books you should slap yourself for not having read yet

[natedogg]

Global Brain by Howard Bloom
Complex adaptive systems - from bacteria to democracy - explained in full. You'll look at everything differently. Everything.

Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
A leader of the new wave of kick-ass sci-fi writers, Reynolds finally hits cruising speed with Redemption Ark.

Journey to the Ants by E.O. Wilson
Everyone knows that bugs are cool, and hive species are fascinating. Wilson just proves it is all.

The Twelve Caesars by Seutonius
Up close and personal with Caligula and Nero. Written circa 100 A.D, these first and second-hand accounts of roman caesars make the worst of the modern despots look like boy scouts. Surprisingly readable for an ancient text.

Happy Holidays

natedogg

[scrub]

Journey To The Ants kicked ass.

scrub

[fsuplayer]

"catcher and the rye" for me.

[ilya]

I'm reading "Working" by Studs Terkel and I can't recommend it enough. It's a collection of taped interviews (which are more like monologues) with all kinds of working people -- a factory worker, a CEO, a hoooker, a piano tuner, a model, a yacht broker, etc...
It's from the 70's, so it feels dated at times, but it's still really fascinating.
If anyone has read "Gig," some other guy's more contemporary version of "Working," I'd love to hear comparisons/opinions.

[deacsoft]

I've read it many times (one of few advantages for a private school upbringing) but I'm sure many have not. That book being... The Holy Bible. A lengthly but surprisingly good read. You don't even have to be religious to enjoy it. Plus, there are many great lessons that can be learned from it.

[Zeno]

I have the Twelve Caesars by Seutonius and echo your recomemdation.

Been wanting to read more E.O. Wilson by haven't the time; I do have his book Consilience which I started then set aside because of other reading. Been setting on the self too long.

Global Brain sounds very interesting. Seems a bit realted to some things I read in Murry Gell-Mann's, The Quark and the Jaguar, a book I recomend to you and everyone else.

I haven't read Sic-fi in years. Last stuff was Asimov's robot series of books. Used to be an advid reader of some Sic-fi in my youth, from Robert Heinlein to Ray Bradbury.

-Zeno

[Jett Rink]

A Prayer For Owen Meany, by John Irving.

Great Christmas gift for any reader.

[kyro]

sorry if this has been selected, but The DaVinci Code. Incredible book.

[wacki]

The Art of Seduction, by Rob Green

The most sick and twisted book I have ever read. The kicker, all the stories in it are true.

[PoBoy321]

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat by John Gribbin

It's a book about quantum physics, which I know is going to make a lot of people think "WTF?" but it seriously changed my whole outlook on the world. We're all gamblers, we all understand odds. We've seen people catch runner-runner quads to outdraw a set, and when you realize that there is the possibility that at any time, every atom in your body could instantly turn into light, you'll see things differently.

Also, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

It's a little dry for people who are looking for light reading, but it's basically James Joyce's autobiography. When you see the genius that came from such a horrible background, you'll see what anyone is capable of.

[edtost]

Godel Escher Bach - Douglas Hofstadter

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

MAUS (A Survivor's Tale) - Art Spiegelman

Finnegans Wake - James Joyce (something I'm really glad to have attempted, even though I can't say I was even close to understanding it)

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon (imo, much better than his later, longer works)

[BusterStacks]

The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky

[WillMagic]

Fascinating book I read recently - My Five Cambridge Friends by Yuri Modin. It's about the five Cambridge grads spying for Russia in the early fifties, and it's written by their handler. Some amazing stuff - Kim Philby, the most famous of the five, was for some period the head of counter-communism at MI-6 while working for the Russians.

Will

[Blarg]

I was thrown by this thread. I thought it was going to be about books you haven't read but want to at some point and/or know you really should. Instead it's about books that people liked.

There are two that I packed away when moving and never found again -- The Selfish Gene, and Working, by Studs Terkel, which Ilya mentioned. Fantastic book, Ilya, from the small part of it I was able to read before misplacing it. I'd love to finish those two books sometime.

I used to be an amazingly voracious reader, but I've really slacked off a lot on it for a good while now. I guess I'm going through a phase or something.

Oh, as long as we're talking about ones we DID read and think are especially good, I'll throw out Kitchen Confidential, a very funny biography of a guy growing up and becoming a professional chef working in all kinds of different varieties of kitchens, partying and working and taking tons of drugs like a crazed jerk and generally behaving badly. He's an endearing jerk, though, because he also fully confesses what a bastard he can be, and you have to laugh. Funny and scary tips, too, on what foods to avoid in restaurants, when not to order the fish, etc. It's been a little while, but I've read it a few times; it's one of those that's so fun and funny it still seems fresh when you read it again.

