Question of the Week
Which Books Can’t You Live Without?
Posted Aug 5, 2009 1:45 PM CST
By Sarah Randag
We noted this week that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter is moving away from his beloved Weare, N.H. Souter's neighbors there told the Washington Post in May that Souter may someday write a history of the town. What led him to buy a more modern home in Hopkinton, N.H., a Souter neighbor said, is that his farmhouse in Weare isn't structrually strong enough to support all of Souter's books.
That got us thinking: Which books—whether professional, personal or just for fun—can you not live without?
Answer in the comments below.
Read the answers to last week's question: What Advice Do You Wish You Had Been Given Before the Bar Exam?
Featured Answers:
Posted by mikell: "Read the questions before you read the fact pattern, as it will alert you what to look for when you read the fact pattern allowing you filter extraneous information designed to bog you down or distract you from the issues.
"Review courses should not teach you the law as much as they should teach you how to take the exam. The materials provided should distill the subject like an outline with case/statute support for the proposition.
"Finally, don’t talk to people after each day about what they wrote. If you do, the divergent opinions on what the essay questions were about will overwhelm you or give you something to worry about you don’t need."
Posted by AR: "The exam is not about achieving a high score or grade. It is enough simply to pass."
Posted by Passedit: "I wish someone would have told me to drive home and see my dad on Father’s Day that year instead of thinking I couldn’t take a day off from studying. He had been biggest supporter during law school (and my whole life). He died about a month after seeing me get sworn in. It was only one day ..."
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Comments
B. McLeod
Aug 5, 2009 1:56 PM CST
I suppose there are a few books of legend that ostensibly affect our existence, such as “The Book of Life and Death.” However, there is not an actual, pysically-existing book known to me which I would need to possess in order to sustain my presence in this plane of being.
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Sam
Aug 5, 2009 2:02 PM CST
The Bible
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Ash Williams
Aug 5, 2009 2:12 PM CST
The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis
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RFW
Aug 5, 2009 3:16 PM CST
Plato’s The Republic
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sosler
Aug 5, 2009 3:39 PM CST
If the standard is books that, time notwithstanding, I would return to again in the future to reread and ponder, then my list would be, in no particular order:
- The Illiad and Odyssey of Homer
- Moby-Dick, Clarel, and The Confidence-Man, Herman Melville
- Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth,
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa
- every word of Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Boccaccio’s The Decameron
- Crime and Punishment
- The Old Man and the Sea, the collected short stories, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway
- The Histories, Herodotus
- The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
- Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake, James Joyce
- The Aeneid and Georgics of Virgil
- most of the writings of Plato and Aristotle (though some have been made irrelevant or obsolete by time)
- The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu
- the collected plays of Aristophanes
- Books 1,2, and 7 of Remembrances of Things Past, Marcel Proust
- The poetry of Walt Whitman
- The essays of Montaigne
- The Lusiads, Luis vaz de Camoes
- the writings of Nietzsche
- The Tao Te Ching
- Metamorphoses of Ovid
- Faust Parts I and II, Goethe
- every word of Jorge Luis Borges
- The Popol Vuh (Mayan Book of Creation)
- Blood Meridian and The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason and Dixon, and Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
- Genius, The Western Canon, and Shakespeare: Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom
- Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
- The Red and the Black, Stendhal
- Life and Opinion of Tristam Shandy, Laurence Sterne
- The Ramayana
- The War of the End of the World, Mario Vargas Llosa
- Journey to the West, Wu Cheng’en
- Gargantua and Pantagruel, Rabelais
- most of the novels of Samuel Beckett
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lo-Kuan Chung
- The “Ancient Egypt Trilogy” of Naguib Mahfouz
- Joseph and his Brothers, Thomas Mann
- Outlaws of the Marsh, Nai’an Shi
- The Stone Raft, Blindness, Seeing, Death with Interruptions, The History of the Seige of Lisbon, and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, Jose Saramago
- The Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O’Brian
- The Adventures of Amir Hamza, anonymous
- The Shahnameh, Abolqasem Ferdowsi
- The Twice Told Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse of Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Poetry of Robert Frost
- Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, John Steinbeck
- Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- What Hath God Wrought: the transformation of America, 1815-1848, Daniel Walker Howe
- Paradise Lost, John Milton
- Profiles in Courage, JFK
- The Maias, Jose Mara Eca de Queiros
- Epitaph of a Small Winner, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- At Swim-to-Birds and The Dalkey Archives, Flann O’Brien
- poetry of Emily Dickinson
- Orlando, Virginia Woolf
- The Fabric of the Cosmos: space, time, and the texture of reality, Brian Greene
Hey, I don’t really watch TV, and the one thing I have learned is that the more you read, the more you discover that you have only cracked the surface of literature.
