Shelly's Books

(Link at left)
Booked by Three...adapted from a Newsweek feature.

1. Name up to 3 books you think everyone should read. I'm going with "to understand our culture in the United States, one needs to have read..."

Most of the Bible.
Much of Shakespeare.
Newspapers and magazines for the past several decades. I know this is cheating, but I can't think of a good synopsis of the 20th century right now.

This, by the way, is not necessarily a list of my favorite reading material.

2. Name up to 3 authors you think everyone should read.

Well, obviously, based on the first question, Shakespeare.
Dostoevsky.
Isaac Asimov.

3. Name up to 3 books no one should read.

I've erased Danielle Steel and Mein Kampf so far. I wouldn't want to force anyone to read a great deal of what is published every year; there's a lot of junk out there. But I'm having trouble because, really, virtually everything written has value unless it's completely random. There are a lot of authors who bore the crap outta me, and some who likewise scare me, but there is value in them as far as being a standard of awfulness, and in knowing what the crazy people are thinking. If people had paid attention to Mein Kampf at the time it was written, this century would have been different in so many (hopefully positive) ways....