Tens of thousands of new book are published each year. Most will be forgotten. The graveyard is especially full of non-fiction on current events or future trends. As a result, I have switched to reading more older works, on the logic that anything which has persisted for decades should have some merit. Even where it does not you get a perspective on how people once thought and by association how we think today.
Still, if you do want a contemporary selection that will stand the test of time, a new paper in Econ Journal Watch asks “What 21st-Century works will merit a close reading in 2050?” Its skewed towards economics texts but persistence will be rewarded. I have already added The Tyranny of Experts and A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment to my list.
Something Interesting. Most Days. 
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