What Book Would You Make The World Read If You Could?

[Harmony]

Trying to get some more discussion going...

Everyone has a favorite book, but this is a little different. What book, out of the many you have presumably read over the years, has the lessons you want everyone to learn? This isn't a guilty pleasure read, but a book that really influenced you in a deep way.

Mine would be A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor. A lot of people balk at the themes of faith in her work, which is fair enough. But if you dig deeper there is a basic faith in humanity, even at it's most grotesque, which redeems her characters and allows for a complex moral code in the face of simple faith. I identify as a humanist, and her work remains a huge part of my moral code. Also, it's just a fabulous book.

How bout you?

[Sarah Goodyear]

Harmony,

I love A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Nice choice.

I'd pick The Siege of Krishnapur, by J.G. Farrell, the most brilliant 20th-century British writer I had never heard of until New York Review Books reissued three of his novels as part of their wonderful imprint.

It's a classic about the end of empire and the fuzzy moral world of colonial power. Also just a rip-roaring good read. The other two books in the trilogy, Troubles and The Singapore Grip, are also fabulous.

[David Wiley]

I would say _The Blind Watchmaker_ by Richard Dawkins. This book more than any other I have read teaches you how to think about complicated problems. It shows many examples of how simple sets of rules applied over time lead to an extraordinary results. I use ideas I learn from this book in my life and my work regularly. I can think of similar books I liked as much or better such as _The Elegant Universe_ by Brian Greene, but these usually require a college-level understanding of science and math. Dawkins' book is much more accessible. Most books I read deal with emotions and feelings and these are quite fine, but I think the world would be a better place is most people would feel a little less and think a little more. I know my emotions are largely wasted on things like an irrational hatred of coffee stirrers.

[Kymm Coveney]

After a consultation with my daughter, I confirm that the book I would make everyone read because of its influence would have to be The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I gave it to my daughter when she was about 14, and it was also her choice to answer this question. So, hands down, Ponyboy Curtis rules!