You don't need serious books to be well read

What does it actually mean to be well read? Most of us absorbed an idea somewhere along the way that certain books are serious and certain books aren't. That being well read means working through the approved list, the canonical texts, the prize winners, the books you're supposed to have read. This video is about why that idea is wrong. Being well read has nothing to do with the prestige of what you've read. It has everything to do with what reading has done to you. Has a book ever made you reconsider something you believed? Given you a way of seeing the world you didn't have before? Left something in you that wouldn't leave? That's the standard. Genre is irrelevant. Science fiction has been doing the intellectual work that literary fiction gets praised for since before most of the canon was assembled. Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick — to dismiss science fiction requires dismissing these writers. The same argument holds for crime fiction, horror, translated fiction, formally difficult fiction, and everything the canon systematically ignores. The Western literary canon is not a neutral list of objectively great books. It's a position held by institutions — universities, publishers, prize committees — with specific interests. And none of those institutions benefit from readers following their curiosity freely. Read what genuinely interests you. Stay with what challenges you. Read widely and without apology. substack: https://pleasereadyourbook.substack.com/ Let's chat on discord:   / discord   #booktube #wellread #readinglife #readingphilosophy #sciencefictionbooks #literarypursuits #booktube