It's always interesting to scan through sanctioned reading lists. Partly to see if there's an agenda to be ferreted out, partly to get a sense of tastes. NEWSWEEK, in its book edition, names some 37 books they see as important reads. By my count, only ten are fiction. The others are political, historical, religious, or social versions of non-fiction. Strangely, of its book categories, one five-book subset has to do with the lives and doings of various popes.

In an age in which fiction is usually seen as being, to varying degrees, fantasy having almost nothing to do with "real life," NEWSWEEK does little to dispel this myth. Even so, two of their fictional choices attract me: Kate Chopin's "The Awakening," and Graham Greene's, "The End Of The Affair."

Of the non-fictions, I would be in a hurry to buy Steven Pressfield's "The Afghan Campaign" had I not already read it. But "The Uprooted," by Oscar Handlin will be on my to-be-read list.