Monday 10 November 2008

Things can only get better!

So there is going to be a new President of the United States who actually reads real books! Influential writers that he cites include Nietzche, Tillich, Jefferson, Lincoln, Gandhi, Adam Smith, Martin Luther King and James Baldwin and Philip Roth. Other non-fiction writers he has mentioned are Studs Terkel and David Halberstam. Fiction books that he mentioned in a recent article included Moby Dick, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Cancer Ward, Song of Solomon, Gilead (whoops, see my review!), The Golden Notebook, Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle, All The King's Men, The Power and the Glory and the Quiet American. For good measure he also had Shakespeare's tragedies on the list. Am I naive in linking a love and knowledge of literature with the quality of a person's character? Perhaps when we find out that he doesn't walk on water my optimism will come back to haunt me!

No comments: