A few months back, one of our customers sent us a special request for a list of 10 books we felt everyone absolutely must read in his or her lifetime. The question intrigued us and we immediately launched into a heated debate. Should the Bible be on the list? No text has influenced Western culture more, but might it be equally important to read the Koran or the Torah for a more enlightened worldview?
Shakespeare seemed like a given, but how to choose between Hamlet and The Sonnets, between A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear? And what of lesser
known works —things like The Rings of Saturn or Bluets or No-No Boy or The Book of Disquiet? How could we whittle down our list to just 10 books?
As it turns out, we couldn’t. We posed the question to our fellow book-savvy colleagues and, after receiving some 1,400 nominations(!) and putting it to a vote,
we ultimately settled on 25 titles. Instead of worrying so much about what had to be included,
we opted to present a collection of books that has the ability to change the way you think and feel and reflects our diverse interests here at Powell’s. We hope you enjoy our suggestions.
