My Most Influential Books

When reporters want to trip up a candidate, they ask them to name one book which has profoundly influenced them other than the Bible? Can you name one book that has influenced you? I can't name just one, but I can give a list.

Before Age 23:

1. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand gave me a distrust of the power of big government and shaped the libertarian side of my philosophy during my teen and young adult life. Pink Floyd's The Wall feeds a similar viewpoint.

2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov fired my imagination. The ability to see civilizations that never existed in your mind's eye is key to creative thinking.

3. My political philosophy textbook in college exposed me to the Enlightenment philosophers. They shaped my libertarian views in a less cynical way. I would say that I was influenced by The Federalist Papers but I have never made it all the way through them.

4. Candide by Voltaire and Lysistrata by Aristophanes exposed me to the power of satire. I have been a smartass ever since.

5. The Law of the Land by Charles Rembar was the start of my love affair with the law. Rembar demonstrated that writing about the law could be fun, something that influenced me many years later when I began to write a bankruptcy blog.

6. Blessed Rage for Order by Catholic Theologian David Tracy did not influence me in the least. However, I always thought it would be a good name for a Christian punk band. Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich was one theology book that I did understand.

After Age 23:

7. The Bible and Luther's Small Catechism made me appreciate the value of compassion more. I know that I was supposed to have read these books at a much younger age, but I did not really appreciate them until I was older. I especially like the way that Luther turns the Ten Commandments into positive commands to do good as opposed to merely negatives to be avoided.

8. Judgment at Nuremberg by Robert Conot, Letters to Freya by James Helmuth von Moltke and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright helped me to appreciate the power of evil and the danger of fanaticism. I had read books about World War II, including William Shirer's Berliln Diary, when I was younger, but I didn't really comprehend them until I was an adult.

9, Hamlet and the works of William Shakespeare helped me develop a love of the English language and the power of words. The Story of English by Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil is runner-up in this category.