Indispensable Reading: 1001 Books From The Arabian Nights to Zola

(Hardback)

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The world of books can seem like a trackless forest stretching to the horizon in all directions, full of wrong turns, dead ends, and pitfalls. But it is in fact full of treasure, and Indispensable Reading is a map to books that can provide a lifetime of reading that is thoughtful, provocative, pleasurable, and, above all, memorablefor at a minimum, a book worth reading should linger in the mind. The selections are informed by Wm. Roger Louiss lifetime of reading and 56 years of university teaching. The range of titles is vast. Almost 50 countries are represented in the literature category, and in history the scope is equally broad. A highlight of the book is the carefully curated section on politics. Extensive chapters cover biographies and memoirs, ancient and modern philosophy, and religion. Smaller groupings take account of the social and natural sciences, ethnic and gender studies, and the arts. Indispensable Reading is not meant to be a prescribed course of study. It is not a standardized list of best books or great books or read before you die books. Many of its choices are quirky, surprising. Ultimately, its goal is to stimulate a reader into making a personal list of titles that he or she finds indispensable, another unique map of the way through the forest of books.

Author Bio

Wm. Roger Louis is the Kerr Professor of English History and Culture and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. An Honorary Fellow of St. Antonys College, Oxford, he is a past President of the American Historical Association and a former chairman of the U.S. State Departments Historical Advisory Committee. He held the Kluge Chair at the Library of Congress (2010) and delivered the Bancroft Lecture at the U.S. Naval Academy in 2015. He is the founder of the British Studies Seminar at the University of Texas (1975), where in 2009 he was chosen Professor of the Year by the 50,000-member student body. His books include Imperialism at Bay, 1977, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1984, and Ends of British Imperialism, 2006. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the five-volume Oxford History of the British Empire (199899) and its Companion series (2004). In 1999, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He has edited some 30 books, including the third volume of The History of Oxford University Press. In 2013, he was awarded the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature; in 2014 he received a Certificate in Arabic after intensive study in Oman; and in 2016 he delivered the Chaim Weizmann Memorial Lecture in the Humanities in Israel.