Time Investment & Reading

This is a bit off the topic of Folio, but I consider Folio devotees to likely have a higher intellectual to ignorant ratio than most groups of people and would like your opinions:

Being a person obsessed with digesting as much knowledge and wisdom as possible, I have concluded that life is, unfortunately, not long enough to read every great work. So, the question is:

What genre's should a person seeking wisdom concentrate on? For example:
Fictional Literature or Non-Fiction?
What type of Non-Fiction (Science, Philosophy, History, Humanities)?
Classic Philosophy or Modern Philosophy?
Ancient History or Modern History?

I suppose these questions are too broad and, perhaps, unanswerable. But, to focus my question; should I concentrate on Roman history and Plato or is it more practical to understand quantum mechanics, Camus, and/or the details of current events?

Or is this an unhealthy obsession and I should just spend more time with my wife, excelling in my career, and/or volunteering my time to helping people and causes?

-Mark

Whatever takes your interest. My reading jumps around like mad - about 50/50 fiction-nonfiction. Just go with the flow (unless there's specific knowledge you need to know).

It's been quite a while since any one person could ingest all current knowledge, so pursuing that goal is a wee bit pointless.

Cicero78, that queston is exactly what I have been thinking about these last couple of months before I joined FS in November 2009.

If its wisdom you seek and want a classical education then the Harvard Classics is your way to go. Check wikipedia for more information. It will give you at least a foundation to build on, coupled with literature of the 20th century your good to go.

For me, variety is the spice of life. My early education was classical but I went on to study history. Later, I developed an interest in nineteenth century English literature. Diaries, biographies and eyewitness accounts are another passion. I have quite a large collection of different translations of the Bible. I love books on art and anything concerning books themselves, e.g. printing, binding, illustration, cataloguing, etc. But I'm also interested in sciences like cosmology, linguistics and psychology, and devour any book on these subjects that's not too technical. There is never enough time to read all I would like, but I try to maintain the variety of my interests, even though I shall never be a master of any of them.

I agree with Boldface - we all need a bit of everything. My early study was in the Classics, but I was fairly widely read in more modern fiction. I now tend towards histories of all eras, and until recently have ignored fiction. Personally, I have little interest in art or science, but from time to time something will take my interest. I have a particular love of local history, but that is not from a literary perspective.

Cicero, you said that the question may not be answerable, and I think that is true. A specific area of study will make an expert, but to the detriment of everything else.

And yes, you should spend more time with your wife, excel at your career if possible, and give something back to the community too!

I read anything and everything voraciously. I love the classics, I love non-fiction but I'm equally as interested in whatever else is popular at the time (even if I don't always like it). I draw the line at Dan Brown, but yes, you will find Twilight in my collection. I figure that life's too short not to enjoy my reading experience and whilst learning from classical lit and non-fiction is great, there's also time for purely switching off with a quick read. But everyone should understand quantum physics (actually, that's my aim this year ... seriously).

> Hi Cicero

A very good book which answers your question and which I would recommend would be The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.

I believe there is also what someone called an "aristotelian" principle.
You get increasingly more pleasure out of a complex activity or subject. As you progressively learn more about it.
An amateur should limit his own nerdiness anyway:-)Some time ago I became interested in Weimar Republic and WWII.
Then I thought: Am I really gonna read this serious Himmler biography? No, that's already enough , let's leave it at that..:)

> 8

Yes we do that: meander through life and its attractions. Stopping off to sample then move on.

That's okay.

There is no rule book.

Read what interests you, throw in some of the established classics, and enjoy yourself.

> 10

Yes Fiona.

We don't need to read a list akin to the missionary position to be well read.

:-0

>6 klarusu:

"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." - Richard Feynman (and he should know!).

>1 Cicero78:

First, I think that to some extent, you are a dedicated reader or you are not. If you have developed a habit of lifelong reading, you will probably continue. The chances of becoming an avid reader in a challenging/technical area on your own if you are not in the habit of reading regularly are probably low. Constant readers do so because they enjoy the activity first and foremost.

I read fiction for pleasure and history for pleasure and information. The fiction I read must be real quality, however, or else I find it painful. If the history is too unfamiliar, technical, or written in a style that I find forbidding, I don't feel obligated to finish the book. I give the book a really good try, but if I find I'm getting depressed trying to get through it, I give it up. No book is worth sacrificing my mental state.

I have an MD and completed a psychiatry residency, so I refuse to read anything that touches on the hard sciences, although I enjoy some medical history, specifically the history of the Black Death. I also particularly enjoy fiction which explores psychological processes in the characters.

For me, the very best books are ones that are enjoyable and that I learn from, so that the world becomes more meaningful. Isn't that what it's all about?

What is wisdom other than the awareness of one's own ignorance? The more you read, the more this awareness grows, no matter what the content.

I agree with just about everything said on this topic. I read from a plan, and also interrupt the plan routinely for something that catches my eye or was recommended or simply because the next book on my reading list just doesn't appeal at the time. I am often reading two or three books at a time, but sometimes focus on one. All based on how I feel about it at the time.

