On being well read

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?