"I describe the world of our making, how we have used our wealth, our literacy, our technology, and our progress, to create the thicket of unreality that stands between us and the facts of life." First published in 1962, Daniel Boorstin's wonderfully provocative book introduced the notion of '"pseudo-events," occasions like press conferences and presidential debates, which are manufactured solely in order to be reported. Defining a celebrity as "a person who is known for his well-knownness," Boorstin's prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions has only grown in relevance.

"A book that everyone in America should read every few years. Stunning in its prescience, it explains virtually every aspect of our mass media's evolution and seductiveness."—Jennifer Egan