What's more, they encourage the reader to add upon the suggestions made here; the emphasis above all is placed on the love of reading and the discovery of great literature.

49 of 51 found the following review helpful:

read the preface for goodness sake  Mar 26, 2008
By Joffre Renaud
I haven't reviewed a book in a long time because customer reviews so often annoy me. Now I'm writing this one because another one has.

Another reveiwer here criticizes The New Lifetime Reading Plan and its predecessors for not including the Bible. That would be a good criticism indeed if not for this sentence from the preface to the book, " We assume that nearly every reader of this book will own a Bible and be at least somewhat accustomed to reading it; and there is nothing we might try to say about it that would not seem presumptuous."

And for those who find the listing and others like it 'dogmatic', it is a list of the books that people who have read widely and deeply over many years have found lasting value in. The earlier works in the list were an influence on the later works. The later works have been appreciated by the contemporary authors influenced by the earlier ones. The list is a suggestion. These are the books I and people like me have enjoyed. Try them if they sound interesting to you. If they don't, then read something else. If you want to write a book suggesting your own favorites, knock yourself out.

And as for political correctness, while that is indeed a problem in modern scholarship, it is not a problem in this book. Hippies may very well have played at Buddhism, but it is a religion older than Christianity that is still practiced by many sincere followers in Eastern countries. Hinduism is also older than Christianity and still practiced by many people. The works of those religions and cultures have not had much influence on the literature of the West because they were not well known until relatively recently. The later Eastern novels included in The New Lifetime Reading Plan show the influence both of the great Western works and of those such as The Ramayana, The Bhagavad Gita, and The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.

I have several books of this type, but this is the one I like best. The two to four page introductions to authors and their major works are interesting and informative. I used the book in particular to get more familiar with classical Greek drama and Asian literature. I have very much enjoyed several of the books I learned of through it.

95 of 113 found the following review helpful:

MISPLACEMENT OF EMPHASIS (bookbasher@hotmail.com)  Mar 06, 2001
By David Lawrence
This book deserves one more than one star because of its subject matter. Clifton Fadiman, who also gave us THE WINE BUYER'S GUIDE & THE JOYS OF WINE, shows a sincere love for books, yet he is unfortunately one of the most ridiculous critics I have ever encountered. He consistently sounds far too pompous and misplaces his emphasis left and right. He tells us that Shakespeare should not be studied and is frequently pretentious and obscure; he says that Milton wrote in an often lackluster foreign language; he declares that Dickens is tedious and produced one of his worst novels in A TALE OF TWO CITIES; and he implies that DON QUIXOTE is something you should read in the 50-page version for children. After leaving us a bit ambivalent about those who have long been considered the greatest writers ever, he goes on the exalt Nabokov, Camus, and James Boswell (merely fine writers relative to the former ones).

Reading Cliff Fadiman is like listening to a history professor tell you that Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR were really mediocre presidents, but that Garfield and Coolidge were enlightened and really got a hell of a lot done.

I hate to be so negative, but there are just so many better books than Fadiman's on the same subject.

If you are looking for a lifetime reading plan and an inspiring critic, I suggest you try Harold Bloom (THE WESTERN CANON, SHAKESPEARE: THE INVENTION OF THE HUMAN, HOW TO READ AND WHY).

After you read Bloom's chapters on Cervantes, Milton, Dickens, and above all Shakespeare, go back and read Fadiman's sections on these authors. Talk about Hyperion to a satyr.

20 of 21 found the following review helpful:

Whets the appetite for great reading  Nov 18, 2000
By Tom Hinkle
Want to get serious about reading great literature but don't know where to start? This is a perfect starting point. Not only does it guide you into the classic "repertoire" but it creates a hunger to delve into these literary delicacies. The authors definitely have a passion for this material, and the best part is they are not afraid to be critical of these works and authors at times. Included are works that fall outside the "western" canon that could easily go unread by those unfamiliar with eastern culture. The worlds of science and philosophy are also well-represented.

I remember that I did some of my required reading in school like many did: by reading the Cliff's Notes. Now, as an adult, it's time to go back and give books like "The Scarlet Letter" and "Crime and Punishment" a second chance, from a more mature perspective. Ahead of me lies literary "Mt. Everests" to climb such as "Ulysses" and "Remembrance of Things Past". Of course, in a reading plan such as this, there are always omissions (where's "Beowulf", for gosh sakes?), but even recognizing the omissions increases my awareness and hunger for them. This book is not the be-all and end-all of literary reading plans, no book is, but it accomplishes its task perfectly.

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