I’m doing the Wall Street Journal “5 Book” feature this weekend, in which an author suggests five books on some topic chosen by the editors. For some reason they asked me for five curmudgeon books. It’s a mighty rich field: Writers tend to be grouchier than most, a consequence of all those years spent starving in garrets and being insulted by publishers’ clerks while watching the stupidest, most obnoxious kid in your tenth grade class rise to the chairmanship of a major investment bank. Not that I personally am bitter in any way. I went with the big names.