Don’t Ever Put Down The Pen!

If you haven’t yet had a chance to watch Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS, I suggest that you find some way. It’s not your usual talking heads show, he never screams at people or calls them bad names and it’s certainly not FAUX News. There is a wide variety of topics and guests, always current, and perhaps some of the most thought provoking commentary on the air.

Last week in his commentary, Bill Moyers said,

“On the CBS EVENING NEWS, Katie Couric asked candidates from both parties which book, other than the Bible, they would bring with them to the White House. ” See what they said here

Some of the answers were interesting and some “seemed” spontaneous. After that segment, Bill asked his viewers to suggest to the future president what ONE book he or she should take with them and to post our suggestions on his blog. He said he would discuss our suggestions on this Friday’s show. I suggest that you check out the blog postings and perhaps submit your own idea. As of today, there are over 2200 comments. All are interesting, some spontaneous and some are going on my reading list.

 

Naturally, I got to wondering for myself what I would suggest. Even though I think I read a lot and constantly, this list of books on the blog shows me my universe for selection is by comparison so limited. Making this choice is also hard to for me do as it requires remembering all the books I have read over the years, something I am not good at. In the end, I decided to choose several books that as their base embody a simple truth or value that, as Americans, we need to recognize and remember.

I know Bill wants only one book, but tough… so in no particular order :

• “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, the rights and strengths of the individual vs. the mob,
• “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, a book about personal failure, discovery and salvation,
• “1776″ by David McCullough, remembering what we were when we as a nation were just discovering for ourselves,
• “Theodore Rex” by Edmund Morris, a book about Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidency and how TR as a person defines what personal strength and moral courage really are,
• “Citizen Soldiers” by Stephen Ambrose, to me this book defines our single greatest trait as a nation, our individual citizen’s willingness to help set wrong to right. We did it for the right reasons then and are so lost now, and lastly,
• “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, perhaps the best of the bunch as it describes the times of hatred, strife and war that at its core is so similar to our times now.

Ps, this list is subject to change as my memory fades in and out again….