[jakethebake]

The Fountainhead by A. Rand.
Atlas Shrugged by A. Rand.
Musashi by E. Yoshikawa.
Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by R. Pirsig.
Bob the Builder's Favorite Adventures. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Gamblor]

Global Brain by Howard Bloom
Complex adaptive systems - from bacteria to democracy - explained in full. You'll look at everything differently. Everything.

Is this a book about Chaos Theory (Complexity Theory)?

[sfer]

I hated Owen Meany.

[nicky g]

Me too. Haven't read anything he's written since that.

[John Cole]

A nice companion for Working would be Babara Ehrenreich's Nickle and Dimed, an exploration of low wage jobs that the author worked herself in researching the book.

[John Cole]

Try reading Finnegans Wake with the sound of an Irish brogue rattling in your head; I think it sounds better that way. And, by the way, glad you left out the apostrophe.

Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers is an interesting book, at least for its recreation of old comics.

[turnipmonster]

threads like this are great, especially when my library has all of the books you mentioned!

3 good books I've recently finished:
Natural Capitalism - Amory Lovins
A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell
100 Years of Solitude - Garcia

--turnipmonster

[fsuplayer]

The Fountainhead by A. Rand

Ill second that, esp. since I got 1/3 of the way through it last year. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

its a tough book to get through, for some reason I could only read it in short 20pg increments.

[turnipmonster]

I could only read it in "ohshit it's time to go to work" all night reading sessions /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[PoBoy321]

Kitchen Confidential IS a great book. My family actually owns a NYC restaurant, and my dad, who's been in the business his entire life said that he knows the guy who wrote it, and that it's the most accurate thing he's ever read about the restaurant industry. Like, people he tells these ridiculous stories about in the book, the stories are all true, and if you've been in the business, you'll know exactly who they are. But yeah, definitely a fantastic read.

[edtost]

can't believe I forgot that one - I somehow managed to get through the whole thing in one afternoon a few summers ago. Putting it down never occurred to me.

[Peca277]

[ QUOTE ]
I've read it many times (one of few advantages for a private school upbringing) but I'm sure many have not. That book being... The Holy Bible. A lengthly but surprisingly good read. You don't even have to be religious to enjoy it. Plus, there are many great lessons that can be learned from it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's interesting that you said this just now because last night I began reading the bible. I've never been to church, and only sat through mass for a funeral once so it's not because I am oh so religious. Just thought it's a book I should read at some point or other.

[edtost]

reading owen meany felt like being smashed over the head with a large cast iron frying pan. over and over again.

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
A nice companion for Working would be Babara Ehrenreich's Nickle and Dimed, an exploration of low wage jobs that the author worked herself in researching the book.

[/ QUOTE ]

I started reading it in the bookstore the other week. Looked interesting, but I think it was written for people who have even less experience with life outside the (upper)-middle class than I do. Like, who would have guessed that some waitresses are smart and funny! I remember having a sinking feeling that this may even have come as a shock to Ms. Ehrenreich herself.

[PoBoy321]

Well, if you're ever going to read anything written before 1900, and especially anything before 1800, the Bible is definitely a must read. I mean, it's definitely a good read on its own, but it's gives a great background to just about everything in Western society. I mean, Europe was virtually ruled by the pope up until the enlightenment, so it definitely gives a lot of insight into the way things are today.

[SmileyEH]

The Fountainhead is amazing - Atlas Shrugged is absolute drivel.

My suggestion: Ismael by Daniel Quinn.

-SmileyEH

[ThaSaltCracka]

SSH

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
The Fountainhead is amazing - Atlas Shrugged is absolute drivel.

[/ QUOTE ] Interesting. I don't know if I've talked to someone that really liked one but not the other. AS is certainly a drier read. Not as entertaining. But drivel? I'm curious. What didn't you like about it? Was it the story or content, or the way it was written?

[stabn]

Too much nonfiction /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]

A nice companion for Working would be Babara Ehrenreich's Nickle and Dimed, an exploration of low wage jobs that the author worked herself in researching the book.



I started reading it in the bookstore the other week. Looked interesting, but I think it was written for people who have even less experience with life outside the (upper)-middle class than I do. Like, who would have guessed that some waitresses are smart and funny! I remember having a sinking feeling that this may even have come as a shock to Ms. Ehrenreich herself.


[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, you nailed it Ilya. I remember when Ehrenreich, who I like as a writer by the way, was being interviewed on those news shows "daring" enough to talk to an author who "dared" to go slumming in a class lower than her own for a while. From the questions, it was like they thought being a maid or a waitress or something was being part of a fantastical bizarre world it was hard to believe even existed -- rather than the way the majority of people, u like the author and the interviewers, actually live. In reading the book, it seemed the author was only slightly less amazed. She seemed to set up some artificial conditions in her explorations, I thought, that made her seem like a "day tripper" to me -- a weekend hippie.

