9 books

If it's Tuesday it must be Tamerlane.



Nine Books

- by 'tamerlane


To amuse each other, my sister and I come up with silly get-rich schemes. One was to run an ad that said, "Guaranteed Way to Make Money. Send $1 for Instructions." The instructions would read, "Run an ad that says, 'Guaranteed Way to...'"

Another of our schemes was to open "Livre Neuf", a hyper-trendy bookstore with only nine single books for sale at any one time. Located on some chic thoroughfare in LA or NY, Livre Neuf would be set up like an art gallery, all track lighting and exposed brick, with the books displayed on pedestals.

Typical offerings might include: a 13th century manuscript cookbook, featuring 800-year old food stains ($17,000); Lenny Bruce's childhood copy of Winnie the Pooh ($39,600), a partially-burned, paperback edition of Fahrenheit 451, found in a dumpster out back ($723,000).

Hours would be by appointment only. Celebrities like Johnny Depp and Melinda Gates would contemplate the books, arms crossed, lips pursed, while our obsequious staff made the soft sell.

Well, all that has practically nothing to do with my real reason for this post. I wish to survey all of you for your list of the nine most valuable books. Not the rarest, nor necessarily your personal favorites. Rather, the nine books you feel are most valuable for a person to read, or that have made the greatest contributions to civilization. If you can't think of nine, chime in with just one or two titles.


(c) 2009 by 'tamerlane'. All rights reserved.