Bookends

I was looking around First Things for something and I ran across an old post there about bookends. I'll let them explain.

When I discussed that post with Jody Bottum we agreed that one book would not be enough to represent the breadth of a person. However, with two data points a broader spectrum of likes, passions, and interests comes into focus. That led us to pondering the question, “If you had a shelf of books to help explain yourself, which two books would form the outer boundaries—the bookends—of you?”

So that got me to thinking, what would mine be? And I'm really struggling with limiting myself to only two books. I'd like to think that's because I'm such a widely read person with eclectic taste. Instead it probably just means I'm wishy-washy and can't make up my own mind even when the topic isn't important. I'm thinking it might be cheating to choose the Bible; at any rate, perhaps more informative if you choose other books.

I suppose if you held my feet to the fire, I'd pick The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver. I'm not sure what that says about me, but there you go.