And she fundamentally missed a key part of what poverty is about and what makes it so crippling, that people who have never experienced it or been near to it can't seem to get any understanding of at all -- not just the crushing now, but how the lack of a future destroys the present. Life is extremely hard without hope; and hope itself becomes almost impossible after a long enough time in bad conditions -- all the more so if you've been raised without it and nobody you know has any. Ehrenreich always had her nice life to fall back on and keep in mind, like a college kid who thinks he's poor and knows how the other half lives, but can always go get a free meal at his folks house, ask for a couple bucks, get his laundry done, and knows that if things get really bad, he always has his folks as a safety net.

It's still admirable that anyone even pretends to give a damn about the lower classes or even acknowledge issues of class itself, here in America, the first classless society because we refuse to acknowledge such a thing could possibly exist, at least not here. I like Ehrenreich's motives, but felt a little queasy reading the book, like her adventures had a little too much in common with the slumming her odyssey would ideally be the opposite of.

[coltrane]

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" (Jared Diamond)

[knifeandfork]

skinny legs and all, never finished it thinki gave it away or something. like all robbins really funny not terribly deep. btw does anyone know why they charge you so much to take the books home at barnes and noble? i mean its so inconvenient if i have to comeback some other time just because i cant finish before they "close".

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell


[/ QUOTE ]

In my opinion, one of the top 100 books of the last Century (for its 'catergory').

-Zeno

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell


[/ QUOTE ]

In my opinion, one of the top 100 books of the last Century (for its 'catergory').

-Zeno

[/ QUOTE ]
That's funny, Zeno. I guess its category is Western Philosophy?

[Zeno]

Just like the Bible, you can interpert my statement anyway you wish. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

-Zeno

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
Just like the Bible, you can interpert my statement anyway you wish. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif -Zeno

[/ QUOTE ]
Nice reply. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Boris]

Funny you should mention that book. I got about half way through it and found his thesis to be extremely politically correct but not very convincing. Maybe I should give it another try.

[theBruiser500]

war and peace and the idiot.

some non fiction books that changed the way i lookd at things is the selfish gene, and red queen (other matt riddley books good too).

[SmileyEH]

By the time Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged her philosophy had evolved from a rejection of comunism and a kind of ideal of selfishness, to a megalominiacal obsession with rationality and the rejection of modern liberalism. The writing is didactic, her philosophy incredibly unrealistic and stifling.

The Fountainhead changed my life, but Atlas Shrugged definitely pulled me back from the edge of objectivisum to a safe and critically thinking liberal. I suggest anyone who is a fan of Rand to read her two unauthorized biographies by Nathaniel and Barbara Branden.

-SmileyEH

[Kripke]

One of the top 100? Jesus, I wouldn't put in the top 1.000.000. Russell has a clear agenda in his book, which is to berate all philosophy that is not analytical. However, even though I adhere to analytical philosophy, this is hardly the best way to write a general book on philosophy. There are plenty of other books that give each philosopher much more credit for the work they have done, which in essence is better.

On a side note: I could easily think of 100 other books in philosophy that I would consider much more important and better than this one. Even some that Russell himself has written, such as Principia Mathematica and Principles of Mathematics.

[M2d]

Golf is not a Game of Perfect-Bob Rotella
The Dain Curse-Dashiell Hammett
Standing in a River Waving a Stick-John Gierach

[Reef]

Frankenstein

Nice guys and Players

various Sklansky poker books

[Reef]

[ QUOTE ]
Frankenstein

Nice guys and Players

various Sklansky poker books

[/ QUOTE ]

doh! I already read these

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
By the time Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged her philosophy had evolved from a rejection of comunism and a kind of ideal of selfishness, to a megalominiacal obsession with rationality and the rejection of modern liberalism. The writing is didactic, her philosophy incredibly unrealistic and stifling.

[/ QUOTE ]Interesting comments on Fountainhead vs Atlas Shrugged. Not sure I completely agree, but I definitely understand what you mean.

[ QUOTE ]
The Fountainhead changed my life, but Atlas Shrugged definitely pulled me back from the edge of objectivisum to a safe and critically thinking liberal.

[/ QUOTE ] There was one? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
I suggest anyone who is a fan of Rand to read her two unauthorized biographies by Nathaniel and Barbara Branden.-SmileyEH

[/ QUOTE ]I doubt I'll ever read these. Frankly I could care less about her as a person. I saw like 15 mins. of that bad made-for-TV movie about her awhile back and turned the channel from boredom. Frankly I agree with much of her philosophy, but not all. I don't believe charity to be immoral as she did, which may be what you're getting at in your comments about Atlas Shrugged? But I do belive government-sponsored redistribution of wealth under any guise to be the equivalenty of economic slavery.

