Preposterous Universe

 
Modern voter education

Via uggabugga, a set of recommendations for what books voters should be reading to prepare themselves for the upcoming election, offered by our leading pundits (in the broadest possible sense of "leading"). To demonstrate that neither end of the political spectrum has any monopoly on self-importance, Ann Coulter and Gore Vidal vie for the title of most self-recommendations.

The best list was offered by the incomparable Jon Stewart, who is funny even when nobody is getting his jokes. Here are his recommendations for what voters should be reading.

• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
• Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
• Warmed by Love by Leonard Nimoy.
• The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.
• Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.

"These form the core syllabus of modern voter education." The amazon.com star rating from readers has been included, to help make decisions about which book you might want to start with. But it's good to know that Stewart agrees with the consensus over at Michael Bérubé's blog that an understanding of Pynchon is necessary to follow the current campaign.

~ posted by Sean Carroll at 8:37 PM ~ link ~ ~ ~