The Perfect Library Only Needs 110 98 Books

From classics and sci-fi to poetry and biographies, The Telegraph lists 110 titles for the perfect library. If you don't want any children's books in your library, the title counts can be reduced by 10.

Under the heading, "Books That Changed Your World" are two hippie classics, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The "Books That Changed the World" list is remarkably gloomy. It includes Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince.

Neither "world changing" heading includes any religious Scripture. The closest to a religious title is St. Augustine's Confessions, listed under "Lives." Also listed under "Lives" is Alan Clark's Diaries (a notorious Tory MP, "his indiscreet memoirs detailed countless extra-marital affairs and character assassinations of colleagues.")

Let's see, subtract children's books and Clark's Diaries and that leaves 99 titles. I don't think many people will want to slog through Diderot's 35-volume L'Encyclopédie so the number is down to 98. [JH]