[nicky g]

If you're interested in the current international terrorism situation, you should slap yourself for not reading "Al-Qaida" by Jason Burke.

[turnipmonster]

politically correct? how so?

--turnipmonster

[Usul]

Plato - Republic

Wheather you like philosophy or not, this is an interesting book. Plato realized 2500 years ago that Democracy is one of the worst possible forms of government imaginable. Also, if you like the bible, you'll find Platonic philosophy interesting.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
Plato realized 2500 years ago that Democracy is one of the worst possible forms of government imaginable.

[/ QUOTE ] Except by comparison. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Usul]

[ QUOTE ]
Except by comparison.

[/ QUOTE ]

By comparison to tyranny.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Except by comparison.

[/ QUOTE ]

By comparison to tyranny.

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly. And in any other form of government, you have no say. That IS tyranny. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Usul]

We're getting off-topic. Read book 8 of Repulic and you'll understand what I'm saying.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
We're getting off-topic. Read book 8 of Repulic and you'll understand what I'm saying.

[/ QUOTE ]I have read Republic. Although, I must admit it has been years. Which part is Book 8? Is that where he talks about conflicts of interest? Or the part where he talks about how political leaders won't be trained well enough to lead? Maybe I'll reread it. Those Greeks wrote a lot of good stuff. Must've been nice having slaves take care of everything so they could just sit around and think about random stuff...LOL. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[tolbiny]

Currently reading Journey to the ants- i shall continue to take literary advice from you.

[tolbiny]

"war and peace"

I would recommend Anna Karenina befor War and Peace.

"the idiot"

Good book. The only one of the three of his i have tried reading in the past 2 years that i finished. I will finish Crime and Punishment and The brothers Karamozov over this coming summer (if all goes well)

[theBruiser500]

Just looking through this thread now, checking some of these books on Amazon to see what's up with them and a ton of them look very promising... So, I am bumping this thread for other people to read, and add more books. Here are a couple more books I will add:

The Indispensible Chomsky
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Mad Cowboy

[fluxrad]

1984
Catcher In The Rye
Slaughterhouse Five

[BWebb]

I don't read nearly enough /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[blatz]

Top of my head, for sheer entertainment:

Confederacy of Dunces...I moved to New Orleans just to bask in the enormous footsteps of Ignatious J Reilly.

The GingerMan...I picked up a fake bad Irish accent for at least 2 days after that one.

Catch 22...nothing should need to be said.

And for a lighter, yet surprisingly enlightening, version of American history, The Redneck Manifesto.

[cold_cash]

Off the top of my head I'm going to say:

A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway

A People's History of the United States, Zinn

[Bill C]

"Memoir from Antproof Case"
by Mark Helprin

Best novel I have ever read.
Very intricate interweaving of several stories, with a fascinating finale.

bill c

[Isura]

The Feyman Lectures in Physics.

[nothumb]

Cool that this has been bumped. Here is a non-fiction must-read list in my opinion:

"In Defense of Anarchism" by Robert Paul Wolff
"Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen
"Seeing Like a State" by James C. Scott
"Totalitarianism," "On Revolution" and "Eichmann in Jerusalem," all by Hannah Arendt
"Spiritual Warfare" by Sara Diamond (about the rise of the Christian right in US politics)
"Anarchy and Order" by H. Read
Any Nietzsche you can get your hands on. Reading his philosophy in chronological order is a harrowing experience if you're up for that sort of thing.

Poetry. Read "The Wasteland and Other Poems," by T.S. Eliot.
"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. A steady diet of William Carlos Williams and Charles Bukowski. And try Ezra Pound's translations of Chinese poetry, they are very interesting.

I think everyone should read at least one novel by Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins, but probably no more than three by either one.

My favorite Hemingway is "The Sun Also Rises." And, as they say, it's not close.

I am not a huge fiction reader but there's no excuse for not reading "Notes from Underground" by Dostoevsky or "100 Years of Solitude" by Marquez.

That's all for now.

NT

[Sooga]

Books that I've read recently and enjoyed:

"Word Freak" by Stefan Fatsis - Basically a writeup on the lives of professional Scrabble players. Extremely entertaining.

"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell - A fascinating study about the critical threshold, or the 'tipping point' where fashion trends become mainstream, crime falls, and a whole list of other very interesting topics.

