Librarian of Congress

Years ago I was a member of the Rotary Club of Washington DC but I clearly remember the day our guest speaker was, James Billington, the librarian for the Library of Congress in the USA. I was reminded of his speech this week when I read the "A Life in Books" section in the February 5th edition of Newsweek magazine which featured Mr. Billington's choice of books.

Mr. Billington's number one book to read is -- the Bible -- but beyond "the book" his Five Most Important Books include:

• "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
• "The Possessed" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville
• "The Nature and Destiny of Man" by Reinhold Niebuhr
• "Keats's Poems" by John Keats

Personally I found Moby Dick as too slow to develop. A much better treatment of man's struggle with nature and with himself, which Melville is focused on, is "The Sea Wolf" by Jack London. I trust Mr. Billington's knowledge of course so the Niebuhr book goes on my future reading list.

Whisper,

Todd