For many years, I dragged my books around with me, from apartment to apartment and finally to our house. There are the novels of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, plenty of histories, art and photography books. My treasured copy of Walden is still with me. I bought a thick paperback in the early 1980s but never had the courage to actually read it. This book was famous but just too long. When my favorite Boston talk radio host urged listeners to read it, I decided to take it on. And I recommend it to everyone.

I used to be a liberal. It started in college. Was it those classic fall days up in Vermont? A few socialist professors? Or my love for the Clash?

I had a naive belief in income redistribution. I thought that capitalism was bad and the Ivy League elites in government had all the answers.