Heard an interesting Radio 4 programme about the Five Foot Shelf this morning. It is an idea from Charles W. Eliot - President of Harvard and cousin of T.S. - that everything required for a complete, liberal education could fit on a shelf of books just 5-feet in length. The original list is here. Of course, having been published in 1909, it misses out more than a 100 years since. What should be on the shelf now?
I will start with
Non-fiction
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Jerusalem: The Biography - Simon Sebag Montefiore
In the Steps of the Master - H. V. Morton
The Diary of Anne Frank
Fiction
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
1984 - George Owell
I will start with
Non-fiction
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Jerusalem: The Biography - Simon Sebag Montefiore
In the Steps of the Master - H. V. Morton
The Diary of Anne Frank
Fiction
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
1984 - George Owell
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