Well, after watching PBS over the last week I’ve come to realize that my sources of input for key topics such as politics, sociology, and philosophy are far too limited. I essentially discovered that there’s a ton of knowledge out there on these subjects that I was mostly unaware of. I mean, I’ve heard about most of these books and/or their authors, but I didn’t know the topics were so enthralling. More to the point, I didn’t know they were precicely oriented around my areas of interest.

My eyes are open now, and I’m going to be soaking in this material at a constant rate from now on. As per my excercise/podcasting post, I’m preparing a means to consume this information in a highly efficient manner. No longer will my points of view suffer from the fact that I have not read the definitive works on these matters. My days of learning about these important concepts via /. posts are over.

I feel lame that it’s taken me this long to catch on, but at least I’m awake now.

I’ll let everyone know what the must-reads are, but be warned that I may feel that most everything I get a hold of will fall into that category. For now, start with these:

• The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life
• The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent
• The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

If you’re not reading these books right now you’re doing both yourself and the world a huge disservice.