Most Harmful Books meme
Moon Over Pittsburg tagged me for the Most Harmful Books meme, a bookend if you will, to the ALA Most Challenged Books meme.
So, how many of Human Events Most Harmful Books have I read? (Excerpts don't count.)
From the Top 10
1. The Communist Manifesto
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
4. The Kinsey Report
9. Beyond Good and Evil
From the Honorable Mentions
On Liberty
The Origin of Species
Not very many. Maybe that's why I'm so well-adjusted.
I invite Amanda, Chris of Mixing Memory, and Roxanne to play along at home.
I did somewhat better on these than the challenged books. Five of the top 10 and seven of the Honorable Mentions (acutally parts of some of them; for example, I read volumes 1 and 2 of Capital but not all of volume 3 and some parts of the honorable mentions, but so long ago I can't remember how much).
I wonder what this says about me? I only read 4 of 100 of the "challenged" books, most of which the consensus is they are healthy books.
Posted by: revere | September 29, 2005 at 03:48 PM
Thanks for the invite. My answer is going to completely scare people. And get me on some double-secret probation FBI list.
Posted by: Roxanne | September 29, 2005 at 03:55 PM
Well if you don't read part III of Das Kapital you're missing out on all the dirty bits!
Posted by: Njorl | September 29, 2005 at 04:45 PM
Great, with a birthday and christmas coming up I now know what to ask for.
Posted by: Joseph | September 29, 2005 at 06:45 PM
Add the honorable mentions (the list that includes J.S. Mill's On Liberty) to the meme.
Posted by: Robin | September 29, 2005 at 07:34 PM
While we're on the subject of "Origin of the Species" there is a pretty good conversation going on over at Legal Affairs Debate Club on the subject of "intelligent design" and the law.
http://legalaffairs.org/webexclusive/debateclub_id0905.msp
It's a pretty good discussion, no matter what side you come down on...
mojo sends
Posted by: vanmojo | September 29, 2005 at 08:47 PM
Well I like this list better. I've been harmed by #5-10 and nine of the honorables.
btw "a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders?" I'd say 15 bible fundamentalists. Ordinary conservatives love Comte, Darwin, Mill, and Freud.
Posted by: Gary Sugar | September 29, 2005 at 09:45 PM
I think the most harmful book of any time is the bible, but the most harmful book of our time is...
THE FOUNTAIN HEAD (or as I like to call it, the So-called Fountain Head.)
Posted by: mudkitty | September 30, 2005 at 06:31 AM
Count me in for 1, 3, 9 and 10; and Mill, Darwin's Of the Origin, Foucault and Freud from the honourable mentions. Heck, I'm probably even more harmed because I read Histoire de la folie, which is about four times longer than what got into the English translation of Madness and Civilization
Posted by: ahem | September 30, 2005 at 10:37 PM