The canon of great books isn’t as fixed in stone as it once was. Have the classics been joined by a more diverse roster of great works? That’s one conclusion to be drawn from 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die. Depending on where you are in life, 1,000 might be too long a bucket list, but the titles chosen by James Mustich are all worth considering. As editor of the much beloved A Common Reader catalog, Mustich logged many hours in search of wisdom and delight in books. His perspective eludes the barriers of pseudo-academic theorizing in favor of making great works accessible, not obscure. His choices span millennia and cultures. Plato is here, but so is Maya Angelou. James Baldwin shares pages with Friedrich Nietzsche and the Bible with the Arabian Nights. Arranged alphabetically by author, 1,000 Books is enjoyable when read randomly for Mustich’s acute insight into the moral and political quandaries of writing—whether fiction or non-fiction.
