NYT's T-Magazine: How to be cultured

The New York Times T-Magazine has a special issue on How to Be Cultured, one section of which includes books.* They offered a shared link opportunity, so I hope it works! (Not that anyone here lacks culture but maybe you overlooked some of the cuisine items):

NYT T-Mag, 04/17/2026: shared link: How to Be Cultured.

*I cited it in my April-June books thread, but the lists were too long to provide each & every. Many of the books were new to me, so I may not be ready for polite society.

Sadly I can't get to the "Books You Should Have Read" page. I never take these things too seriously, but I do find good book recommendations sometimes.

>2 Cecrow: Sorry the shared link didn't work; maybe I need to share the link for each section (w/my few remaining links). In any case, I'll try to re-create the particular one you refer to:


What You Should’ve Read By Age … Hope this works!

... 10 "According to the writer and illustrator Carson Ellis, 50, the author of the children’s books ‘Home’ (2015) and ‘Du Iz Tak?’ (2016)."

‘D’Aulaires’ Book of Trolls (1972) by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
‘Last Stop on Market Street’ (2015), written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson
‘Who Needs Donuts?’ (1973) by Mark Alan Stamaty

... 20 "According to the writer Jacqueline Woodson, 63, the author of ‘Brown Girl Dreaming’ (2014), ‘Another Brooklyn’ (2016) and ‘Remember Us’ (2023)."

‘Sula’ (1973) by Toni Morrison
‘Brutal Imagination’ (2001) by Cornelius Eady

… 30 "According to the singer-songwriter Dua Lipa, 30, the founder of Service95 Book Club."

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985) by Margaret Atwood
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949) by George Orwell
‘Norwegian Wood’ (2000) by Haruki Murakami

... 40 "According to the writer Esi Edugyan, 48, the author of ‘Half-Blood Blues’ (2011) and ‘Washington Black’ (2018)."

‘Barney’s Version’ (1997) by Mordecai Richler
‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ (1985) by Gabriel García Márquez
‘War & Peace’ (1869) by Leo Tolstoy

… 50 "According to the writer Hernan Diaz, 52, the author of ‘In the Distance’ (2017), ‘Trust’ (2022) and the forthcoming novel ‘Ply’ (September 2026).'

‘Don Quixote’ (1605-15) by Miguel de Cervantes
‘Mrs. Dalloway’ (1925) by Virginia Woolf
‘I Remember’ (1975) by Joe Brainard

… 60 "According to the writer Bernardine Evaristo, 66, the author of ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ (2019) and ‘Mr. Loverman’ (2013)."

‘Kindred’ (1979) by Octavia E. Butler
‘Quicksand’ (1928) and ‘Passing’ (1929) by Nella Larsen

… 70 "According to the writer Valerie Martin, 78, the author of ‘Mary Reilly’ (1990) and ‘Property’ (2003)."

‘Resurrection’ (1899) by Leo Tolstoy
‘The Infatuations’ (2011) by Javier Marías

… 80 "According to the writer Armistead Maupin, 81, the author of ‘Tales of the City’ (1978-2024)."

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (1960) by Harper Lee
‘A Single Man’ (1964) by Christopher Isherwood

… 90 "According to the writer, director and actor André Gregory, 91, a co-author and co-star of the film ‘My Dinner With André’ (1981)."

‘Hope Against Hope’ (1970) by Nadezhda Mandelstam
‘The World of Yesterday’ (1942) by Stefan Zweig

Personal note: wondering what Murakami to read after The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which I'm now reading & enjoying, so I appreciate the suggestion, will try some Dua Lipa in xchange. Also would like to read some Marias since I haven't yet -- haven't even heard of the one on the suggestion list! Maybe should get a jump on the 80/90 books, just sayin'. If you do get to the actual T page, you will get the selector comments. Wonder what's the right age for Proust? First reading in late 20s, then over the previous & part of this year at age 75-76 -- actually seemed harder the 2nd time around, or maybe Scott Moncrieff simplified & the Penguin translators didn't?

>3 featherbear: Thank you for doing that for us. It's always interesting to read a list like that, to mentally check mark those already read but inevitably wonder about those books missing, and sometimes heartily disagree with some on the list. I enjoy the "game."

>4 DebiCates: Thanks. Just to verify -- did the shared link to the "What you should've read by age ..." work?

