Great Books

In recent years I have bought very few books; I have enough unread books to last me long after my eyes give out.  Nevertheless, I know that I will accumulate more because I continue to frequent bookstores and libraries and the titles and reviews look so interesting.  Moreover, scholarship has not ceased and neither has my need to read. Furthermore, people who know of my bent to read have graciously given me many books or steered me to their favorites as I have asked them of theirs.

 

This is, indeed, the information age—and could be the age of wisdom if we would partake of that portion of the knowledge and information that is out there that truly is wise. 

 

A book that I did buy recently and which I am having a hard time putting down is David Brooks's The Road to Character.  How I wish I had his insights and examples of the pattern of character development thirty years ago when I wrote my doctoral dissertation, Character Education: The Development of Moral and Spiritual Values. . . Much of what I have learned over a lifetime pertaining to living a good life is distilled into this one insightful book. 

 

I have part of the Great Books library and all of the Harvard Classics, (and read many, but not all of them) but I would assert that Mr. Brooks’ book ranks up with the best of them if wisdom is the criterion.  Though a modern liberal critic might not call it a ‘great book,’ I would certainly call it a ‘good book’ –which may be more important.  To paraphrase Alexis de Tocqueville, “When a great nation [book] ceases to be good [moral] it ceases to be great.” Since the ‘brook’s’ running, drink from it.  And that brings to mind the observation that few who have seriously read what for centuries has been called ‘the Good book,’ would quarrel with its greatness or its goodness.

Lastly, if I had this book when I was rearing my teenagers I would have done all in my power to persuade them to add this book to their ‘must read’ list.  Not only would the insights of the author and the supporting examples of the people who he wrote about have been helpful in crafting a good life, but the generation gap would have been narrowed.