Blog Elements

Last January, feeling nostalgic for the kind of in-depth reading I did as a kid before the Internet intervened to make me a scanner, I decided to set of a goal of reading 100 books in 2012. I just finished—and thought I would mention the books that I either enjoyed the most or got the most satisfaction from this year. Other than The Winter of Our Discontent, I deliberately left out books that I re-read this, because Discontent was a very different read now than when was 19.

Fiction

This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Honorable Mentions: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides and Demian by Herman Hesse.

Non-Fiction

The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Paradox of Love by Pascal Bruckner
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary
One Life at a Time, Please by Edward Abbey

If you’ve ever felt that government policy is excessively focused on the needs of older Americans, you’re not alone. Despite spending which is incredibly focused on the elderly, most Americans–including older Americans–believe more of the budget should be focused on the young, as Derek Thompson notes:

At a time when education is absorbing huge cuts and Medicare and Social Security spending continue to grow faster than the size of government, it’s a question worth asking: Is Washington biased toward old people?

The easiest way to answer the question is: Of course it is. Older Americans show up disproportionately at the ballot box, in Congress (the average age of a senator is 63), and in our budget. Fifty percent of federal benefits flow to the 13 percent of the population over the age of 65, David Leonhardt reported in the New York Times last weekend.

But Americans of every age group think that the federal budget should focus more on young people than old people, according to the American Values Poll, from The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute, which was released today. Asked if Washington should aim its spending toward the young, 73% of twentysomethings and a plurality of senior citizens said yes.

Of course, younger Americans could help themselves by actually turning out to vote.