Neenan was eager to talk about some of his favorites. He said that he was particularly moved by the biographies of Washington and Truman.
"I knew that George Washington was central to the founding of the country, but Ellis makes the point that without Washington, the United States probably wouldn't be a country," he said. "I think Washington gets short shrift, because he wasn't as charismatic as some of the other early leaders."
"Harry Truman is another president whose star has risen as the years have gone by," Neenan continued. "He was a man of impeccable integrity, who made some very hard decisions, and by and large in retrospect, they have proved to be the correct ones. He was a just a remarkable human being. I think he's the last person that didn't graduate from college, and yet, he was widely read. If it had been in existence then, he would have been an avid follower of the Dean's List."
But if a book doesn't quite sit right with Neenan, it won't make the list. He said he was urged to add Seabiscuit to the register a couple years ago, but he nixed the idea. Although he thought the Laura Hillenbrand novel was good, Neenan just didn't agree that Seabiscuit, a thoroughbred horse that became an unlikely champion in the 1930s, "took us out of the depression."
"The committee recognizes quality when it sees it," he said, jokingly in reference to himself.
Since its inception, the list has become iconic. The University gets thousands of requests for it each year, and students, faculty, and alumni all suggest additions. One book on this year's list, Charlie Wilson's War, was added in this way. The book chronicles how a renegade Congressman got the United States involved in a war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
"I get stories about people who print it out, put it on their fridge, and check them off as they read them," he said.
Oh, and Neenan wants to set the record straight.
"Oprah's list came after this - I just want to point that out," he said.
Spring Break