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J
Aug 5, 2009 4:31 PM CST
1984
Invisible Man
The Art of War
Atlas Shrugged
And the Band Played On
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
All the King’s Men
Any David Sedaris
How to Talk Dirty and Influence People
The UCC
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too lazy to troll
Aug 5, 2009 4:31 PM CST
I was going to come up with a list of the 10 most pretentious titles I could think of but somebody beat me to it and then some. So:
1. Bridget Jones’s Diary
2. The Duchess, Her Maid, the Groom and Their Lover
3. People Magazine
phhbbt!
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James
Aug 5, 2009 10:48 PM CST
The Count of Monte Cristo.
Lessons to live by!!!
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DR
Aug 6, 2009 7:00 AM CST
On a professional level:
1. NY Civil Practice Law & Rules
2. Siegel’s New York Practice
3. New Jersey Court Rules
On a personal level:
1. My pop-up book collection
2. My art history books
Anything else…I can get at the library.
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participant
Aug 6, 2009 7:24 AM CST
AA’s the Big Book
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Jennifer
Aug 6, 2009 9:26 AM CST
the Bible is the only actual book I read. I don’t read books anymore. Thank you Kinkdle.
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Anon Attorney
Aug 6, 2009 1:57 PM CST
Who needs Homer or Nietzsche or Nathaniel Hawthorne? After a full day of poring through arcane legalese give me Harry Potter!
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Tom
Aug 7, 2009 5:31 AM CST
The Bible.
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Jenny
Aug 7, 2009 6:43 AM CST
The Riverside Shakespeare.
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Hap
Aug 7, 2009 6:57 AM CST
The Book of Mormon
The Bible
Works of Charles Dickens
To Kill a Mockingbird
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Bob
Aug 7, 2009 7:02 AM CST
The Oxford Shorter English Dictionary and Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Language is what makes us truly human.
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Nanette
Aug 7, 2009 7:10 AM CST
Foonberg’s How to Start & Build a Law Practice
TN Rules of Civ Pro
Matthew Bender’s Labor & Employment Law set
Anything by Dean Koontz or Janet Evanovich
Atlas Shrugged
5000 Year Leap
The Real George Washington/Thomas Jefferson/Benjamin Franklin
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In House
Aug 7, 2009 7:11 AM CST
Lately pretty much anything by Cormac McCarthy.
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counselorm
Aug 7, 2009 7:51 AM CST
I’ll add my vote for the Bible. Not only is it the best “Life’s Instruction Book” but no other book so clearly deals with law, grace, mercy, and justice and balancing all four effectively. It also has tales of intrigue, war, rape, murder. It has comedy. tragedy, romance, and a really good ending where the hero wins.
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Nanette
Aug 7, 2009 8:48 AM CST
How could I have forgotten??
Douglas Adams’ Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy
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FG
Aug 7, 2009 8:55 AM CST
2 books: “The Grapes of Wrath” by Steinbeck, and “The Fountainhead” by Rand. Those two will give you a pretty good view of your place in the world.
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Jackcatscal
Aug 7, 2009 9:50 AM CST
Number 5: that’s an extraordinary list. Thank you.