[PokerFink]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

O'Brien is rapidly becomming one of the most well-known and respected Vietnam writers. This is fiction, but it does a phenominal job of blurring the line between fiction and non fiction, lies and truth, story and fact. Extremely entertaining read, but it's good literature as well.

[ QUOTE ]
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

[/ QUOTE ]

Great literature, but I do not recommend this if you don't like extremely dense, long, un-entertaining books.

[ QUOTE ]
1984
Catcher In The Rye

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought everyone read this in high school? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Confederacy of Dunces

[/ QUOTE ]

I second that.

[girgy44]

Didn't read the replies so I would hope this has been mentioned, but The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky(sp?). Amazing book

[thatpfunk]

The Sun Also Rises- Hemingway
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest- Kesey
On The Road- Kerouac
American Psycho- Ellis
Assorted Poetry (older stuff preferably)- Bukowski

[The Yugoslavian]

Either/Or - Soren Kierkegaard
The Brothers Karamazov - Fydor Dostoyevsky
The Moviegoer - Walker Percy

Yugoslav

[bholdr]

[ QUOTE ]
"Memoir from Antproof Case"
by Mark Helprin


[/ QUOTE ]

very skillfully done, a greatly entertaining read. For a long time, Helprin has been flirting with greatness. he is an important author, but not yet a major one. if you liked the biopic style of antproof case, i'd reccomend "a soldier of the great war" also by helprin. however, i think his short stories are his best form, try "a dove of the east".


[ QUOTE ]
"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. A steady diet of William Carlos Williams and Charles Bukowski. And try Ezra Pound's translations of Chinese poetry, they are very interesting.


[/ QUOTE ]

i second all of these nominations, too, and would add some pablo neruda, too. for some older poetry, i am a Walt Whitman nut, all americans should have read "Leaves of Grass"

[ QUOTE ]
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

[/ QUOTE ]
i have been told by many people that i seriously respect that this is the greatest novel ever written, but really needs to be read in russian. a shame. it's on my list.

[ QUOTE ]
sorry if this has been selected, but The DaVinci Code. Incredible book.

[/ QUOTE ]

sry, but this book is utter, utter trash. it's pop religious intrigue for the non-reading masses, like a romance novel for the barely literate. poorly written, predictable, cliche tripe. geez. get some tom clancy and you'll be taking a huge step up.


for novels that one SHOULD read:
'The Chosen', by Chaim Potok
'No-No-Boy', by John Okada
'Night' Elie Weisel


plays:
the works of shakespere (all of them)
"Peer Gynt" by henrich ibsen
"The Crucible" by arthur miller


philosophy, religion, etc:
the bible
"analects" by confuscius(sp)
the I-Ching
"the art of War" by Sun Tzu

if i had to pick one book to require everyone on this site to read? it'd be the art of war. READ THIS BOOK (it will help your poker game, it will help you with the ladies, it will help you with your job, and if you ever end up commanding an army, it will help there too. /images/graemlins/grin.gif)

[goofball]

Animal Farm

[Skipbidder]

Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan. Someone else already suggested a Richard Dawkins book, which is a good suggestion.

Folks have been asking for more fiction, so:
Lord Foul's Bane, Ender's Game, Hitchiker's Guide.

And now for a suggestion that no one will have read (or want to read)...
Philosophy of Color, by Larry Hardin.

More general-interest philosophy...Mind's I (Dan Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter). Godel, Escher, Bach was already mentioned earlier, so I'll add a second Dennett book to balance it out. Perhaps "Elbow Room".

[Rearden]

Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand (I'm not biased in the least); even if you don't enjoy her take on humanity and life it's still a deep book that puts forth some crazy ideas you will either enjoy or hate.

The Adventurist or Worlds Most Dangerous Places- Robert Young Pelton; These books are both Travel/Adventure in the extreme. To give you a short introduction this guy, it's non-fiction btw, survives kidnappings, shootings, bombings, malaria, etc. in his quest to travel the world and explore places you can't find travel books on. His book is supposedly required reading at the CIA and he was the only journalist in Afghanistan during 9/11 (he met Mike Spann and reported for National Geographic and CNN way before any other reporters were in country) + this guy is funny while explaining the dangers to be found in these random countries.

[i wanna be me]

[ QUOTE ]
Golf is not a Game of Perfect-Bob Rotella

[/ QUOTE ]

great choice - have you read The Putting Bible by Pelz? another great one....so analytical and mathematical!

[PokerFink]

[ QUOTE ]
Folks have been asking for more fiction, so:
Ender's Game, Hitchiker's Guide.

[/ QUOTE ]

These fall under the same category as DaVinci code, and are horribly out of place on this list. These are fun reads but no where near good literature.

