"Newsweek" recently featured a list titled "Fifty Books for Our Time." Of the fifty, only a single book of poetry was mentioned. What was it? (Answer appears below.) And, as a point of discussion, if you were allowed to pick a single book of poetry that would fit the description "for our time," would it be this one or ____________________?

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

"Leaves of Grass," Walt Whitman

Hi, MaryAnn, Sorry! I should have provided a link in my original post. Here it is:

<link>

You can draw your own conclusions. What I would say is it is a mixture of books from uplifting to admonitory to consolatory, all meant to make us feel better about the recession. And what a shameless way to sell books, with links to amazon.com beneath most of the titles! Does Newsweek make money for allowing those links? It gives the whole thing the tawdriness of an info-mercial instead of the gravitas of a regular article. But maybe that's just me :-)

IT, I disagree with Newsweek's choice of Walt Whitman. I think Americans have overdosed on the Emerson / Whitman idea that God is within Man, that Man can do Anything.

It's ideas like that which led to the mortgage debacle.

I say that since I just read Milton's Paradise Lost, which reminds us all that Good and Evil exist, that we all possess the capacity for sinning or at least, making mistakes, all other Americans should read it as well.

DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG

But how can they not include Winnie the Pooh or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Poetry wise - I would have personally chosen Frost over Whitman.

d;-)