The Huffington Post has  a short, interesting article/list dubbed “10 Books Every American Should Read,” which includes The Federalist Papers, Common Sense, The Grapes of Wrath, Invisible Man, and other works. Of the list, there are only two books I haven’t read- Gone with the Wind and Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. You can see the full list here. I agree with much of it, but I wondered why The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a few other novels didn’t make the cut. I suppose it’s hard to pick just 10, and maybe the list should have been expanded to 20, or even 50. No matter what kind of list is composed, it’s likely people would disagree with it.

If you made a list of the top 10 books every American should read, what would be on it? Does poetry have a place on the list? What about Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, or Frost’s early books that address New England farm life? I can also see a place for Ginsberg’s “Howl,” Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” and much of Langston Hughes’ work that did such a fine job capturing racial tension in America and also the speech and language of inner-city life. Maybe poetry should have its own list.