[Vision2020] RE: Ten Most Harmful Books

[joanopyr at earthlink.net]

Roger writes:

"Good post. I suppose whether a book is harmful or not depends on ones
perspective on what it is harmful to. For istance 'Origin of the Species'
may be viewed as harmful by some fundamentalist religions but beneficial
from a science viewpoint."

As a Liberal thinker, lists of "dangerous books" are anathema to me.  Books
aren't dangerous; people are.  But, if pressed, then I'd have to say that
Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" was at the top of my list of books you should
not allow your reasonably bright teenager to read.  Why?  Because he or she
will invariably identify with the architect Howard Roark and spend the next
six months moping about in the guise of misunderstood genius.  It's most
annoying.  (I know because I did it myself, way back in 1982.)

Other irritating books?  Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence
People."  "Diet for a Small Planet," "The More-With-Less Cookbook," and the
complete works of Adele Davis and Yule Gibbons -- I blame the latter two
for the fact that my mother sprinkled wheat germ on *everything* we ate for
nearly a decade.  Wheat germ on a banana split?  Good grief!  Finally, I
believe it is our moral and civic duty to reject anything written by Norman
Vincent Peale and/or any drug-addled country singer who spends 40 years
snorting coke, beating his wives, and kicking his dogs but has now turned
to Jesus and wants to share.  Tell to Saint Peter, Glen Campbell -- I'm not
interested.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com