I came across this post on one of my favourite
blogs and it roused something in me about, what truly makes one well read. I
have always grappled with this even more so because in my formative years, high
school and all though my undergraduate years I was exposed more to the
Classics; from Shakespeare, Brontë and Austen, to the Huxleys, Wells' and
Orwells of the literary world.
My foray into African literature however came late in life - call it the result of a purely British school curricula and
a lack of awareness of the literary treasures just beyond the borders of my
country, but it was only in graduate school where my eyes were opened to a
whole new world.
To many, with respect to what can
be defined strictly within the confines of African literature - I am not well
read, but I can hold my own when it is Western classics under discussion.
These days I favour the new
writers; Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - not to say I
still will not revert to Yeats or Keats or Whitman, or pick up Toni Morrisson,
or James Baldwin when the mood strikes. I am still partial to Faulkner, Dahl,
and have even dabbled in Kafka. My infatuation with Rohinton Mistry has been
replaced with Khaled Hosseini and I still think Salman Rushdie weaves a good
tale. Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee and lately Marlene van Niekerk
inspire. As my reading list will confirm - these days it is everything I can get my hands
on. Prolific reader? Absolutely. Well read? I don’t know really. Am I?
So what does make one well
read?
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