Books I think everyone here should read (post yours)

[Taverner]

These are books that, if I were re-ned-ucating the US, I would place as cirricula...

"Flow My Tears The Policeman Said" by Phillip K Dick: Life in a police state, what more can I say?

"Gulag Archipelego" by Alexander Solzenitzen (sp?): again, life in a gulag.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S Thompson: the pursuit of freedom

"The Trial" by Franz Kafka


and yours?

[Crazy Dave]

1. 1984 - George Orwell

[Glimmer of Hope]

10. The Razor's Edge.

[Magrittes Pipe]

2. J. K. Toole - "A Confederacy of Dunces"

[laheina]

29. I love that book.

It took a little while to get set up, but by page one hundred or so, I was laughing my tushie off. :)

[terrya]

3. "The Handmaid's Tale" - Margaret Atwood

[iamjoy]

59. Definately!

the subject matter is so relevant and Atwood's style is great for the story. I have tried reading other things by Atwood, and didn't like them too much, but it really works in this book.

Don't bother with the movie, the only thing it keeps is the subject matter, it loses everything else that makes the book such a good read.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. To Kill a Mockingbird...

1984

[ThomCat]

22. Absolutely.

A lot of great books on this list, but To Kill A Mockingbird is a stand-out.

[u4ic]

5. The People of the Abyss...Jack London

sadly, with the neocons in power, life may start to look like that again...:grr:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9968995029/sr=8-1/qid=1139963230/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5115189-6277459?%5Fencoding=UTF8

[last_texas_dem]

6. "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis

Not that I "discovered" its applicability to our current situation myself; in fact, I decided to read it based on something I read online... perhaps on here. I'd recommend just about any Sinclair Lewis for that matter. I've read several besides "ICHH", including "Arrowsmith", "Babbitt", and "Elmer Gantry". They're very entertaining reads and he does great social satire

[Sugar Smack]

7. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S Thompson

"Class" by Paul Fussell

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

"The Monkeywrench Gang" by Edward Abbey

"The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene

:D

[FuzzySlippers]

13. Oh gosh! "Class" is one of the most hilarious

things I've ever read!

:D

[Sugar Smack]

16. NO! YOU'VE READ THAT??

It's timeless, right? FuzzySlippers, we could go on all night about that one. Written in 1982, still applicable today. I loaned it to nnns. I've bought about 16 copies because none of mine were returned.

:bounce:

[FuzzySlippers]

18. Fortunately, I've never loaned mine out

so I still have it. Oh yeah, it's a classic alright.

[RandomKoolzip]

8. "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace, "Rock and the Pop Narcotic" by

Joe Carducci, "Spanking the Donkey" by Matt Taibbi, "The Last Investigation" by Gaeton Fonzi, and "I Never Liked You" by Chester Brown.

[Sugar Smack]

12. WAIT. You FINISHED that book?

I have it, and have had it for five years. The picture on the back shows a very tired David Foster Wallace, saying, "I've finished this tome, now let me sleep".

On the other hand, I've read his shorter essays, "Fun Things I'll Never do Again" & I loved it. Especially the cruise story.

[RandomKoolzip]

15. I've read it three times! I'm halfway through my fourth attempt.....

It's far and away my favorite work of fiction. (I prefer reference books and criticism) THere's so much I didn't catch on my first plow!

DFW had a great article in Atlantic Monthly a few months ago about RW Radio. It's even got extensive footnotes, just like "Infinite Jest." I'm waiting for him to attempt something long-form again, however.

[Sugar Smack]

20. One thing I know about that book is that I'm going to miss something.

I remember reading the interview he has with his dad. I remember the stock-up of a junkie very well, but maybe I'll take a couple of weeks off to read the entire thing just once, through. Do you think it may be worth it? It sounds like you might!

:D

[RandomKoolzip]

23. Oh, it's worth it. Have a dictionary on hand...and a PDR.

Also keep in mind that Wallace is deliberate in leaving things half-said or even unsaid, for all his verbiage. Like I said above, there's things I'm catching in my fourth go-round that weren't even clear the third time. The interview with the father, for example; you have to read the whole damn book to realize that it's being filmed for one of James Incandenza's experimental films, all of which are given titles and plot synopses in the endnotes. How and why Wallace chose to construct something so deliberately convoluted are a delightful mystery to me.

ANyhow, yeah...I recommend devoting a month or two to plowing through "IJ." Feel free to skip over most of the science-y stuff in there, too, and the whole Eschaton diversion; it really doesn't add too much to the work. Good luck! :hi:

[Whoa_Nelly]

9. A few here...

No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society -- Robert O'Harrow
(Recently ordered this and looking forward to the read.)

