Cultural Literacy

I might have talked about this before, however, I haven't really done anything about it except get a book out which I never really read. Anyway, "Cultural literacy" -- or the things that people who write expect their audience to know -- has become a big thing for me, not only because I feel that my education as a youth was stunningly lacking in the liberal arts, but also because I feel I would need to know this in the event that I find myself on a quiz show in the future.

I have found a website which recreates some cultural literacy evaluations which are found in a popular book on the subject, and another website which has another authoritative book online. It's definitely something for me to do in my spare time, for example, as I sit here at work waiting for documents to scan. :-) I've taken some of the evaluations, and I did OK, however, there are some tests that I do not feel comfortable at all (world literature, for example) taking. I'll have to read up on those sections in the New York Times Book of General Knowledge that I have.

I'm glad to see that this isn't an isolated pursuit of mine only, that there are other people out there willing to enrich themselves and pursue other knowledge. There is a website called "25/25/25" where the authors endeavor to read 25 books, watch 25 movies, and attend 25 cultural events over the course of one year. That's a pretty good goal, and while I don't see myself doing that (it's hard to get out of the house when you have no money and two small children!), I can at least do some of the things which would cost less money, such as reading books. I can also prepare at least a list of movies that I would like to see. The books is a good goal, as I have lots of dead time on the bus every day, and in fact have begun doing some reading already.

So... this is turning into another goals post, so I'm just going to go ahead and continue this idea in another post.