The well-read person.

I think well-read people -- the world is open to them.

Avi Arad*

This week I had the pleasure of eating lunch with a friend whom I had not seen all summer. Our conversation flowed easily and lasted about three and a half hours, when I had expected we'd struggle to hit two. This friend is a classmate I have taken real joy in knowing for the past year, but Monday was possibly the first time we discussed books together. I was thrilled to discover in him literary opinions and tastes happily similar to mine, but different enough to keep our discourse interesting. Some of what he's read lately sounded fascinating and I added still more books to my To-Read list during the course of our meeting (and a couple of them, such as Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, are being put straight on top).

I rarely get the chance to hear anyone discuss books the way he does. Many people are accomplished readers, but often peruse only the most popular books at the top of the NYT's Best Seller list or stick to beach reads--regardless of whether or not they are at the beach. More broadly, a lot of readers are experts on one or two genres, time periods, or authors they have become comfortable with, but their discussion of what they read often suggests they're in a (dreaded) reading rut. These people, at least, still read for the pleasure of it; there are some who read with maniacal intensity, and seek to talk about books as if reading is an event to be discussed like a competition, not an experience that feels unfinished if not shared with someone. While all of these readers gain something from how they read (entertainment, talking points, an education), I was excited about how this friend understands reading, in a way that fits none of these descriptions. He reads because he loves the variety of lessons he can get out of the journeys books contain and how every time he interacts with a text, he sets off fireworks the author rigged long before the book fell into his hands, adding his own color and direction to their blasts.

My friend reads books in different languages from different genres, with different authors and styles. He's a fan of gothic poetry, Dostoyevsky and Virginia Woolf, books on politics, and histories. He enjoyed some of Shakespeare's works in high school but found The Catcher in the Rye too negative and isn't afraid to say it. He remembers his favorite childhood books, some of which are my old favorites (Because of Winn-Dixie, Tale of Despereaux) and some of which I never attached to (the Boxcar Children series), and even recalls bringing Crime and Punishment to the playground in fifth grade thinking he could read it (he says he got through two pages). A literary hipster (and really, a hipster in every other way too), he still likes reading anything just outside of the pale that is good enough to be more mainstream.

Talking to him the other day, I realized what makes good literary friends like him so rare and so precious: he is one of the few people I know who is a truly well-read person. I think a lot of people have lost sight of the value of being well-read, and even of the term's meaning. My favorite definition of the title comes from the Collins English Dictionary. They define being well-read as, "having read widely and intelligently; erudite." Having never stumbled across the word "erudite" before, I looked up "erudition" and loved its definition, too (this time from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language): "deep, extensive learning." These two definitions together have a great beauty to me. They emphasize that reading--whether you read a nonfiction book, poetry, or a novel; whether its from a series or genre you already enjoy or is meant to be a new challenge, a foray into the unknown charged by immense curiosity at what part of you will be unleashed by something wholly new; whether you're reading something strictly assigned, passionately recommended, or randomly stumbled upon; whether you are reading something age-appropriate, something just out of your current intellectual grasp, something that you may never achieve substantial understanding of, or something you mastered years ago but want to revisit--reading is about an author's traps facilitating a reader's learning. In my opinion, anyway.

In my experience, those who become well-read don't do it to satisfy a goal of being so. In fact, it is difficult to really establish what "well-read" means (Exhibits A and B) and my borrowed definitions are certainly not perfect. Instead, a well-read person develops independently of any agenda, of their own will, advancing to a point in their literary careers where their meaningful reading history is of such great depth and breadth that no other term can be appropriately used for them. To know a well-read person, then, is not just a blessing when it comes to literary discussion. While book-specific dialogue is certainly interesting with my well-read friend, his personal qualities that have led him to become this way are also the characteristics that make him a great person otherwise: curiosity (especially about other people and cultures), a relish for new thrills and adventure, compassion, great respect for others, thoughtfulness, eloquence, humility, diligence in understanding any issue before he forms an opinion on it, patience, and much more. When I think of the people I know and have known in my life who I could consider well-read, they all have most if not all of these characteristics.

A well-read person has accomplished something great, without planning it on the way there and without knowing it when they arrive (if, of course, it's even something you can "arrive" at). And what they've read has introduced them to new worlds and unlocked so many hidden views of this one. It is not common to find such people, and it is one of a Bibliomaniac's greatest pleasures to find them.

Passionate as always,
Your Bibliomaniac


*Avi Arad is the founder of Marvel Studios.

Bibliographic info:

• "I Think Well-read People - the World is Open to Them." Brainy Quote. BookRags Media Network, n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2013.
• Nelson, Amanda. "What Does It Mean to Be Well Read?" Book Riot. N.p., 10 July 2012. Web. 11 Aug. 2013.
• "What Does It Mean to Be Well-read?" Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Inc., n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2013.