My can’t-live-withouts are the collected works of Will Shakespeare, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, and Moby Dick by Melville. Oh, and I might add Huck Finn by Mark Twain.
This reminds me that, during college and law school, when exam time rolled around, I would always pull out some favorite novels to ease the stress. For a long time, I reread Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy once or twice a year.
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Joan
Aug 7, 2009 9:52 AM CST
84 Charing Cross Road
The Snow Goose
The Little Prince
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J.K. Addy
Aug 7, 2009 10:00 AM CST
The Big Sky, The Way West, These Thousand Hills, The Big It – Guthrie
Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney – Welch
This House of Sky, English Creek, Dancing at the Rascal Fair – Doig
Montana: High, Wide and Handsome – Howard
The Tokyo Montana Express – Brautigan
Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl
A River Runs Through It, Young Men and Fire – Maclean
The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway
Travels with Charly – Steinbeck
Damien, Siddhartha – Hesse
The Magic Mountain – Mann
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recentgrad
Aug 7, 2009 10:04 AM CST
Books are brain candy. After 3 years of legal texts, I read as much non-law, non-reality as I can get my hands on. I love anything that makes me laugh or high on suspense. There are no books that I would die without, but I would sure hate to live without a steady supply of 2-3 new books every week.
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Rich
Aug 7, 2009 10:06 AM CST
The Bible and The Elements of Style by Strunk & White.
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aka Gregor Samsa
Aug 7, 2009 10:38 AM CST
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle; Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game; and Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation Trilogy and extended Foundation series. These books were prescient when written and worth reading and re-reading today.
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Nancy
Aug 7, 2009 10:47 AM CST
I can sympathize with Justice Souter. I have more books than I have room for and want to keep all of them. I suppose a Kindle might be the answer but I’m not ready for it yet.
Some of the authors who have written books that I want to be able to reread without having to go to the library include:
Dorothy Dunnett
Dorothy Sayers
P.D. James
Laurie King
Lois McMaster Bujold
George MacDonald
J.R.R. Tolkien
C.S. Lewis
Philip Pullman
J.K. Rowling
Sharon Creech
L. Frank Baum and his successors
Georgette Heyer
Charles Dickens
Mark Twain
others
plus the Sunset Western Garden book and a good dictionary
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doug
Aug 7, 2009 11:04 AM CST
I’m not intellectual. I would take:
THe Harry Potter series
The kay scarpetta series
THe “prey” series by John Sanford
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Tim Phillips
Aug 7, 2009 11:26 AM CST
Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings of Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
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Deb Millenson
Aug 7, 2009 11:38 AM CST
The Forsyte Saga has everything—law, romance, history
The Harry Potter series
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency series
A Team of Rivals
Because everyone has to eat, the two Vegetarian Gourmet cookbooks
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Bob
Aug 7, 2009 11:56 AM CST
To expand on post #15: I would change it to: “Language is what makes us truly human, but going beyond language makes us truly divine. Books that can help transcend the discursive mind:: The I-Ching, The Bhagavad Gita, Tao-te-Ching, Hsin Hsin Ming, etc.
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Jared
Aug 7, 2009 12:33 PM CST
For California:
The Rutter Group’s Civil Procedure Before Trial, Standard California Codes (the 6-in-1),
LA Daily Journal’s Court Directory,
a decent dictionary,
The Thomas Guide, and
Zagat’s Guide
are all indispensable
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Douglas
Aug 7, 2009 1:52 PM CST
The novels of W. Somerset Maugham are conspicuous by their absense in the above lists. I was very fortunate to live and work in a colonial English country for 20 years, where I discovered the wit and humour of this fascinating English author.
Try any of his short story collections or his exquisite novel, “The Moon and Sixpence” or “The Razor’s Edge.” I wouldn’t be without them. A review of the latter: “William Somerset Maugham is considered one of the best authors of the 20th century. After reading this book, I can understand why. His grasp of the human condition is simply phenomenal. He is one of those rare authors that can make his characters leap off the page and become living, breathing creatures.”
