Books I Should Be Reading

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Today is a miserable, snowy day and it has me in a reflective mood.  I’ve been thinking lately about all the books I should be reading versus the books I actually choose.

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​​Between all the terrible books they made us read in High School A.P. English, and the mountains of French and Italian classics I had to read in college, there was a good period of time where I literally did not read a single book for fun.  

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​​After I finished school, I didn’t want to do anything except read trashy, fun novels.  That kept me entertained for a while, but then I started feeling guilty that the books I was reading really didn’t teach me anything or challenge me in any way.  I kept trying to tell myself that it was okay to take a break and just enjoy reading for a while, but the thought kept nagging at me.

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​​One day, I woke up and decided that I wanted to be “a well-read person.”  To me, that meant being someone who could say ‘yes’ to having read any classic book I was asked about, and who would understand more obscure literary references.  

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​​To this end, I went right to work on compiling a massive, 400 book list of all the books that I felt would help me achieve my goal.  I went all in and read the first five books on the list in quick succession, and absolutely hated all of them.  After that debacle, I pretty much gave up on my list and went back to reading whatever I wanted.

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​​Recently, I’ve been having the same feelings of not being challenged by what I’m reading, and I dug out my old list.  I feel ready to give it a shot again, but I want to go in more cautiously this time.  In the year since I last tried my classic book project, I’ve come to the conclusion that being“well-read” doesn’t necessarily mean checking off a list.  I think it means finding a balance between reading books that challenge you intellectually, and reading books that you genuinely enjoy.  

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​​That’s not to say that there aren’t books that I feel obligated to read even though they aren’t my cup of tea (Little Women will NOT be my downfall).  I definitely have a few books in mind that I am determined to get through because I just want to be able to say that I’ve read them (I’m looking at you, War and Peace) even though I know it will be a struggle.  On the other hand, I want to stop feeling guilty for picking books that aren’t the most substantial.  Most of the time, I genuinely enjoy them and want to read them, so why should I feel bad about that?  

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​​While it’s important to be well-read, I think it’s most important to be a reader, whatever that looks like to you.  The books you should be reading are the books you want to read.  Yes, you should challenge yourself and expand your horizons once in a while, but most importantly you should love what you’re reading.  

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​​If anyone is interested in my massive list, shoot me a note in the comments and I’ll send you the Google Doc so you can read along with me!

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