I wrote this for a former student in late 2010, who wanted a list of recommended titles. I decided to give her a list of books I saw fit, for one reason or another, to give to others.
Woolf, The Common Reader, 2 v.
Roy, The God of Small Things
Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living
Kolsbun, Peace: The Biography of a Symbol
Proust, Cities of the Plain
Farmer, Partner to the Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader [3 people]
Young-Bruehl, Why Arendt Matters
Kerouac, The Dharma Bums: 50th Anniversary Edition
Easwaran, Gandhi the Man: The Story of His Transformation [several people]
Bei Dao, The Rose of Time: New and Selected Poems (Bilingual Edition)
Mahouz, The Cairo Trilogy [3 people, one in Ramallah]
Zamora, Riverbed of Memory
Washington, Haiku (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets)
Proust, The Fugitive
Hachmyer, Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Guide to Global Volunteer Opportunities [at least ten people]
Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation [2 people, polyglots]
Musico, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence [3 people]
Nhat Hanh, Being Peace [let’s just say, “many”]
Bolaño, The Savage Detectives [thanks to Erin, at Left Bank Books]
Chomsky, The Essential Chomsky
Arendt, The Jewish Writings
Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (Pevear & Volokhonsky translation) [5 people]
Kerouac, You’re a Genius All the Time
Solnit, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
Neruda, 20 Love Poems and a Cry of Despair
Cao Ngoc Phuong, Learning True Love: How I Learned and Practiced Social Change in Vietnam
Easwaran, Take Your Time: Finding Balance in a Hurried World
Gerassi, Jean-Paul Sartre: Hated Conscience of His Century, Volume 1: Protestant or Protester?
Zinn, Emma: A Play
Beavoir, Letters to Sartre
Roy, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers
Ophir, The Order of Evils: Toward an Ontology of Morals
Arenas, The Color of Summer
Follmi, Wisdom: 365 Thoughts from Indian Masters (Offerings for Humanity)
Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East [3 people]
Proust, Swann’s Way
Arenas, El Color del Verano
Besancenot & Löwy, Che Guevara: His Revolutionary Legacy
Eliot, Middlemarch
Proust, Within a Budding Grove
Robertson, The New Laurel’s Kitchen
Johnstone, Impro: Improvisation and the Theater [4 people]
Barks, The Soul of Rumi [4 people]
El Libro de Mevelina [a couple score]
Aristide, In the Parish of the Poor: Writings from Haiti [5 people]
Slezkine, The Jewish Century
Brainard, I Remember [4 people]
Maurer, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way [3 people]
Miller, Henry Miller on Writing
Wang, One China, Many Paths
Proust, The Guermantes Way
M., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone
Cott, Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews [3 people]
Matisoff, Blessings, Curses, Hopes, and Fears: Psycho-Ostensive Expressions in Yiddish
Sachs, The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824
Gilbert, Eyes in Gaza
Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer [7 people, all pre-med]
Goldberg, Writing down the Bones [8 people, going back to 1988]
Zinn, The Bomb
Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Adonis, Selected Poems
Proust, The Captive
Nhat Hanh, Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices [3 people, at least]
Hirschman, Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry (Creole and English Edition)
Library of America edition, Walt Whitman, Poetry and Prose [2 people]
Waldman, Fast Speaking Woman: Chants and Essays [3 poets]
Ellsberg, ed. The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day
Proust, Time Regained
McQuade, An Unsentimental Education: Writers and Chicago [2 people]
Carson, A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen
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