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Black & white illustrated cover of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Galileo Galilei;


Inspiration

When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art’. I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.
—George Orwell

Books of Influence

Some books have altered the course of history. Others have profoundly influenced the way we see ourselves. From philosophy, religion, art and science to politics and the rise of ideologies, books enable new ideas to reach broad audiences across the globe.

Invited to nominate the ten most influential books of all time, no two individuals would present exactly the same list. Titles likely to appear on many lists would be as diverse as: Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, Mao Tse-tung's ‘Little Red Book’, Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch and Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

The power, or even perceived danger, of the printed word is reflected in the fact that books have regularly been censored, banned and burned.

At different times in history, books considered dangerous have ranged from 16th century scientist Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, which is now central to astronomy, to Sigmund Freud's Gessamelte Schriften upon which the study and practice of psychoanalysis is based.

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