Pop Quiz
Who said:
- “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
2. “The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.”
3. “Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.”
4. “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.”
5. “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”
6. “We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.”
7. “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”
8. “Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.”
9. “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
10. “Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
11. “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
12. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
13. “People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.”
14. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
15. “My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”
16. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
17. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”
18. “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
19. “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
20. “So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.”
21. “Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
22. “I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.”
23. “Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or a duty. It should be offered as a gift.”
24. “Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else.”
25. “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Answers at the end of the post.
From 1953 through 1958 my Fortress of Solitude was The Schenectady Public Library. Almost every Saturday morning my father would take me to that bibliotheca so I could return the four books I had checked out and read the previous week and troll the shelves for four new adventures in reading. My family did not own an “idiot box” until 1958 so I spent my afternoons during the school year, my weekend nights and long winter days getting to know characters, real and imagined, like Long John Silver, Dr. John Watson, Richard Rogers, Meriwether Lewis, Commodore Perry, Prince Dakkar and George Washington. I lived the adventures authored by Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Charles Dickens and Kenneth Roberts. I learned about treachery, revenge and palace intrigue through the eyes of Alexander Dumas.
The particulars of the preceding paragraph are likely a complete mystery to most Americans under 40 and they are diminished thereby. Today the library is a place to vote or meet your friends on social security.
What follows is a recommended reading list for those who might wish to understand what came before SpongeBob SquarePants and the Handmaid’s Tale.
General Surveys
Will and Ariel Durant gave us the Story of Civilization (12 Volumes, 14,777 pages). A brilliant tour of Civilization beginning with Our Oriental Heritage. The Durants successfully managed to avoid political entanglements
The 45 volumes of The American President published by Times Books. Easy to read and a wonderful way to get to know our Presidents…the good, the bad and the simple minded.
A History of the English Speaking Peoples (4 volumes) by Winston Churchill. A compelling story, well told.
For the Kids
The Landmark Books: 122 volumes printed between 1951 and 1970. These books should be a fixture in every elementary school library of America. The first volume is entitled The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, the perfect place to begin your reading journey.
Biography
Jefferson and His Times (6 volumes) by Dumas Malone. President Kennedy was hosting a VIP dinner and he noted that it was the most intelligence ever assembled at the White House since Jefferson dined there alone.
Thurgood Marshall by Juan Williams. We are familiar with the courage of many historical figures but few compare to Justice Marshall who personally took his fight for racial justice into the belly of the beast, the Solid South of Jim Crow.
The Complete Personal Memoirs of General Ulysses S. Grant by U. S. Grant. Grant has been slandered by historians and, as a result, few appreciate all he did as a Union General and President of the United States. He wrote his memoirs while dying of throat cancer in an effort to set the record straight. An excellent primer on the pivotal years from 1855 to 1885.
Economics
Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: The handbook for Liberal values and a fixture on AOC’s nightstand.
The Road to Serfdom by Frederich A. Hayek: the warning about the “warmth of collectivism” and soon to be removed from all New York City libraries.
Free to Choose by Milton Friedman (not to be confused with Milton Keynes, a famous economist known only to AOC). The book was the basis for a television miniseries hosted by Friedman entitled, strangely enough, Free to Choose, in 1980. It introduced the genius of Thomas Sowell to the world.
Education
The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. It is often referred to “the first shot in the culture wars”…not be found in Randi Weingarten’s library.
The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them by E.D Hirsch. Largely ignored by the entirety of the education establishment.
The Parent Revolution by Corey DeAngelis. A call to arms.
Fiction
Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail. This book was banned by the EU for many years because it warned of a coming immigrant invasion. A sobering read.
The Source by James Michener. The classic history of the Levant. Few understand the rich history of that region…birthplace of the three great monotheistic religions.
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. One of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. It has both moral and political dimensions. In the Ninth Circle of Hell Satan is gnawing on three great traitors: Brutus, Cassius and Judas Iscariot. Please submit nominations to replace that trio.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This book was a right of passage for young readers in the 1950s and 60s who were dealing with growing rift between Liberal and Leftists influences. Who is John Galt?
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. A compelling story of Southern racism and it came to life on the big screen with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch…and the late Robert Duvall in his first role in Hollywood.
Race
We Have Taken a City, The Wilmington Racial Massacre and Coup of 1898 by H. Leon Prather. A largely ignored story of how the Democrats in the South dealt with “uppity Blacks”.
The Diversity Delusion by Heather MacDonald. A well researched and well documented analysis of the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”
Affirmative Action Around the World, An Empirical Study by Thomas Sowell. A great analysis of the damage wrought by affirmative action and its bastard child DEI.
Climate
Heaven and Earth by Ian Plimer. The stake through the heart of Al Gore’s work of fiction, An Inconvenient Prevarication.
The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg, Lomborg left his role with Greenpeace to deliver this excellent decimation of anthropogenic climate change.
The Great Reset, Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown by Marc Morano. Common sense introduced into the climate discussion.
History
Citizens, A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama. The full story of one of the most destabilizing events in world history.
Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark: How the world’s politicians stumbled into the war that forever changed Europe.
Why the Germans? Why the Jews? by Gotz Aly: The best explanation available for the irrationality of Anti-Judaism.
Stock the libraries and open the doors wide for all students anxious to LEARN and enjoy the great books that will awaken their minds. The quotes above suggest that support for reading has been universal for centuries. Ignorance must be eradicated and the books we recommend will help make that happen.
Every parent should read to their children from birth to teach the love of learning.
Answers to the pop quiz:
- Cicero; 2. Descartes; 3. Voltaire; 4. Napoléon Bonaparte; 5. Victor Hugo; 6. Jules Verne; 7. Ralph Waldo Emerson; 8. Abraham Lincoln; 9. Frederick Douglass; 10. George Bernard Shaw; 11. Groucho Marx; 12. Dr. Seuss; 13. Saul Bellow; 14. Walt Disney; 15. Malcolm X; 16. Harper Lee; 17. George R.R Martin; 18. Lemony Snicket; 19. Ray Bradbury; 20. Roald Dahl; 21. Fran Lebowitz: 22. Roald Dahl; 23. Kate DiCamillo; 24. Albert Einstein; 25. Joseph Brodsky