Animal Farm is fantastic. If you like Orwell, then you could read 1984 and Burmese Days and The Road to Wigan Pier. They're all very readable. His essays and reviews are fantastic, too.

I'd also say that if you consider yourself a beginner, read what grabs your attention and allow a passion for reading to develop. It's that passion that will turn you from a beginner into a real bookworm.

Lastly, 'well read' does not necessarily mean 'widely read'. If you'd like to learn as much as you can from reading, then read slowly and deeply and don't race to the finish line. Remember that some of the wisest people in history only had access to a few dozen books.

Hope this helps.

Start with the classics.

For example - The Catcher in the Rye, The Master and Margarita, Crime and Punishment, 1984, The Sound and the Fury, Siddhartha, etc. (All easily readable and entertaining)

It is a completely different experience listening to an audio book, and actually reading it. In my opinion, if your goal is to be very well read, you should definitely read the books.

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There is a used bookstore in Cobelskill NY that I like. They have a “classics” section. I would just buy from that section sometimes just because the title was something I heard of. They tend to not be plot driven formula written books. They are great. I also started reading authors Steinbeck, Vonnegut, Twain and of course Pratchet. Being well read takes years. I fortunately was a 3rd shift boiler operator and had other boring jobs with a lot of down time. Now that I’m retired I find I don’t have as much time to read. Because of these issues I have read hundreds if not a thousand or more books. So start at the beginning and make your way through. Stay away as best you can from plot driven mass market books. If you can.

Older books will have more difficult prose generally speaking. There are plenty of 'modern classics' of the 20th century you could go with.
John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath
Ernest Hemmingway - A Farewell to Arms
William Golding - Lord of the Flies
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Joseph Heller - Catch 22

If you enjoyed Orwell you might as well read his other works. I've read 1984, Down and Out in Paris and London, Road to Wigan Pier and a few of his short stories and essays, Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging are interesting short stories that stick out to me.

The books I suggested above will give a good idea of where you'd like to go with your reading.

You could also read a translation of The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer. There are loads of translations of these to choose from, it might be best to start with a modern prose translation. Homer is widely considered to be the foundation of the 'Western Canon' and generally people considered 'well-read' will have read Homer at some point in their lives.

There is a book called How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler that teaches you to read 'critically' but he also includes a large reading list at the back of the book that he considers to be great works of literature from the Ancient Greeks up to the 20th century. You could perhaps research some of the works on that list to see if anything takes your interest.

Hello. Per rule 3.3, please post book recommendation requests in /r/SuggestMeABook or in our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you.

You should read books that are interesting to you. You will then become well read in topics that interest you.

That said, it’s always a safe start to read some classics. Finish Moby Dick and see what you will gravitate towards then.

Depends on what you mean with 'well read'?

If it's about the information, then audio books will serve you well if you like it. Whatever motivates you and makes you spend attention!

If you are wanting to improve your actual reading ability then you should be reading physical books. However, if you are desiring to increase your time spent consuming the written word, audio books work fine for this purpose. I enjoy sitting down with a physical book when I can but this isn't always possible. The portability of an audio book is beneficial for people who can't sit and read a book all day.

I agree with the previous comment. Start with books that grab your attention and that you enjoy reading. I find that some of the material that if consumed would make you "well read" dreadfully boring and hard to get through. Unless it interests you it will not help build your love for reading.

I would read physical books, but read whatever you like. Most classics are considered great but never read because they were groundbreaking when they were written. I usually just check out the first page and see if it hooks me.