[HesseJam]

[ QUOTE ]

Catch 22...nothing should need to be said.



[/ QUOTE ]

[PokerMike]

I have heard bad things about Consilience. Wilson is a great biologist, but seems to be a pretty shitty philosopher, making really basic errors like the is/ought distinction in relation to biology/ethics. Bear in mind i've only read reviews though(one was by Daniel C. Dennett, if that means anything to you).

I think i'll give The Quark and the Jaguar a go. Anything else you would suggest Zeno?

[Ghazban]

I just finished the book I was reading and am going to be on an airplane and in airports all day tomorrow so I thought I'd get some good recommendations for reading material from this thread. Instead, I find I'm the biggest nerd every as I've already read everything mentioned here (including the Bible cover to cover, though I'm not religious in any sense of the word).

Anyone got anything else to recommend?

On topic, Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco was fabulous (as were Baudolino, The Name of the Rose, and Travels with a Salmon which are the only other books of his I've read).

[PokerMike]

Great if you are a physics student, but how many are?

[cdy]

Lots of good selections listed in this thread. For those who are seriously interested in philosophy, or who have studied literature in school, you may be interested in some of my choices.

Being and Time by Martin Heidegger
If you are at all inclined towards the history of Western metaphysics, no other single book has changed the way I think as much. That said, I am not a Heideggerian, but studying this book over the course of a year and a half has allowed to to appreciate 20th century continental philosophy so much more. Arendt has already been mentioned; to this I would add Foucault. Everyone should read at least The History of Sexuality Vol. 1 or Discipline and Punish. If you do so after reading Heidegger, you will see things much more clearly.

Walden and "Life Without Principle" by Henry David Thoreau. Proves that great literature can also be great philosophy.

Go Down, Moses and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Absalom, Absalom is also excellent if you are interested in literary devices and techniques.

I second the claim someone made that The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's greatest achievement. Most people I know, however, will typically claim he was at his best in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Read both, decide for yourself.

And of course, my greatest accomplishment as a reader, finishing A La Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust. For the disciplined few who have the patience to make it through this painstaking work, it is normally read in French. If you choose to read it in English, the translation just published by Penguin In Search of Lost Time is the best.

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
The Theory of Poker by God

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[InchoateHand]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Catcher In The Rye

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought everyone read this in high school? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Or middle school for those of us that didn't ride the short bus.

[astroglide]

more technical books. maybe some language books. i could not care less about fiction/nonfiction whatever.

[InchoateHand]

[ QUOTE ]
more technical books. maybe some language books. i could not care less about fiction/nonfiction whatever.

[/ QUOTE ]

o.k. you realize that those are nonfiction right?

[theBruiser500]

Confederecy of Dunces is without a doubt the funniest book I have ever read.

[InchoateHand]

[ QUOTE ]
Confederecy of Dunces is without a doubt the funniest book I have ever read.

[/ QUOTE ]

For once I agree with Bruiser. When I saw this post I thought he was about to post that book he did the review of earlier. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[adsman]

[ QUOTE ]
Animal Farm

[/ QUOTE ]

I see that a few people have mentioned Orwell. As a novelist he was adequate, but as an essayist he was untouchable. His Collected Essays are published by Penguin. If you are really serious then you can hunt up the original four volume version.
Anything by Evelyn Waugh is worth a mention. My favourite novel of all time is The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Guns, Germs and Steel has already been mentioned. For sheer reading delight, the 21 book Travis McGee series by John.D.MacDonald is the ultimate rainy afternoon/airport collection that will have you returning again and again.

[astroglide]

yes, i meant nonfiction books that aren't technical/pure education books. i don't want to read about the civil war or a court case.

[willie]

[ QUOTE ]
Confederecy of Dunces is without a doubt the funniest book I have ever read.

[/ QUOTE ]


hooorah, a few of you have discovered this gem.

i loved this book, great recommendation from a smarty pants off another board.

very comical, very well written, but alas- very tragic about the author

[InchoateHand]

[ QUOTE ]
more technical books. maybe some language books. i could not care less about fiction/nonfiction whatever.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
yes, i meant nonfiction books that aren't technical/pure education books. i don't want to read about the civil war or a court case.

[/ QUOTE ]

So do you want technical or not? Can you even read?

[astroglide]

walk through it REAL SLOW NOW

1: "more technical books. maybe some language books. i could not care less about fiction/nonfiction whatever."

nonfiction whatever = non-technical nonfiction. particularly obvious because of the provided context.

2: "o.k. you realize that those are nonfiction right?"

your dumb observation

3: "yes, i meant nonfiction books that aren't technical/pure education books. i don't want to read about the civil war or a court case."

my clarification that when i said "nonfiction whatever" i meant nonfiction books THAT WERE NOT TECHNICAL.

get it? got it? good. you're also ignored now you [censored] moron.

