And the Hi, I'm Bill Crystal.

Welcome back to Conversations.

I'm very pleased to be joined again by Harvey Mansfield,

Professor of Government at Harvard,

a student-interpre interpreter of the great books,

but I thought today maybe we'd discuss some not so great books or very good books, but

one can learn a lot from books that aren't the greatest books, I think, and enjoy

them and benefit from them.

And I know you do so, so I thought I'd ask you about what books do you enjoy reading,

what books would you recommend to others that aren't Plato or Maciovelli or Heidegger or something daunting like that?

Well, I enjoy books about crime, mysteries.

They are rewarding, and they're fun to read, and they're not as demanding as a great book.

But you can get a few little interesting things out of them.

And looking at books on crime, there are hundreds of authors because they're so popular.

But I thought I would mention just two or three.

Crime is, crime is interesting.

I think that's one. is one point to begin from. Modern crime stories begin with, I guess Sherlock Holmes.

And Sherlock Holmes led a bored life except when he was confronted with a crime and presented a puzzle.

And so off he would go with his friend Watson Watson the games afoot right so

it was something that gave him interest in life 19th century was very preoccupied with boredom or ennui.

And a crime is interesting to us.

It's especially murder. Murder seems to be a modern fear. Thomas Hobbs' 17th century

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