Election Reading...

I feel as though there's an election or something coming up... and I was wondering about some mind-expanding books to read, ones that will refresh and recharge my politico. I went on over to The Conservative Book Club (I am a "liberal"), for some suggestions, and read an article about  Ben Shapiro, a journalist and editor who visits college campuses to lecture on free speech. He recommends the following five books: Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt; The Federalist Papers (the founding fathers); The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell; The Righteous Mind by Johnathan Haidt; and The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. This seems to be a reasonable assemblage of reading. The first two suggestions I'd say, have to do with reorienting oneself with American ideology and how our system works. The Quest is probably the furthest right of the group. The description kind of makes efforts towards equality sound like paying taxes, and contrasts with the The Righteous Mind, written by a conservative who changed his mind. Lastly, the The Abolition of Man is interesting to me already in its title. This is personal because I didn't automatically refer to the idea of a black man becoming free, I took it in a more psychological/hypothetical way at first. I wonder if that means women will have to wait for the presidency until a man of every race 'has his day.' The book is actually about "Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools."
If America goes on with its usual two-term per presidency plan, it might be a good idea to find a few areas of agreement. On the other hand, (I did not vote socialist) it may be a bit of a kick to read some of the socialist authors, which I'll probably discuss in a future blog...