Saturday, March 27, 2010

Daddy's Got A Brand New Meme

Andrew Potter is listing the books that have changed his life. Here are a few of the ones that have affected me deeply, over the years.

I read both the Vertical Mosaic by John Porter and The Sane Society by Erich Fromm, within six months of each other when I was in my late teens. These are the two books, more than any others that set me on my lefty path.

I learned of the Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen, from a documentary by John Kenneth Galbraith. It is an absolute gem and cemented my view forever that the ruling classes have feet of clay.

Labyrinths, by Jorge Luis Borges, made me fall in love with the idea of libraries as mini-universes.

The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara started me on my obsession with the civil war period in American history.

I read A Prayer For Owen Meany, while waiting for my car to be fixed in Bracebridge. To me, it captures the struggle to come to grips with history that has afflicted my generation.

There are other books that have affected me at different times, but these are the ones that have stuck with me.
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