However, in the spirit of some ideas for a long-term idea of where you're headed, I did build my reading list as follows:

I took the Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman and pulled from it all that I thought I'd be likely to actually read. I added to that the books from the "100 Greatest Books of the Western World" program. From then on, I've added books recommended by others, highlighted/cited/quoted in other books, just run across while browsing a catalog or bookstore shelf, and received via the LT early reviewers program. I've also added National Book Award winners and Booker prize winners.

End result - though I was reading about 40 books a year back when I started this list, and now read about 60 books a year, my 'to read' list has grown from about 10 years in length to about 12 years now. That's just fine, since I don't expect to ever get to the point where I expect to live less than 10 more years. :-)

Os.

I read whatever catches my eye - I have some specific interests but in a lot of cases I will simply read something because it sounded interesting. There is no bad book (ok.. technically there are but even they can teach you something) so...

Had I read everything that some people consider minimum for being well-educated and so on? Certainly not. Do I care? Absolutely not.

Reading is your own way of finding out the world. So don't allow people to tell you how to go about it.

I agree completely with AnnieMod.

I'm with the people who said "follow your own instincts". While it's good to have some sort of plan, it's in the nature of reading that you will constantly discover new directions to follow.

If you really feel you need some external system to tell you what to read next, you might be better off signing up for a few courses rather than buying a self-help book: that way you get the extra stimulus of essay deadlines and discussions with other students. And "I've got college work to do" is so much more convincing than "I'd rather sit and read for a bit" when it comes to domestic chores...

Once you've built up a good collection of books that really interest you, particularly in the non-fiction areas, you will find that they themselves will begin to dictate where you go from there.

For example, reading Boswell's diaries suggested getting the Letters. Rummaging in a secondhand bookshop one day, I found a book all about the incredible story of how the Boswell Papers came to scholarly attention in the 1920s and beyond. An edition of Boswell I bought from a New York dealer contained a bookplate by Rockwell Kent that got me interested in his art. Then came the FS's Moby Dick with his illustrations. Johnson led me to the Thrales and Mary Hyde's books, such as The Impossible Friendship. Then I noticed that my edition of Johnson's letters was the Hyde Edition. That led me on to finding out more about Donald and Mary Hyde and their amazing Johnson collection at Four Oaks Farm and Mary's limited edition books on how the collection came about. Reading biographies of Pepys made me aware of his later diaries and letters. He also introduced me to Evelyn. Background reading in these areas led me on to Anthony Wood and Aubrey. Behind all this lies the general history of the period.

In fact, it's a constant battle to hold back on all the books which are revealed by what I'm already reading. I could easily limit myself to this organic process alone, but then I would not be able to afford all the new things that come to my attention. In the end it's not a question of what to read, but what not to read.

>Once you've built up a good collection of books that really interest you, particularly in the non-fiction areas, you will find that they themselves will begin to dictate where you go from there.

Yeah, that might explain how I end up with more and more Tudor books :)) Nothing to do with me always having with me the bibliography from a few of the better ones... and keeping an eye on all that get published in the area. Or so I claim.

>19 boldface:

I agree with boldface: reading should be a natural progress of ones own interests. There is no reason in living someone else's life by reading what they have read. Reading should describe your personality

"Read what interests you, throw in some of the established classics, and enjoy yourself."

Golden advice.

"Wisdom" is elusive, and who says that those who don't read strictly for pleasure aren't the wisest of all?

Besides, you'll never understand quantum theory.

I agree with Boldface's observation about finding one's own path from book to book, particularly for non-fiction. My most recent path has been from Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water to W. Stanley Moss's Ill Met by Moonlight and onto George Psychoundakis's The Cretan Runner (all available from Folio Society).

As for fiction, I have a stable of authors that I try to read at least one book of year from their oeuvre: Henry James, Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, Kingsley Amis, P.G. Wodehouse, John Banville, V.S. Naipaul, Robert Graves, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Martin Amis, Thomas Hardy and Anthony Burgess (some, such as Charles Dickens and Anthony Powell, I've already been through--and I look forward to re-reading them soon).

Thank you for the thoughtful responses.

Indeed, the more I read, the more aware I become of my own ignorance. Confucius wrote "When you know a thing, to recognize you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to recognize that you do not know it. That is knowledge." (Book 2.17)

The world is an interesting place. I suppose it's better to have a wide range of knowledge, than specialize to the detriment of everything else. Longfellow wrote "As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so change of studies a dull brain". (Table-Talk)

Ultimately, it's all about laying in my comfy bed with my wife, and perhaps the cat, with a quality Folio in my hands and the timeless words of a great writer in my mind.

Happy Reading!

-Mark

Post Script: I haven't given up on quantum mechanics...yet.

Old thread.. but here's a real polymath with a couple of well made points about when you should struggle with your readings; and when you should not bother.