Smart Classics

Three Not-So-Musty Must-Reads

Over the past six years in this column, I have presented and discussed many old books from many different times and places, and in each case I have striven to show the enduring relevance of these books for our own time. I've enjoyed immensely the opportunity to showcase authors and books and ideas I regard as instructive and important, but I have to confess that the selection process that lies behind each column has not always been an easy one.

There are scores, even hundreds, of books that I think are truly great books, books that have educated and transformed me and that I want to write about, yet have not been able to. Strangely, it often happens that while a book may be overflowing with...