At Evangelical Outpost, they have been considering books that they would recommend to college-age students.

I have two college-age children; indeed, they are both young men and deserve to be referenced as such by me. I have encouraged them to read broadly, read for fun, but read to survive, as well. We live in a dangerous world and it is getting worse, not better. More nations have nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Even North Korea has been able to launch and navigate a missile in flight. More nations have radical elements now than when I was in college, terroristic attacks on civilization have been rampant for decades but are escalating in numbers as well as numbers of authors, and there seems to be no way out of fighting back, even when we are not sure of the identity of the enemy.

In my opinion, in addition to the Scriptures, and I do not add that to the list lightly, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer and The Holocaust by Gilbert are essentials. We are doomed to repeat these mistakes and watch others repeat them if we do not ourselves understand what happened. Radical Islam, or hijacked Islam, will force us to make hard choices and may force us to make many of the accomodations made in the past that led to tragedy. It is clear that on the other side, Damascus, Tehran and Cairo, are failing to understand what happened at Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and many others, should they push us as hard as they have pushed Israel, beyond fear to desperation.

I have encouraged the reading of treatises on the First Amendment, The System of Freedom of Expression, for example, and others, for without that understanding, the blogosphere itself might be jeopardized. I have encouraged the reading of Funny Money, by Singer, so that wise investment can exist and the fall of American banks need not be once again experienced as we did in 1982.

I would also encourage every Dilbert cartoon ever made be read, otherwise we might all be doomed to the cubicle life.