[soundgarden4]

"Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn

"Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll

[Boris]

OK it's been a few years since I made an attempt at this book but, Diamond's primary thesis was that the rate of technological and cultural advancement among various societies is described by a society's access to natural resources. I don't believe this to be true and I think history is on my side. Diamond's book is a continuation of the tradition started (as far as I know) by Paul Erlich in the late sixties, namely that the human population is exploding and we're going to exhaust all the earth's natural resources in short order and then perish. The more conservative point of view is that these doomsday models never take into account any constraints on population growth and they never take into account human ingenuity.

Global Brain provides an interesting alternative explanation for how societies evolve. I'm still reading the book and I'm not completely sold on Bloom's thesis, but it is interesting to say the least.

[Boris]

interesting. I thought a smart guy like you would be more of a reader.

[astroglide]

i read "who's your caddy" and the first harry potter book. off the top of my head i think those might be the only books i have voluntarily read after the age of 5, and my last class that involved reading was english in my sopohomore or junior year of high school. never been interested in it, but i like technical books.

[InchoateHand]

[ QUOTE ]
walk through it REAL SLOW NOW

1: "more technical books. maybe some language books. i could not care less about fiction/nonfiction whatever."

nonfiction whatever = non-technical nonfiction. particularly obvious because of the provided context.

2: "o.k. you realize that those are nonfiction right?"

your dumb observation

3: "yes, i meant nonfiction books that aren't technical/pure education books. i don't want to read about the civil war or a court case."

my clarification that when i said "nonfiction whatever" i meant nonfiction books THAT WERE NOT TECHNICAL.

get it? got it? good. you're also ignored now you [censored] moron.

[/ QUOTE ]

I still have no idea if you're looking for technical books or not?

[Skipbidder]

OP didn't say anything about good literature.

If that is what you want, I'll pick Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Illiad, and Lolita.

[PokerFink]

Fair enough.

[daryn]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

[/ QUOTE ]

Great literature, but I do not recommend this if you don't like extremely dense, long, un-entertaining books.


[/ QUOTE ]

wow, this book is pretty much the exact opposite of un-entertaining, and i usually hate books.

[Dead]

http://todmar.net/quality4u/ebay/books/berenstain-bears-and-too-much-junk-food.jpg

[Dead]

[ QUOTE ]
exact opposite of un-entertaining

[/ QUOTE ]

My brain just exploded.

[PokerFink]

I don't think a single person in my AP literature class liked Invisible Man.

(Yeah, I know, it's a highschool class, but I didn't exactly go to an ordinary high school. Just off the top of my head, I can think of six kids that went to ivy league schools from that one 20 person lit class.)

I mean, Heart of Darkness is dense too, but it doesn't go on for 600 pages. Invisible man just takes way to long to digest to be enjoyable, IMO.

To each their own, I guess.

[Catch of the Day]

/favorite

Always could use a good book recomendation...

Catch-

[Zeno]

I just picked up A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins, a collection of essays on 'Science'. This book may have been mentioned before, anyway, it is very good and fits into the same category as The Quark... etc.

Bertrand Russell's Unpopular Essays is still timely and a good read.

-Zeno

[thatpfunk]

Have you ever given a list of your favorite fiction (if you have such a list)? I would be interested to see it.

[Phoenix1010]

I'll throw some of my favorites in:

Notes From Underground- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Catch 22- Joseph Heller
12- Nick Mcdonell (guy I went to highschool with)
Steppenwolf- Herman Hesse
The Book of Five Rings- Miyamoto Musashi
Animal Liberation- Peter Singer
Ishmael- Daniel Quinn

And if there's anyone who hasn't checked out the DaVinci Code yet, I can tell you that it's popular for a reason.

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]
Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand (I'm not biased in the least); even if you don't enjoy her take on humanity and life it's still a deep book that puts forth some crazy ideas you will either enjoy or hate.

[/ QUOTE ]

She's obviously an incredibly polarizing figure, and reading some of her stuff for general cultural literacy is probably not a bad thing. What annoyed the crap out of me with Atlas Shrugged was how every character was either the selfish, pragmatic paragon of capitalist virtue who knew exactly their place in the pecking order, or a lazy, malicious evil good-for-nothing. It's easy to make your philosophy look good when you're setting up such transparent strawmen. I also found her attitudes toward male-female relationships to be somewhat surprising, but so it goes.

I'll join the chorus and say the Brothers Karamazov is an excellent read. I haven't been reading as many novels recently as I used to, but some of my more recent choices:

Infinite Jest - really long, really wordy, given to incredibly long digressions about the most random crap, but is very funny and also pretty moving in its treatment of the addicts.

