Someone asked: “I want to feel more cultured.”
Books to become more cultured.
Nobody becomes cultured from a list. But some books open a lot of doors at once — they teach you how to look at a painting, listen to a symphony, or recognise what other writers are borrowing.
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Ways of Seeing
John Berger · 1972
Tiny, radical and still changing how people look at pictures fifty years on. You'll never walk through a gallery the same way.
The Story of Art
E. H. Gombrich · 1950
The friendliest big book about art ever written. Gombrich explains, never lectures.
A Little History of the World
E. H. Gombrich · 2005
Written for children, secretly perfect for adults who skipped the history lessons. Warm, clear and quietly wise.
The Rest Is Noise
Alex Ross · 2007
The twentieth century told through its music. It will send you to your headphones every other chapter.
- Invisible CitiesItalo CalvinoInvisible Cities by Italo Calvino (no cover image)
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino · 1997
Marco Polo describes impossible cities to Kublai Khan. Read a page a night — it is the most elegant book on this list.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez · 1971
The novel half of modern fiction is quietly referencing. Keep a family tree handy and let it sweep you along.
Middlemarch
George Eliot · 1800
The great English novel about ordinary lives and small compromises. Slow at first, then it becomes everyone you know.
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