Comments on: What’s on your Five Foot Shelf?

By: Peter Berger

Peter Berger — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:32:31 +0000

Two lay-scientific books that, each in its own way, blows my mind open each time I pull it down to reread a section:

Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

By: cubrikaska

cubrikaska — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:29:37 +0000

Claro. Y con esto me he encontrado.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:38:38 +0000

We’re talking about the last 100 years! Tough list to crack, when you’re up against the immortals. Perhaps the shelf should be six feet long, or, as another writer commented, make allowance for CDs. To the ranks of must-reads to be well-educated, I’ll nominate four: Ulysses, by James Joyce (if there is one epoch-changing piece of literature from the early 20th century, this is it); in the same vein, Waiting For Godot, by Samuel Beckett; Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, not because of literary value, but because it was a founding document of environmentalism; and one of the great works of late 20th century literature, Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon. If there is a late 20th century bookend to the early 20th Ulysses, this is it.
OK, one more, sort of toungue in cheek. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance, by Robert Pirsig. Doesn’t really qualify, but I’m damn sure it registers with your readers.

By: Steve H

Steve H — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:58:09 +0000

I believe another set of ‘great books’ drawn up at roughly the same time, and in response to Eliot’s, was Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘pig skin library’. It was a set bound in pigskin (and designed to fit in aluminum carrying case[s]) so as to be durable and portable. Roosevelt took it with him on his African safari.

http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/collections/past_exhibits.html

this site had a post looking at both Eliot’s and Roosevelt’s lists:

http://www.schoolofabraham.com/libraries.htm

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:03:14 +0000

Yes! I would have suggested it if you hadn’t David. ;-)

By: George Zimmer

George Zimmer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:11:54 +0000

Along these lines consider
Leon Tolstoy – Hadji Murat
It was written in 1910 shortly before Tolstoy’s death and published by his widow in 1912.
Just replace Czar Nicolas with Putin and it is current events.

By: Eric Wilson

Eric Wilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:28:12 +0000

I would argue for Collapse over Guns, Germs, and Steel, if for no other reason that it serves as a clarion call for past, present, and most importantly the future

By: R Braun

R Braun — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:47:21 +0000

I have listened to commentary on the radio about this list and now read the comments here, and I can still not understand how the most influential book of all time is not mentioned:
The Bible
It is the most sold, most read, and most influential book no matter what your religious believes might be.

By: R. W. Crowl

R. W. Crowl — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:47:53 +0000

I find both the question and many of the replies interesting for both their omissions and inclusions.

The question omits saying what books are included on the original bookshelf. It also fails to mention that there was a mid-century collection called “The Great Books” which had Dr. Eliot’s collection to draw on, but then also had an additional forty years to include Hemingway, Norris, Sinclair, Heisenberg, and others, but strangely almost entirely omitted twentieth-century works. This was not remedied until the 1990 edition. I also think it’s more than one and one-half meters. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World.

The questions were, however, clearly stated–”But what books from the last 100 years – fiction or non-fiction – have now earned a slot alongside them? Which books from around the world would you put on a Five Foot Shelf for 2009?”

Many of the suggestions were for authors whom Dr. Eliot could have chosen, if he didn’t–e.g., Jane Austin, Walt Whitman, and, of course, all the non-Christian and non-Western religious and philosophical writings that always get short shrift in the West.

What got left out of the the original list, even considering its time, could be an entirely separate discussion.

I think the only comment I can take serious issue with is the one excluding ideological statements. That stance would automatically exclude not only Ayn Rand and Adolph Hitler, but also all religious and most philosophical writings–and whatever one’s religious inclination or disinclination might be, our intellectual life would be impoverished without them. As for Rand and Hitler, the latter had perhaps a greater impact on the twentieth century than any other person and thus what he wrote cannot be ignored.

What ends up on your shelf is your choice; I only ask that no one be excluded on arbitrary grounds.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:37:10 +0000

I didn’t see any mention of any of Philip Roth’s books (American Pastoral, etc.) or Don De Lillo’s White Noise.

By: jay

jay — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:25:05 +0000

We all have additions or substitutions we might like to see on this shelf, but PLEASE no Milton Friedman or Ayn Rand – ugh. In fact, anything too ideological should probably be excluded.

By: David

David — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:30:51 +0000

Although I have not read all of the comments above carefully, I would suggest that, in looking at revolutionary books that build and expand upon the original Harvard Classics, I would add:

James Joyce, Ulysses
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

By: Sutirtha

Sutirtha — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:09:19 +0000

1) Friedrich von Hayek’s – The Road to Serfdom
2) Milton Friedman- Free to Choose
3) Ayn Rand- Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
4) C.S. Lewis- The Abolition of Man
5) Tom Friedman- The World is Flat

By: Drew Miller

Drew Miller — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:22:06 +0000

I re-interpreted Dr. Eliot’s question as; If you only had one five foot book shelf you would put the books most important to your life on it, those books which most impacted your life.
1. Cinderella – The copy my mother read to me and I read to my daughter
2. My Grandmother’s Bible which she never read because knew the meaning of love and compassion.
3. Websters New Collegiate Dictionary which I purchase 35 years ago as a college student.
4. The Stranger by Albert Camus which peaked my interest in literature when I read it in high school.
5. Walden Pond by Thoreau – “There are as many ways as there are radii in a circle.”
6. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman which I will never stop reading.
7. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scot Peck – “Life is difficult”. “Love is not a feeling”
8. The Myth of Sisyphus – We must imagine Sisyphus happy.
9. Candide by Voltaire – “We must go work in the garden.”
10. Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons – I will never go hungry.
11. The Encyclopedia of Gardening – I’m a horticulturalist.
12. Love by Leo Buscaglia – I learned the meaning of love too late in life.
13. Dictionary for Dreamers by Tom Chetwynd – The language of dreams should be listened to.
14. The Soul is Here for its Own Joy – A Collection of sacred poems edited by Robert Bly – Robert Bly’s life-long dedication to poetry has helped make me the person I am which as Hafez would say “…is not all that great.”
15. The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell -” All religions are true, they are true as metaphorical of the human and cosmic experience.”
16. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Zsu – “The tao that can be told is not the eternal tao.”
17. The Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Basho – I am a haiku poet. “For every atom that belongs to me as good belongs to you is seventeen syllables.
18. The Dhammapada – The teachings of Buddha – “… hate is conquered by love. This is a law eternal”
19. The Secret Teachings of Jesus – The Gospel of Thomas – ” The kingdom of the father will not come by expectation, behold here and behold there. The kingdom of the father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it.”
20. The Essential Rumi – “…keep walking though there is no place to get to…”.
21. Zen Essence edited by Thomas Cleary – Zen is the “…psychology of liberation.
To personalize Dr. Eliot’s question
may prompt a more meaningful answer.

By: fred harnisch

fred harnisch — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:29:46 +0000

“Arabian Knights”is one of my favorites which covers the complete cross section of human behavior.Although the 16 vol.translation by Sir Richard Burton is excellent,I am not sure if it would fit on your 5′shelf.But therE is also a three vol. edItion of Burton’s translation,which I own,which would fit.fmh