I'm reasonably confident in at least half the interviews I do, and I might blank if I was asked about books, because somewhere in my 30s, I essentially stopped reading them. If you reminded me of something I'd read, I could talk about it, but nothing comes to mind any more because I'm no longer buying or reading books on a day-to-day basis.

Also, assuming one or more came to mind, maybe I'm paralyzed in an interview because I'm thinking about what the ones I can think of imply, whether they give away my age, or whatever.

It would be easy to talk about a book if I was warned ahead of time.

I'm not sure I even know where my copy is, but if I chose one book that I've read that more people should know about, it would be:

"You Don't Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization" (Elliott D. Sclar)

But in an interview on the spot, I absolutely wouldn't have come up with that.