These brief essays on Kanigel's personal choice of best books provide a unique point of view to literature students in search of an overview or comments about their favorite work. The author makes no claim to be scholarly or comprehensive, but has written briefly about enduring books and stories that appeal to his "middle-brow" tastes. Included are essays on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, Native Son, and other works often studied by high school students. The selections are collected under broad subjects such as "I Know What I Like," "Literary Classics," and "The Realm of the Spirit.Vintage Reading: From Plato to Bradbury, A Personal Tour of Some of the World's Best Books is an anthology of 80 book reviews that the author wrote over a seven-year period for three separate newspapers. Most are around 750 words. The reviews are well written and engrossing.
The book is broken into nine sections:
"On Everyone's List of Literary Classics" in which 12 books are reviewed. Two examples: Kim by Rudyard Kipling and My Antonia by Willa Cather.
"On Many a List for Burning: Heretics, Subversives, Demagogues" in which 7 books are reviewed. Two examples: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed.
"Books That Shaped the Western World" in which 11 books are reviewed. Two examples: Essays by Montaigne and Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville;
"Making Hard Work Easy: The Great Popularizers" in which 10 books are reviewed. Two examples: Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead and The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton.
"Not Robinson Crusoe, Not Brave New World: Lesser Known Classics" in which 7 books are reviewed. Two examples: A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe and Roughing It by Mark Twain.
"Lighter Fare: Good Reads, Best Sellers" in which 8 books are reviewed. Two examples: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
"But I Know What I Like: On Aesthetics and Style" in which 5 books are reviewed. Two examples: The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin and The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form by Kenneth Clark.
"One-of-a-Kinds" in which 9 books are reviewed. Two examples: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf and The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
"The Realm of the Spirit: Holy and Human" in which 11 books are reviewed. Two examples: The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton and Night by Elie Wiesel.
Each of the 80 reviews is like a tasty appetizer that entices you to read (or re-read) an outstanding book.
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