One can’t prescribe books, even the best books, to people unless one knows a good deal about each individual person.

But a friend liking a brand page and sharing that is now considered the second-most prominent form of recommendation, and third is online brand reviews.

Having to amuse myself during those earlier years, I read voraciously and widely. Mythic matter and folklore made up much of that reading—retellings of the old stories (Mallory, White, Briggs), anecdotal collections and historical investigations...