<p>Also: Siddhartha or other by Hernmann Hesse; Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton; Virginai Woolf; Toni Morrison; Sylvia Plath;</p>
<p>Plays are almost alway better experienced in the theatre so I would leave out the obvious playwrites.</p>
<p>There are far to many worthy books and authors to mention. However as a general rule of thumb I believe a seriour reader should choose a wide variety of works-fiction/nonfiction/poetry, classics/modern, sacred texts, western/non-western.</p>
<p>Among the most moving books I have read in the past 10 years is the four book fiction series(The Buru Quartet) by Pramoedya Anata Toer, concieved while a political prisoner in Indonesia.</p>
<p>Am I wrong in thinking that a well-read person is one who is also current with news, news analysis and opinion? In other words, reads good newspapers and magazines?</p>
<p>While it is not literature itself, I’m really enjoying reading
“How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas Foster
right now. This book would have been wasted on me in college,
but now it is just fun.</p>
<p>Of the books that I’ve read in the last decade, Bowling Alone
had the biggest effect on me.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone has mentioned any of the South American authors. The obvious two are *A Thousand Years of Solitude <a href=“which%20I%20should%20put%20on%20the%20I%20don’t%20get%20list,%20as%20I’ve%20never%20gotten%20more%20than%2050%20pages%20in,%20but%20others%20obviously%20do”>/I</a>, and Isabel Allende’s *House of the Spirits<a href=“which%20I%20loved.”>/I</a></p>
<p>It’s only 100 Years of Solitude, mathmom. (Maybe it just SEEMED like 1,000.)</p>
<p>^^ROTFL!</p>
<p>Adding to previous lists, mine would include Pascal, Pens</p>
<p>
Please don’t make anyone read Siddhartha. Really. It’s cruel and has been banned by the UN Council on Imprisonment and Torture.</p>
<p>“What would you suggest they read?”</p>
<p>I would go through the 180+ countries in the world today, and find the one (ONLY ONE) most famous author or poet (doesn’t have to be the “most” famous, just in the top pantheon) from each of the countries, and read his/her most famous book. </p>
<p>You’ll end up far better educated than if you went the traditional great books route, far more conversant with the forces that have made the world what it is today, and learn heaps about the interpenetration of cultures and traditions. </p>
<p>You’ll also end up with your share of offerings to Santa Minutia, the patron saint of library cataloguers:</p>
<p><a href=“http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~murrizol/ts_history/tshist.htm[/url]”>http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~murrizol/ts_history/tshist.htm</a></p>
<p>I am really puzzled about mathmom’s reaction to One Hundred Years of Solitude and House of the Spirits. When House of the Spirits came out, it struck me as such a blatant Hundred Years rip-off that without the celebrity factor I doubt it would have found a publisher. I understand people not loving One Hundred Years Of Solitude – and the last time I read it, about six years ago, I thought it had aged somewhat in the previous decade – but I’m not certain I understand not loving it and loving House of the Spirits instead.</p>
<p>To current tastes, Garcia Marquez’s OTHER great book, Love In The Time Of Cholera, holds up better than One Hundred Years. But One Hundred Years Of Solitude is one of those books you can practically count on any well-educated Western person having read, so it certainly belongs on this metaphysical list. </p>
<p>The only other Latin American author who really and truly belongs on the “well-read” list is Jose Luis Borges – any of his story collections would do. </p>
<p>That’s based on what I see as the minimum necessary qualifications for an American seeming “well read”. On the basis of pure quality, however, Latin American literature of the past 40 years provides a motherlode:</p>
<p>Mario Vargas Llosa – Garcia Marquez’s contemporary, rival, first champion, and literary equal (at least). Best books: Conversation In “The Cathedral”; The War Of The End Of The World; Aunt Julia And The Scriptwriter. Most accessible book (and best English translation): The Storyteller.</p>
<p>Julio Cortazar – Argentinian modernist ex-pat. Best book: Hopscotch (Rayuela).</p>
<p>Carlos Fuentes – Mexican Renaissance-man author/intellectual/diplomat. Best Books: Terra Nostra; Christopher Unborn. Most accessible book: The Old Gringo.</p>
<p>Jose Donoso – Chilean political exile, then not. Best Books: The Obscene Bird Of Night; Curfew (La desesperanza).</p>
<p>Roberto Bolano – much younger Chilean political exile who never returned. The Savage Detectives, his masterpiece, was just translated into English, and is attracting a lot of well-deserved attention right this minute.</p>
<p>Alfredo Bryce Echenique – aristocratic Latino-in-Paris, a South American Henry James. Best (and Only) Book in English: A World For Julius.</p>
<p>I must admit, however, if you take my approach, you’ll miss some wonderful books that will make you well read, such as Yiddish and Uighur literature:</p>
<p><a href=“http://the_uighurs.tripod.com/Liter.htm%5B/url%5D”>http://the_uighurs.tripod.com/Liter.htm</a></p>
<p>That’s because “countries” is a poor organization device for literature. “Languages” might make more sense. But, since the languages and the cultures are far from set in stone, just reading one book per language (or per country) – especially the one most famous book, which is likely to be somewhat old – is going to give you a misleading sense of culture.</p>
<p>I think is an excellent device, because it will provide a window to both national aspirations and the nation’s people, and to what they hold dear. Language won’t necessarily do that. And you will likely find a huge mix of dates, with some young and some old (I think it would likely balance similarly to the traditional “canonical” list.</p>
<p>
ROFL! It sure did.</p>
<p>PS I consider not getting it a great failing of mine. I guess the Allende lite version of magical realism was easier for me to take?</p>
<p>PPS I like Mini’s idea - I wouldn’t even know what you might choose from some countries. Thailand? Botswana?</p>
<p>WashDad, why do you dislike Siddhartha? I’m an eighteen year old non-indian male and thought it was a very good book when I read it last year.</p>
<p>Finding out what is the national literature of each country would be precisely one of the things that would make you well-read.</p>
<p>For Botswana, you would definitely read the magnificent works of Bessie Head. Thailand is harder, as the epic poetry of Sunthorn Phu is not too readily accessible to a western reader (I saw an English edition once in Thailand, in the bookstore of the Nobel Prize nominee Sulak Sivaraksa, but I don’t think I’ve seen once since); but there are lots of wonderful folktales based on the Ramayana.</p>
<p>^ I knew someone here would know. Much as I enjoyed the Ladies’ Detective Agency I didn’t think it should represent Botswana. :)</p>
<p>I never got 100 Years of Solitude either. In my flippant youth I used to call it a long book about a grandfather and a donkey.</p>
<p>I know now I just don’t like magical realism. Magic, fine. Realism, fine. Never the twain shall meet.</p>
<p>And what about the multitudes of philosophers, Western and otherwise? Or are we only talking about stories here?</p>
<p>Alumother: I did include non-literary figures on my original list, but it was just a preliminary list. I loved your French.</p>
<p>About my Eurocentric list: I do appreciate updating with Mini’s idea of reading literature from many cultures, and I tried to amend the list. My rather long list of primarily Western sources addresses the seminal (with apologies to women) texts of Western culture that are continually referenced. Glancing knowledge of them illuminates many other works that play off of these basic works or build on them.</p>
<p>Beyond that, of course mini is right; a well-read person does understand something about cultures other than his/her own, but perhaps in this case the specific work doesn’t matter quite so much unless its a “seminal” work for that culture as well.</p>
<p>JMO.</p>