A student gave me a tough assignment: what are the 10 Best books to read for the next 10 years? She’d gotten that as an assignment in class, but I warned her that it likely was a “trick question.” The right answer, of course, is to give the teacher a list of the 10 books she’ll read each MONTH for the next ten years! Philosophical Perennialist that I am, I didn’t have to go far a field from certain authors. I’m going to assume non-fiction, though if there’s a fire my poetry books get saved first. Here’s my list, what’s on YOUR list?

Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had

Edwin Friedman, A Failure of Nerve and Generation to Generation (yeah, I know, that’s cheating. But originally Friedman had these two in ONE manuscript before they became two books, so there!)

James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

Israel Galindo. The Hidden Lives of Congregations (shameless self-promotion—doesn’t count)

Henri J. Nouwin, In The Name of Jesus

Jerome Bruner, Toward a Theory of Instruction or The Culture of Education or The Process of Education

Mortimer Adler, How To Read A Book

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (and/or his Perelandra trilogy)

Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership or Organizational Development (a reader) (If you don’t know Schein you don’t know much of nuthin’).

Augustine, Confessions

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
<%image(20070217-IGMatrix100.jpg|100|131|I think my neighbors are spying on me.)%>
“There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can’t.”