Required Reading

[steepholm]

In search of ideas for Christmas reading, I made the mistake of Googling the phrase 'Should be required reading.' It turns out to describe almost a million items, and even though some fall outside my range of interest ("This gem of a book should be required reading for all lactation consultants and other health care providers", etc), I could spend the rest of my life just trying to catch up on all the books without which I'm apparently incapable of functioning properly as a 21st century human. Is this depressing or liberating?