The Coming Plague--Laurie Garrett

The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty--Kitty Kelly

Dr. Zhivago--Boris Pasternak
(First read this book in 8th grade (1968)...on my own...then wrote a 10-page report on it. I found the Bolshevik Revolution fascinating.)

Animal Farm--George Orwell

[flvegan]

11. "Diet For a New America" by John Robbins and

"Dominion" by Matthew Scully.

[FuzzySlippers]

14. "Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy"

by William Grieder.

[JitterbugPerfume]

17. A Peoples History of the USA, Zinn

everything Kurt Vonnegut ever wrote or thought

[fishwax]

48. hard to argue with zinn n/t

[BikeWriter]

19. My three, when they're published.

[LaurenG]

30. Have you named them and

how soon are we to be able to purchase said books?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. The Assassins' Gate.

[LSK]

24. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Will Shirer

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671728687/qid=1139965283/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-2939645-0041624?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Also Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446514527/qid=1139965322/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-2939645-0041624?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[jobycom]

25. "Orientalism," by Edward Said, "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker

[Lilith Velkor]

26. Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7 - Lady Nocturne - A Tek Jansen Adventure

and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.

[fishwax]

49. .

:rofl:

[mokawanis]

27. War is a force that gives us meaning

by Chris Hedges - A look at the root causes and the profound loss of war.

The Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock - A Nam vet finds sanity and healing while doing a long-term study of the bear. Peacock has tremendous insights and a better understanding of Grizzlies then everyone else I've read (with the possible exception of Herrerro).



Dispatches by Michael Herr - Hired by Esquire magazine to cover the war, Herr traveled freely around Nam and found the real story wasn't coming from the brass, but from the grunts who did the actual fighting. Herr has a unique writing style and his coverage of the war was pure poetry, capturing the madness and exhiliration of being there.

[RetroLounge]

28. Marquez

Love in the time of Cholera
100 years of Solitude

RL

[Redstone]

31. "Okla Hannali" by R.A. Lafferty. Best book about Indians, EVER.

And it was written by a white guy, and moreover a guy who mostly wrote science fiction, not historical novels. He was a helluva human being as well.

You'll understand Indians more after reading this book than you ever did before. Read it.

Redstone

[AlienGirl]

36. Holy fright, Lafferty wrote non-fiction too?!

I have a signed first-edition hardback issue Through Elegant Eyes that is among my most valuable stuff. Lafferty was a genius.

Tucker

[Redstone]

37. Yes, he did. And Okla Hannali was his finest work. Stunning is the word

I'd use to describe it.

He was indeed a genius, and a fine human being as well. Did you know that he didn't even write for a living for most of his life? He was an electrical engineer by trade.

I talked with him on the phone a number of times, but never met him. wish I had.

Redstone

[AlienGirl]

44. Wow--just, wow

I don't know much at all about him as a person, biographical details aren't as easy to come by as they are about some of my other favorite writers. I figured anyone who could imagine the characters in the Epiktistes stories had to be a good guy! Something I love about Lafferty's short stories is the recurring theme of implicit knowledge--things that people know without knowing that they know them. This is evident throughout Nine Hundred Grandmothers especially, the way the Gypsies just know the land has come back and the Xauen kid just knows what to do to revert to monkey form. It's kinda spooky and I love the way it stirs the little hairs on the back of my neck.

And every time I re-read "What's the Name Of That Town?" I think of New Orleans.

Tucker

[Redstone]

45. Find a copy of Okla Hannali and read it. It was reprinted by the

U of OK press in paperback in the 1990s, so it's not too hard to find.

And send me a PM to tell me how you liked it, please.

Redstone

[TheBaldyMan]

32. Sun Tzu's Art of War

WFMU had one of it's DJ's sing the whole of it over the space of 3 hours the other day. Seriously weird.

[blackcatpgh]

33. "The Great Shark Hunt" -- Hunter S. Thompson...

"The Great Shark Hunt" & "Hell's Angels" -- Hunter S. Thompson (his best stuff, IMHO)

"Tom Sawyer" -- Mark Twain (absolute classic; changed my life at age 7)

"Helter Skelter" AND "The Family" -- Vincent Bugliosi // Ed Sanders (read both & draw your own conclusions)

"Youghiogheny, Appalachian River" -- Tim Palmer

"The Redneck Manifesto" -- Jim Goad (not for the faint of heart)

"Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" -- Lester Bangs (RIP -- last great music writer)

[twenty2strings]

34. "From Dawn To Decadence" by Jacques Barzun

The last 500 years of world history,with so many myths exploded and a good examination of the irresistable decline of every empire,including our own. It's not a "culture wars" treatise, which is good. Very funny and addicting.:thumbsup:

[laheina]

35. World War Two Books

Night, by Elie Wiesel

Slaughter House Five, Kurt Vonnegut

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

[greendog]

38. "Cat's Cradle" ...Vonnegut

~

[Catchawave]

39. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

[Arkham House]

40. Heinlein's *Revolt in 2100*

This is the definitive novel about American theocracy. It was written in 1940, and hasn't dated a bit...more timely--and frightening--than ever. Forget *Handmaid's Tale*, or even *1984*...if totalitarianism ever came to the US, this is how it would be...