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson is good times. I've read most of his "mature" books, System of the World being the holdout (and that's sitting on my shelf). This might be the one I'd pick, given one. Again, long, given to rambling, but full of all kinds of cool stuff.

You Shall Know Our Velocity! - Catchy title. Great writing. Eggers is given to a little too much technical goofing around, and there's a lot of depressing stuff going on, but I think this was a good read all the same.

Nonfiction: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, as a couple of others have recommended, is great. I'm currently reading Guns, Germs and Steel, which others have mentioned. The Making of the Atomic Bomb is something I've read a small chunk of, which I liked; I've been told the whole thing is excellent. Also, if you've never read it, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is an excellent collection of stories about the guy all of the physics fanboys drool over.

[Cyrus]

[ QUOTE ]
Godel Escher Bach - Douglas Hofstadter

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

MAUS (A Survivor's Tale) - Art Spiegelman

Finnegans Wake - James Joyce

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
John Cole: "Try reading Finnegans Wake with the sound of an Irish brogue rattling in your head; I think it sounds better that way. And, by the way, glad you left out the apostrophe."

[/ QUOTE ]

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]

(Yeah, I know, it's a highschool class, but I didn't exactly go to an ordinary high school. Just off the top of my head, I can think of six kids that went to ivy league schools from that one 20 person lit class.)

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not an issue of being smart. Tastes change as you get older. I tried reading Moby Dick when I was 14 and thought it sucked; I picked it up again at 20 and was amazed at how lively it seemed.

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]
DaVinci Code yet, I can tell you that it's popular for a reason.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh. Enjoyable quick read - good pacing...decent plot stuff goin' on.

But, too predictable and done before several times...none of it seemed new to me for whatever reason.

Good but not great.

Yugoslav

[Phoenix1010]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
DaVinci Code yet, I can tell you that it's popular for a reason.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh. Enjoyable quick read - good pacing...decent plot stuff goin' on.

But, too predictable and done before several times...none of it seemed new to me for whatever reason.

Good but not great.

Yugoslav

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I'd agree that it's not mind-blowingly great, but I think there's a lot to be said for a good quick entertaining read. I threw it in to balance out the brooding, depression-inducing intellectuality of some of the rest of my list. Balance!

[BeerGolfPoker]

Great thread.

I'll add a couple others that I found particularly fascinating:

How the Mind Works - Steven Pinker

The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene

[Ray Zee]

the encyclopedia and the dictionary(i didnt do that one very well). you still have to be able to go from point a to point b in life.
then some books on nature. lets you know about what is around you.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
Internet access so you can get to wikipedia.org and dictionary.com(i didnt do that one very well). you still have to be able to go from point a to point b in life.
then some books on nature. lets you know about what is around you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fixed your post Zee.

[Dangergirl]

Angels and Demons was more entertaining then the Da Vinci Code.

[InchoateHand]

[ QUOTE ]
Angels and Demons was more entertaining then the Da Vinci Code.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can only hope you're kidding, Lizard. Angels &amp; Demons was the worst piece of tripe i've ever read. The dialog read like a second grader wrote it.

[swede123]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Angels and Demons was more entertaining then the Da Vinci Code.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can only hope you're kidding, Lizard. Angels &amp; Demons was the worst piece of tripe i've ever read. The dialog read like a second grader wrote it.

[/ QUOTE ]

And this is different from The DaVinci Code? I swear Dan Brown is a computer programmed to write best sellers.

I'm too lazy to read through this entire thread but Catch-22 and Lord of the Rings are must reads as far as I'm concerned.

Swede

[twang]

Anything by Pierre Bourdieu.

/twang

[Dangergirl]

[ QUOTE ]

I can only hope you're kidding, Lizard. Angels &amp; Demons was the worst piece of tripe i've ever read. The dialog read like a second grader wrote it.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL @ Lizard. All I said is that it entertained me more then the Da Vinci Code. I didn't say it was the best book ever written. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Poiuytr]

Two good writers not mentioned yet.

John Marks - War Torn and The Wall
Neil Gordon - He has three. Start with The Sacrifice of Isaac, and you will want to read the other two.

[theBruiser500]

[ QUOTE ]
the encyclopedia and the dictionary(i didnt do that one very well). you still have to be able to go from point a to point b in life.
then some books on nature. lets you know about what is around you.

[/ QUOTE ]

what does that mean, you ahve to be able to go from point a to point be in life? ray zee could you please recommend some good books on nature.

[JMP300z]

Im late but ill add:

Labrynth's by Borges.

Amazing stuff. Will change the way you perceive everything.

-JP