Book Lists : Carl Sagan’s Reading List

[Alias Reader]

* X posting for future reference

Carl Sagan’s Reading List

by Maria Popova

Reverse-engineering one of the greatest minds of all time by his information diet.

“Success,” concluded this 1942 anatomy of inspiration, “depends on sufficient knowledge of the special subject, and a variety of extraneous knowledge to produce new and original combinations of ideas.” Few are the heroes of modern history more “successful” and inspired than the great Carl Sagan, and his 1954 reading list, part of his papers recently acquired by the Library of Congress, speaks to precisely this blend of wide-angle, cross-disciplinary curiosity and focused, in-field expertise — and is balanced with a healthy approach to reading and “non-reading”, with some books read “in whole” and others “in part.” (Sagan, as we know, was an avid advocate of books.)


Extraordinary Popular Delusions (public library; public domain) by Charles Mackay
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

The Uses of the Past: Profiles of Former Societies (public library) by Herbert Joseph Muller
The Uses of the Past

The Immoralist (public library) by André Gide
The Immoralist

Education for Freedom (public library) by Robert Maynard Hutchins (Chapter One: “The Autobiography of an Uneducated Man”)
Education for Freedom

Young Archimedes and Other Stories (public library) by Aldous Huxley
Young Archimedes and Other Stories


Timaeus (public library; public domain) by Plato
Timaeus/Critias


Who Speaks for Man? (public library) by Norman Cousins
Who Speaks for Man


The Republic (public library; public domain) by Plato
The Republic


The History of Western Philosophy (public library) by W. T. Jones
A History of Western Philosophy, Volume 1: The Classical Mind


But We Were Born Free (public library) by Elmer Holmes Davis
But We Were Born Free

[madrano]

Am i correct in understanding that these books were read by Sagan in 1954? It's interesting in two ways. First, just that the list exists. Second, i'm wondering why it was released. I suppose to illustrate the disparity of his reading. I cannot say that i've read a single one, although i began The Republic.

Indeed, other than the first one, i'm not sure i've really heard of the others. The first was popular a few years back, if i recall correctly. I think it was part of the info on Tulipmania books.Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age;Tulipmania; Tulipmania: The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival: Official Festival Guidebook.

[Alias Reader]

Extraordinary Popular Delusions (public library; public domain) by Charles Mackay

I own and read part of this one. It's a popular Wall Street book to recommend. Good lessons to remember when people start to think prices can only go up.

It seems Sagan at least created the list in 1954. I don't know if he read the books that year.

As to why it was released - It's from a website that I follow on FB

http://www.brainpickings.org

[madrano]

Ah, thank you for the explanation, Alias. I was unclear on that point.