>5 featherbear:, it's working for me when I couldn't access it before; thanks!

>5 featherbear: It technically worked. But before I could read the whole book page, it went behind a pay firewall.

>7 DebiCates: It appears NYT allows only one share per link, but I'm allowed repeat, so: What You Should’ve Read By Age ….

>8 featherbear: I won't use the link, unless there is more than what you listed for us.

>9 DebiCates: Just the comments by the selectors

>10 featherbear: Well now, that convinced me to take you up on the link. I just added like 10 books to my TBR, ha. A descriptive recommendation by an admirer of a work does make a difference, doesn't it? Thank you again!

While Public Books pats itself on the back, I can't help but notice that the site hardly reviews books any more.

Geraldo Cadava, Nicholas Dames, John Plotz. Public Books, 05/08/2026: Style Guide: An Open Letter to the Editor of T Magazine.

>12 featherbear: Since my skill at NYT links is shaky, here's a summary:

The Great Literary B-Sides:The author Michael Cunningham, 73, shares his favorite less-famous books by famous writers.

‘Romola’ (1863) by George Eliot: "“Romola” isn’t some fluky misfire better left unmentioned in light of Eliot’s greater work. It’s her only historical novel, set in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. It embraces big subjects like power, religion, art and social upheaval, but it’s not dry or overly intellectual. Its central character is a gifted, freethinking young woman named Romola, who enters a marriage so disastrous as to make Anna Karenina’s look relatively good."

‘Quiet Dell’ (2013) by Jayne Anne Phillips. "In “Quiet Dell,” her only true-crime novel, she’s at the height of her powers, which are particularly apparent when she aims her language laser at horrific events that actually occurred. Her gift for transforming skeevy little lives into what I can only call “Blade Runner” mythology is consistently stunning."

‘Solaris’ (1961) by Stanislaw Lem. "I love science and speculative fiction, but I know a lot of literary types who take pride in their utter lack of interest in it. I always urge those people to read “Solaris,” which might change their opinions about a vast number of popular books they dismiss as trivial. As far as I know, no one has yet taken me up on that."

‘Fox 8’ (2013) by George Saunders. "Once Saunders became more visible to more of us, we’d want to read a book that ventures into the consciousness of a different species (novels tend to be about human beings), that maps the differences and the overlaps in human and animal consciousness, explores the effects of language on consciousness and is great fun."

‘Between the Acts’ (1941) by Virginia Woolf. "It’s one of Woolf’s most lusciously lyrical novels. And it’s a crash course, of sorts, in her genius for conjuring worlds in which the molehill matters as much as the mountain, never mind their differences in size."

For fuller comments from Cunningham, try your luck w/this hopefully shared link:
The Great Literary B-Sides.

It is interesting and thanks for posting. However, I'm afraid I have to agree with >4 DebiCates:. What I find interesting is the idea that How to be Cultured only includes fiction. My personal perspective is being well read in a wide variety of non-fiction goes a long way to becoming what I understand it means to be cultured.

>14 alco261: The T-Magazine issue has categories, in addition to literature (including poetry, not just fiction) for: film, art, food, music, theater, architecture & design, & fashion (design & fashion tend to be the usual focus of T-Magazine). Perhaps the editors could have included etiquette (social media, driving, not reporting people using non-English languages on the telephone in public), but I agree that a list of non-fiction in multiple categories would be of interest. Possible categories: History -- Philosophy -- Literary Criticism -- Sociology -- Medical -- Environment (I'm fond of The Burning Earth: an environmental history of the last 500 Years which is both history & environment) -- Anthropology -- Biography -- Natural History -- Political Science -- General Science -- Essays -- Old Age -- Motherhood/Fatherhood/Parenting. I'm sure there are plenty of other worthwhile topics to show one's cultural bona fides in polite society.*

And then, what are the cultural faux-pas in the reading categories? Norman Mailer? Neil Gaiman? Donald Trump? Saul Bellow? Philip Roth?**

*Memoirs -- Correspondence -- for want of a better term: Cultural Classics, (e.g. Iliad/Odyssey, Aeneid, Old/New Testaments, Ramayana, Mahabarata, Journey to the West, Tale of Genji, Story of the Stone, Three Kingdoms, Shanahmeh, Gilgamesh) ...
**Harold Bloom, Alice Munro, J.K. Rowling, Ayn Rand ...