The Godfather

As the Sopranos comes to a close, this pick, the beginning of America's Mafia obsession, seems appropriate. I picked this up in a used bookstore my freshman year in college and read it one afternoon. I think I maybe the only person to have read the book but not to have seen any of the movies. The book is one of those novels that transports you entirely into another world, where you become Michael Corleone, being drawn into the family business, almost, but not quite against your will. At 18, I found this book to be incredibly sophisticated, but maybe I might feel differently now. Plus, I still need to see these movies. PS, to show how deeply The Godfather is enmeshed in our culture, my spellcheck auto-corrected Corleone.