On Saturday, I spoke to the monthly gathering and breakfast of the mens group of
Dayspring United Methodist Church in Tempe. I addressed them several years ago, and they wanted me back to pick up where I had left off in talking about on the world of religion and faith from a newspaper writers vantage point.
I sat next to the groups leader, Rick Garza, retired Phoenix police officer who now works with the street homeless through the Tempe Police Department. Our table conversation ranged over a lot of terrain and common ground. Then I learned he was married to Kim Garza of the Tempe Public Library.
That conjured 1999 when Kim, who was then the librarys collection management librarian, carried out a project for National Library Week called Best Books of the Twentieth Century. She solicited community leaders and others, plus library staff and members of the librarys advisory board, to come up with their own lists of the greatest books. It appears that people could nominate up to 10 books. The 18 pages of book titles that were chosen can still be found on line: www.tempe.gov/library/books/adultbibs/bestbook.htm
I was one of 22 people responding to an invitation to submit a list of titles of favorite and transforming books from my life of reading. In Garzas cover page, explaining the project, I was one of three people quoted about presenting my list: I have always been a rousing cheerleader for the Tempe Public Library. I wish I could just live there. The library has brought untold hours of joy Lawn Griffiths, Tempe Tribune. All books were in the librarys collection, with reference numbers for finding them on the shelves listed. The contributor of the title got to write a couple sentences on why the book was important. Some did not.
Sen. John McCain, R.- Ariz., was a contributor to Best Books, but oddly and interestingly there are just two books submitted as favorites: Truman by David McCullough; and What It Takes: The Way to the White House by Richard Benjamin Cramer. By 1999, McCain already was a candidate for the 2000 presidential race, and perhaps, for him, it was timely and especially worth mentioning, a book that mattered to him at the time. He would lose his White House bid to George W. Bush in 2000. Perhaps, McCain has reread Cramers book for his 2008 race and now knows better than ever what it takes.
Among the nine books that I offered were: The True Believer by Eric Hoffer; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Heart is a Lonesome Hunter by Carson McCullers; I Never Sang for My Father by Robert Anderson; The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran; Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh; William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner and The Grape of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It tossed in one maverick title: Say No to Circumcision! 40 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Respect His Birthright and Keep Your Son Whole by Thomas Ritter. I couldnt resist.
Tempe Councilman Ben Arredondo offers some great ones: Button Soup By Doris Orgel; Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy; Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey MacKay. Garza weaved in some of her favorite books: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath; Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham and Edith Whartons classic The Age of Innocence.
Altogether, there were 154 books suggested by for best of century. Many books were nominated more than once, including three each for The Prophet, All the Kings Men and The Grapes of Wrath. In a nation that seems to always enjoy seeing lists, now almost eight years later, these books make up an amazing core of important reading worthy for years to come.
