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most recommended books of all time. ">What does a person's choice of reading say about them? Some might argue that one's reading material reveals deep and intimate details about their personality, but other's would say that appreciating an author's vision and technical skill does not necessarily mean one agrees with them or shares a similar viewpoint. Below, we have compiled a list of a few significant individuals from the 20th century and paired them with one of their favorite books. It is up to the reader to decide just what exactly their recommended books say about these individual's character. Tupac Shakur: The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli For those unaware of his existence, Tupac Shakur was an influential hip-hop artist in the 1990's who was shot the death in Las Vegas in 1996. Despite his appearance as a street-wise, gun-toting criminal, Shakur spent a great deal of his time reading philosophy and pondering the horrendous living conditions and substandard treatment of Black Americans. Shakur took a particular liking to Niccolò Machiavelli's famous work The Prince and noted that this was because he liked Machiavelli's strategy for ruling a kingdom and felt that it applied to life in the criminal underworld. Tupac liked the book so much that he released his final album under the name Makaveli. Barack Obama: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville Moby-Dick is most known for its extremely detailed descriptions of the whaling industry and Captain Ahab's unholy obsession with killing the white whale, but it is a novel that examines the complexities of morality and spirituality. It is fitting, then, that current President Barack Obama notes Moby-Dick as among his all-time favorites as world leaders are supposed to be philosophers, at least according to Plato. One could also draw a parallel between the book and Obama's dedication to healthcare reform as Ahab's obsession cost him his life, while Obama's may cost him his political clout. Albert Einstein: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Like much of Dostoevsky's other works, The Brothers Karamazov has a very dreary tone and touches on many of life's unknown questions, like whether or not God exists, what exactly is evil, if free will exists, amongst many others. Albert Einstein is of course noted for his work in physics, but he is lesser known for his personal struggle with his spirituality and his association with Judaism. The Brothers Karamazov is one of Dostoevsky's most intellectually deep works and it is no surprise that one of the most enlightened human beings in recent memory found it one of his favorite reads. Adolf Hitler: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe Adolf Hitler will forever be known as a mass murderer and for obvious good reason, but he was also an avid reader and was reported to have a massive library of nearly 20,000 books. In one of history's surprise twists, Hitler was found to have considered Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin as one of his favorite works. The irony is fairly obvious as the book is a plea to Americans to abandon their racist attitudes and Hitler was a fairly prominent advocate of racial supremacy theories. Henry Ford: Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten Henry Ford is known as the man who changed American industry with the widespread adoption of the assembly line and he was never known to be a strong reader. Because of this disaffection with literary pursuits, Ford stated that his favorite book was Bambi, a Life in the Woods, which was famously adopted into a Disney cartoon. Like Hitler's love of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ford's choice of novel is also extremely ironic as Bambi was interpreted as a statement against the mistreatment of Jews in Europe, and Ford is very well-known for his virulent anti-Semitism. From the list above, it’s safe to say that one's choice is literature may not say anything at all about people's personalities, other than the fact that they like to read. ----- Penny Lee is a self-professed book lover and writes articles on the most recommended books of all time.
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