Centroids :
Here is an interesting puzzle. What are the three books you wish
you had written ?
For the moment I don't have a list that comes immediately to
mind, but
it is worth thinking about as a sort of self critique and as a
means
of telling others what our ideals are and what we would like
others to consider for their own lives.
The nice thing about this exercise is that it is open to all
comers.
My three choices aren't the only right answers, nor are anyone
else's.
And someone else's choices may influence me or you or whomever,
all for the good. That is, it is non zero-sum and win / win.
For your consideration
Billy
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Washington Post / September 15, 2009
Some years ago I read an essay by the critic Denis Donoghue in
which he mentioned the three books he would most like to have written
himself: Italo Svevo’s Confessions of Zeno, Kenneth Burke’s Toward
a Better Life, and Robert K. Merton’s On the Shoulders of Giants.
I’ve read all three—though I was disappointed in the Burke—and
see an ironic, self-aware and playful voice as the common element
among them.
Naturally, I wondered which three of the world’s books I might like
to have written. Obviously, the memoirs of Casanova would be at the
head of the list, followed by the autobiography of Bill Gates, and the
Declaration of Independence. Hmm, does that last count as a book?
Just kidding, folks. Well, maybe not about the Casanova.
In fact, I suspect my choices would be: Cyril Connolly’s “The
Unquiet Graveâ€â€”a little volume of plangent meditations and
quotations about life; Robert Graves’s crazed handbook of poetic
myth, “The White Goddessâ€; and Denis Diderot’s “Rameau’s
Nephew,†his sprightly dialogue with a consummate rogue and charlatan.
Of course, tomorrow or next week I might choose three completely
different works. But how about you? What three of the world’s books
would you most like to have written? Which give at least a partial
portrait of your soul?
