There's little I love more than a few good book recommendations. But I'm always saddened to see the year-end lists constrained to books of that year, a needless limit when I'm much more interested in books the author discovered that year and found dazzling. Happily, John Judis's heap o' recommendations over at TNR merrily eschews such narrowness to range widely over the past four decades of American letters. Like my editor Harold Meyerson, Judis is a graduate of the post-War left (if I don't misremember, he was also a Michael Harrington disciple) and encyclopedic on all things related to American politics.
Meanwhile, I remain vaguely aghast that no bright publisher has offered a book composed merely of notable intellectuals and individuals recommending the titles they believe everyone should read. Or, given the limits of print, Amazon or some other smart web retailer should create, pursue, and publicize just such a series, hyperlinking all the recommendations to the order pages.
