Areopagus Special: Readers' Reading Recommendations

Seven short lessons every someday.

Welcome one and all to another special instalment of the Areopagus. Although I delight in writing for you, I find it most delightful when you write for me. Not less than a fortnight ago I asked you this:

What is one book you think everybody should read?

As ever, you rose to the challenge. What I present for you in this edition is a compilation of your collective responses. Should any of you be lacking anything to read at the moment, or looking for something new, then read on — there will be books suggested here that you have never heard of before; books that intrigue, challenge, and promise to reward perusal. How to set the tone? I suppose I must quote Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote this about his love for reading in the early 16th century:

When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold I strip off my muddy, sweaty, workday clothes, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of the ancients and am welcomed by th…