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Jackcatscal
Aug 7, 2009 4:55 PM CST
We haven’t mentioned plays very much. How about Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night? And, of course, Arthur Miller’s deathless Death of a Salesman?
Someone did mention cookbooks a bit before. I couldn’t live without The Joy of Cooking.
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Paul
Aug 7, 2009 7:44 PM CST
I gave my wife a Kindle for her birthday at the end of May. She looked at it and almost through it back at me with some comment about me giving her some electronic computer device that I should have kept for myself. She was nonplussed even when I explained what it was and how you could use it to read any book. No, techie, she quickly figured it out. Now, two months later, we can’t pry it out of her hands. That is now her (e-)book she can’t live without.
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AR
Aug 7, 2009 9:29 PM CST
Whatever book I have in my bag ready for me to read on the train home from work.
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George Sly
Aug 9, 2009 10:40 AM CST
There are some very good lists by the other commentators. I’m not sure there is any particular book that I could not live without but my favorites are:
Winston S. Churchill - History of the English Speaking Peoples, The Second World War.
Francis Parkman - The French and English in North America (6 vol. work).
Bruce Catton -History of the Army of the Potomac,
James McPherson - Battle Cry of Freedom
Peter Townshend - Duel of Eagles
JRR Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Tilogy
Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls
John LeCarre - Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley’s People.
Mark Twain - Huckleberry Finn
Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities
Arthur Conan Doyle - All of his Sherlock Holmes stories, particularly the “The Speckled Band’.
J.K. Rowlings - The Harry Potter stories.
P.D. James - The Adam Dalgliesh series of mysteries.
Dashell Hammet - The Maltese Falson
Roderick L. Haig-Brown - A River Never Sleeps
J.H. Patterson - The Man Eaters of Tsavo
James Corbett - Man Eaters of Kumaon
That’s just scratching the surface, I would include Shakespeare but the truth is I would rather watch a play (well performed) than read it. Which is why with all respect to 34, I have not listed any plays. Television and film have their place, but everything starts with writing and to truly appreciate the performing arts one must appreciate and love books.
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L
Aug 10, 2009 2:41 PM CST
Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Douglas Adams’ exceptionately inappropriately named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy - all five of them.
Norton Juster - The Phantom Tollbooth
My tastes are broad and generally range towards non-fiction rather than fiction, but the above books are the few I always return to.
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Chetsbabe
Aug 11, 2009 12:12 PM CST
It may seem juvenille, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is my choice. It reminds me of childhood and gives an in-depth view of various personalities and symbolism.
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JDLH
Aug 13, 2009 11:01 AM CST
All of the original Dune books by Frank Herbert must be on any lawyer’s “bubble-gum-for -the -brain” list.
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John Chandler
Aug 13, 2009 11:32 AM CST
Charles Dickens -Bleak House
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Ross
Aug 14, 2009 9:31 AM CST
All great choices. I have to add “The Pickwick Papers” by Charles Dickens. Hilarious, insightful (it is Dickens, after all), charming and, as and added bonus, the indescribably clever account of the trial of “Bardell against Pickwick.” Perhaps my all time favority novel.
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MCT
Aug 14, 2009 1:24 PM CST
William Manchester’s “The Glory and the Dream” - it filled in a lot of blanks between where my secondary school social studies curriculum left off and my own generation. It’s the book that turned me on to the genre of narrative history. And if marooned on the proverbial desert island, I’d like to have anything by Stuart Woods along just for fun.
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mk
Aug 14, 2009 10:11 PM CST
To #5 - Really? get over yourself already
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Zaki
Aug 16, 2009 6:02 AM CST
In this order
Holy Spirit- Bible
(ISBN 1603035060, 9781603035064)
James Allen- As a man Thinketh-
(ISBN1599869837, 9781599869834)
Jim Collins- Good to Great
(ISBN 0977326403, 9780977326402)
I am fortunate that I have electronic copies so I can have them always.
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