For those who don’t know me, I love book lists. I have lists on Amazon, lists on my library account, and an excel spreadsheet on top of all that. So imagine my delight when I was sent the link to the 5 books project.
The concept is simple. Different experts are interviewed about the top five books in their field. And almost as fascinating as the books they recommend are who is making which recommendations. For example:
· Governor Mike Huckabee on Simple Governance.
· Congressman Keith Ellison on Progressivism.
· Van Jones on Change in America.
· Grover Norquist on Tea Party Conservatism.
· Mitch Daniels on How Libertarians Can Govern.
· Karl Rove on Compassionate Conservatism.
· Nicholas Kristof on Saving the World.
Other topics include: Ancient History in Modern Life, Secret Service, US Constitution, Rise and Fall of America, Why Russia Isn’t a Democracy, History of International Relations, Lobbying, Political Biographies, History of War, and American Presidents, just to name a few.
And that’s just the history and politics sections.
I’ve already added several items to my Amazon and library lists...
Where do you get your book recommendations from?
I get book recommendations from you. :-) And I ask the Facebook universe.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin Derrick is usually up on the recent fantasy and sci-fi releases, so I get some from him. I am a regular reader of Tor.com, and that's the source of more recommendations. And then anything that's published by Baen is generally worth my time.
ReplyDeleteNotice that my list is nowhere near as intellectually stimulating as the experts' lists. Which is one reason they're politicians and I'm not.
I get recommendations from friends like you. :-) Speaking of which, I read the Percy Jackson books....
ReplyDeleteAlso there are certain books in one's field (theology in my case; although I still feel like an amateur) that tend to come up over and over, and you sort of figure out that they're the good or important ones you ought to read. Which is why I decided to do a paper for my most recent class on St. Gregory of Nazianzus -- I needed to read his stuff. :-) (P.S. He's brilliant.)