To state the obvious: Education is not just the formal classroom/teacher/textbook parts of one’s life. There’s also the being out in the world part, away from homework and exams, and continuing to deposit new information and ideas in one’s head. That’s an important phase, because unless you’ve managed to figure out how [...]
To state the obvious: Education is not just the formal classroom/teacher/textbook parts of one’s life. There’s also the being out in the world part, away from homework and exams, and continuing to deposit new information and ideas in one’s head. That’s an important phase, because unless you’ve managed to figure out how to get paid to go to school, at some point your formal education will com to an end, they will ask you to leave, and someone chucklehead will tell you to get a job and stop with the learning already. Which means that the majority of your life will be spent in the less formal, self-educating phase.
There are several ways to accomplish this independent knowledge absorption. Taking an interesting class or two is great if you have some extra time and superfluous cash. A cheaper option is removing yourself from your standard routine and spending a Saturday afternoon in a new place. Unfamiliar terrain and new input is good for the brain and you’re bound to learn something. And there’s my other favorite informal education option: books, which are free if you go to the library.
I adore books, and libraries are as close to a Cathedral Moment as I get. I spent my childhood and into my twenties collecting books. Before I hit thirty, I’d used up all the bookshelf space in my house. Because I refuse to end up an old woman surrounded by unsafely leaning stacks of books, that meant no more buying books or asking for books as gifts.
That’s a turn of events which would have sucked a lot more if I hadn’t re-discovered the public library. Now I’m a total library spaz and my husband makes fun of me for having the Seattle Public Library’s Web page as my browser’s homepage. I obsessively check my holds list and my checked-out items. I’m a dork I know, but it’s free books. How can you not love free books?
Penelope Trunk just wrote a post about how to not waste time by making bad book choices. Knowing your book likes and dislikes and what hasn’t worked for you in the past is good information to keep track of. However, I would also like to add a simple piece of wisdom my book-addict stepmother imparted to me.
First let me point out that my stepmother (who is not evil and whom I love very much) reads more books than I do, easily three times as many, possibly even four times as many. When I asked her once, in a cheerful and casual tone, if I could see her life book-list (all the books she’s read thus far) so I could copy it down and get some good book ideas, she laughed at me (not with me) and asked if I really thought I was ready for that. Which scared the crap out of me and I have never laid eyes on her list, nor have I ever asked to see it again. With any luck, she’ll die before I do and I’ll finally get a chance to look at the thing.
Enough with my morbid sense of humor; here’s her wisdom. I told her once that I tended to never give up on a book I’d started—I keep reading even if I’m not enjoying it. Some people can just read a few chapters, decide the book is not for them, and be done with it. Once I start, I feel like I should slog on through in case the wonderful bits are hidden in the last paragraph. My awesome stepmother said that she rarely gives up on a book. She said, “Even a book I really don’t like can teach me something.” My stepmother doesn’t tend to fill a room with words, so there’s not a lot to choose from. But that particular sentence is one of my favorites.
Other Book Lists (Not My Stepmother’s) With Which to Informally Educate Yourself:
Century of Books
The Guardian UK Observer’s 100 Greatest Novels of All Time
The Hugo Awards 1946-2008
The Hungry Mind Review’s 100 Best 20th Century Books
Library Journal’s Most Influential Fiction of the 20th Century
The Man Booker Prize List 1969-2007
Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books
Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels
The National Book Awards 1950-2007
National Book Critics Circle Award 1975-2006
Orange Prize for Fiction 1996-2007
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 1981-1995
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 1996-2007
And here’s the be-all, end-all mother lode of book lists: The Booklist Center. It will overwhelm you in less than five minutes but it’s totally worth it.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
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