Books that Shaped America

Found this list online the other day in the LA Times:

88 Books that Shaped America

I've read 22 of them (and yes, that includes The Cat in the Hat).  And I continually refer to one of them (The Joy of Cooking -- though I have a much more recent edition than the one listed).

I actually like this list.  I think you could probably come up with more books that belong on it, but it's a really nice mix of fiction and nonfiction, writing for all ages, writing by both black and white authors, time periods, etc.  There's even a little genre fiction on there (Stranger in a Strange Land).

The list was compiled by the Library of Congress.  You can read more about it here.  (There's even a survey, if you're so inclined.)

It gives me some good ideas, by the way, for my out-of-genre project.  I used to enjoy a good hardboiled detective novel, and seeing Red Harvest on the list reminds me that I have a couple of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler books on the shelf.  That would be a little different from the stuff I usually choose for those posts.