From Prospect, do we need a literary canon? Jonathan Sacks is right that we need a common culture, but wrong to think it should be based on a canon. Forcing young people to read the Bible won't foster a sense of belonging — shared references must evolve more organically. In search of a good read? A review of Michael Dirda's Classics for Pleasure. A review of The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them. Literature's invisible arbiters: We never get to read them, but reader's reports for publishers can make or break books - - particularly so for translations. A review of Soldier's Heart: Peace and War at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet. Lost in translation: Here are 20 good books made into not-so-good movies. Man Bites Dog: A mainstream newspaper covering academic books regularly? Scott McLemee looks into it. Two well publicized academic books offer contrarian looks at Western history. But how persuasive are they?
