Some conservative bloggers have kicked off an intriguing exercise of listing the 10 books that have most influenced their view of the world.
An important caveat is that these aren't your favorite books, or the ones you most enjoyed reading, or maybe even books that you would argue are good (at least not now), but instead those which shaped your thinking for years after you read them. (Of course, that thinking may well have changed later, including perhaps in response to yet another book!)
I became aware of the exercise from Ross Douthat's NY Times blog post describing it, but he says the idea originated with Tyler Cowen, who includes links to other lists here.
I haven't come up with my own list yet, but wanted to go ahead and post this as I thought it would be a fun Open Call for the weekend:
What 10 books would be on your list and why?
By the way, if you're like me, there will be ample fiction on the list, and not just the non-fiction heavy lifting on the linked lists! You should also feel free to follow Douthat's example and list some books from childhood (after all, don't those often shape us quite profoundly at impressionable ages?).
Have fun and have a good weekend.
I'll update this post with links to your lists if you PM me. Also, if you could link back to this explanatory post on your own, that will really help to let other people know what the Open Call is about and that I'm keeping a list here, etc. - thanks!!
LINKS TO POSTS BY OS MEMBERS FOR THIS OPEN CALL:
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zanelle
Lucy Mercer
Gabby Abby
bluestocking babe
Gwool
Abrawang
Salon.com
Comments
Yes, I'd love to see people do their own posts on this!! I suggest a list with anywhere from one sentence to a paragraph on each book's meaning and impact on you.
Monday or even later is fine! no expiration date on this Open Call.
If you don't want to do a whole post, you can put your list in Comments here (as Just Cathy started to do), but if you have more than a paragraph or so, I'd suggest you do a post. And again, I'll link people's posts here if you PM me.
I'm working on mine but probably won't have it done and up till Sat.
I've been working on my list and explanations off and on all day and I'll say that even though it's a bit of work, it's also been a lot of fun and quite illuminating!
One cheat that I saw others do on the lists I linked and which I'm doing as well is to pair some books that have equal and similar influence on you (share the same themes, had the same impact, etc). That way you can avoid making some difficult decisions when trying to keep the list to 10! I also found at least one fascinating pair that I hadn't clued into until trying to do this exercise.
TEN MOST INFLUENTIAL
1. Open Veins of Latin America/The Nobodies-Eduardo Galeano
2. The Search for the Tassili Frescoes-Henri Lhote
3. The Mediterranean, Civilization and Capitalism- Fernand Braudel
4. The Great War for Civilization-Fisk
5 Looking for Dilmun-Geoffrey Bibby
6. The Paranoid Style/Anti Imtellectualism in American Life-Hofstader
7. Through the Grand Canyon frm Wyoming to Mexico-Kolb
8. Street without Joy/Hell in a Very Small Place-Bernard Fall
9. Muqaddimah-Ibn Khaldun
10. The Histories-Herodotus
OTHER CONTENDERS
Look at Us-Saroyan
Monopoly Capital-Baran and Sweezy
From Ritual to Romance-Weston
The Golden Bough-Frazer
Social Justice in Islam-Ibn Qutb
INFLUENTIAL NOVELS
Every Man Dies Alone-Hans Fallada
Bleak House-Dickens
Death in Venice-Mann
The Sound and the Fury-Faulkner
Across the River and into the Trees
Under the Volcano-Lowry
All the Kings Men-Penn Warren
Appointment in Samarra-OHara
The Way We Live Now-Trollope
Heart of Darkness-Conrad
The Sheltering Sky-Bowles
Post Office-Bukowski
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep-Phillip K Dick
Mulberry Empire-Phillip Hensher
I've been so busy after posting this that I haven't had a chance to read most of your lists yet, but I will!
Our list is up to 48!
I think that's all of them so far, but if I've missed anyone, just let me know (most folks aren't PMing me - I'm checking the feed but I don't know that I'll have time to keep doing that).
I also notice as always that Open Call is like a game of "Telephone" - people see other people's blogs on it and go from there, and sometimes the topic does shift a bit. Linking back to this post on yours is a good way to let people know what the Open Call is about, and also so they can find the list of linked posts above and read as many as possible!
I have to do a bunch of work I have to do today but wish instead I could read all your lists...I'm going to do that as soon as I can.
We're up to 54!!
Count me in!
Here's mine:
http://open.salon.com/blog/caroline_marie/2010/03/27/lucky_13_most_influential_books
I'm overwhelmed at how many people have responded to this Open Call, but I guess it's no surprise that writers would feel strongly about books.
101 responses so far!! I'm stunned.
If you have time, please add a link to my recent response to your open call.