Rabelais, for example. (Actually, please take him far away....I haven't gotten much good out of him. I started reading Gargantua and Pantagruel at the recommendation of one of my favorite professors. It's also on numerous Great Books lists such as this one. Why? I'm not entirely sure. Imagine The Canterbury Tales, but filthier, more ridiculous, and less coherent. I'm chipping away at it, but it's slow going. It may also be a case where it has to be explained to me before I can appreciate it, which is embarrassing, but oh well.
Next on the list: War and Peace. So far, I've been finding the 'war' parts boring and the 'peace' parts interesting. Here's to becoming a more educated person!
By the way, I always love comments...particularly of more things I should read, Great Books or not.
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