[genie_weenie]

41. Here's a Fiver (Diamond, Trumbo, Heller, Bach, Gaiman)

"Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond
"Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo
"Catch-22" by Joesph Heller
"Johanthan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

[SofaKingLiberal]

42. Eats, Shoots & Leaves

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592400876/sr=8-1/qid=1140137023/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9280456-1189443?%5Fencoding=UTF8


:popcorn:

[miss_american_pie]

47. I think you just revealed Rabrrrrrr's secret identity

;)

[hobo_baggins]

43. "The Great Gadsby"

"Crime & Punishment"
"The Brothers Karamazov"
"Cats Cradle"
"Grapes of Wrath"

Just a few

[DS1]

46. Gadsby, huh?

Any good?

[hobo_baggins]

54. its really good...

otherwise i wouldn't have recommended it :)

[BrewerJohn]

50. Cambodia: A Book For People Who Find Television Too Slow

by Brian Fawcett.

This one may be hard to find these days, but it gets near the heart of what has
been happening to our culture.

[jmowreader]

51. Everyone read Mein Kampf. Right now.

It's the BFEE Playbook, and if you haven't read it cover-to-cover you're behind the power curve.

Also read:

* Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt
* The Way the World Works, by Jude Wanniski
* Supply Side Economics: Financial Decision Making for the 1980s, by Arthur Laffer

If you want to understand Shrubonomics, start here.

If you want to understand how bad Ronald Reagan fucked up America, start with:

* Barbarians at the Gate, by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
* True Greed: What Really Happened in the Battle for RJR Nabisco, by Hope Lambert
* The Predator's Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Predators, by Connie Bruck

Then read this: http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm

[Xipe Totec]

52. The Constitution of the United States of America n/t

[Roon]

53. Hunter S Thompson

Didn't he kill himself recently?

[EstimatedProphet]

55. A NAtion of Sheep by William J. Lederer

The book never got the attention it deserved, which is too bad. It is one of the first Post WWII books to begin examining the press's complicity as propaganda merchants for the military-industrial complex. It also examines why it is that the average American falls for it.

[catbert836]

56. Walden

Walden Two
Brave New World
The Metamorphasis
1984
The Republic
The Iliad
The Odyssey
The Aeneid
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Candide
Night
On the Road
Heart of Darkness
Moby-Dick
The Scarlet Letter
Absolam! Absolam!
Tao Te Ching
the Bible (not all)
A People's History of the USA
Fahrenheit 451
Black Like Me
Animal Farm
Gulag Archipelago
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Johnny Got His Gun
100 Years of Solitude
The Color Purple
Shogun
Grapes of Wrath
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Lolita
The Great Gatsby
The Catcher in the Rye
Le Petit Prince
Tuesdays with Maury
Life of Pi
Things Fall Apart
The Shadow of the Wind
The Brothers Karamazov
The Lovely Bones
The Rights of Man
Das Kapital
Mein Kampf
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Ishmael
Silent Spring
War & Remembrance
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Art of War
Catch-22
The People of the Abyss
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich
Great Expectations
The Three Musketeers

[Kerrytravelers]

57. "America" by Jon Stewart and the Daily Show!

Seriously though, for women in health classes, "Our Bodies, Ourselves." It has it all right there in an easy to understand format.

"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson, with a forward by Al Gore.

"Our Endangered Values" by Jimmy Carter.

"Beautiful Child" by Torey Hayden.

"Savage Inequalities" by Jonathon Kozol.

"Love in Black and White" by Mark Mathabane and Gail Mathabane.

"The Ox-Bow Incident" by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.

[Nevernose]

58. "Of Mice and Men" and "The Grapes of Wrath"

Steinbeck: the last great naturalist.

[clyrc]

60. I've read many of the books recommended

and I want to read many of the ones I haven't. Just off the top of my head, I think everyone should read "Tomato Red" by Daniel Woodrell, "A Short Rhetoric for Leaving the Family" by Peter Dimoc, and, because I just read it and loved it, "Whistling Woman" by A.S. Byatt.

Oh, and I also recently finished a book called "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, and I think everyone should read it, too.