Monday, 30 March 2009

Indispensable Reading List

During a group discussion I recently participated in, the subject of the books we find "indispensable" came up.  The books we've got something out of, have enriched our lives, maybe influenced our thinking to some extent.  Here, in no particular order, is my list:

"The Life of Pi" Jan Martel
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" Philip K Dick
"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" Douglas Adams
"The Silmarillion" J R R Tolkien
"A Tale of Two Cities" Charles Dickens
"Hitler: A Study in Tyranny" Alan Bullock
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" Mark Haddon
"Sophie's World" Jostein Gaarder
"Nightfall" Isaac Asimov
"Moby-Dick" Herman Melville
"In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" Nathaniel Philbrick
"Fluke" James Herbert
"The Fourth Dimension and how to get there" Rudy Rucker
"Far from the Madding Crowd" Thomas Hardy
"Farmer in the Sky" Robert A. Heinlein
"The Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka
"Wuthering Heights" Emily Bronte
"From Hell" Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
"Animal Farm" George Orwell
"Slowness" Milan Kundera

25 comments:

  1. I don't read novels anymore.

    But....

    All Kurt Vonnegut
    All PK Dick
    Herman Hesse
    One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest
    Sometimes A Great Notion
    On The Road
    Dharma Bums
    Animal Farm
    1984
    Brave New World
    Gerald Manley Hopkins
    The Magus
    Macbeth
    Kool Aid Acid Test
    Fear and Loathing in LA
    TS Elliot
    Alice Through the Looking Glass
    Alice in Wonderland
    Pooh
    Tolkien
    I Ching
    Salvador Dali
    Gustav Jung.....

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  2. Interesting list.

    Why don't you read novels anymore?

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  3. I have read 9 out your list.

    What about:-

    The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.
    Tale of two Cities.
    Anything by Raymond Chandler.


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  4. Yes, A Tale of Two Cities is on my list. The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire... that sounds very interesting. Who wrote it?

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  5. The thornbirds, The great gatbsy, Never Cry Wolf, Jean M Auels -Earths children series. will add to this as I think of more

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  6. Apologies this is the popular title.

    The true title is

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

    Edward Gibbon written in 1781.

    Lot to get through and somewhat ponderous but if you love History as much as I do, worth a look.

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  7. Read a couple of her books, what a writer. She takes you to places in the early history of man that are remarkable for their intensity and emotion.

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  8. I've got a book on Rome and Jean M Auel's first Earth Children book on my Amazon wish list. Cheers!

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  9. Cycling Weekly and Bike Magazine. :~)

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  10. I read from valley of the Horses on before but I recently acquired Clan of the Cave bear

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  11. 'Indispensibable'

    Um...

    The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
    Marx & Engels' Manifesto
    Nature's Web - Peter Marshall
    Government & Politics - Anthony Giddens (college textbook, still have it)
    Spycatcher - Peter Werth
    Rule By Secrecy - Jim Marrs (holes, but great reference)
    Jesus - A.N. Wilson
    The Art of War - Sun Tzu
    The Prince - Machiavelli
    The Hagakure
    Brave New World - Huxley
    Orwell, Dostoevsky, Nietzche, Ian McEwan, Peter Hennesy, Sagan, Dawkins, Ahmed Rashid, Irvine Welsh, Edward de Bono, DBC Pierre, Chuang Tzu, Martin Millar, Carl Jung, William Gibson, Tim Leary, Will Self, RA Wilson.

    I spend too much time online to find time to read books. You've seen how much can be learned from people wiser around here... trick is, when they suggest reading this or that, DO it. And go outdoors now and then :)

    Novels... ? I don't read much fiction. Stephen King was the most un-put-down-able writer I ever read, The Shining... but I was 10.

    My to-read list includes Leo Strauss, Barack Obama, Robert Fisk, Chomsky, John Perkins and Jeremy Narby.

    Sure I missed some... but there's an overview

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  12. And Beat writers... John Lennon, Ginsberg, Kerouac... all that, got into that whole 'vibe' for a good few years

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  13. Did you see the movie, with Jack Nicolson ("Heeeere's Johnnie...")? If so how did you think it compared to the book?

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  14. Very good question.

    My next piece of writing, which I intended to produce this evening, and looking at that bottle over there, I still might... was supposed to include a relevant reference. A film I saw recently... the point was made that a book, say 'War & Peace' by Tolstoy, gets better each time you read it. Why? Because you change. You bring yourself to a book. That doesn't happen with a film.

    I think that also answers your question. 'Definitively'.

    My A-Level English Lit. main essay was on Dracula and Frankenstein. My parents owned a video shop when I was between 8 and 21. The question of comparing literature to silver screen was a large part of that. It did ok...

    Films and books are not comparable. Generally, a film of a book cannot be better than the original book... but then you have to factor in the likes of Jack Nicholson. They may well play that clip at his funeral.

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  15. Add
    Joy Luck Club
    Tuesdays with Morrie
    Brain droppings --George Carlin ( comic Relief)

    I am sure I will think of more books

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  16. That sounds interesting. At the moment I'm reading "The Lost Book of Enki" by Zecheriah Sitchin, who apparently extrapolated the story by translating Sumerian tablets, proving that the human race was an alien experiment. I can't say I'm convinced.

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  17. Have read about 16 0f those --I have to agree Brain droppings is essential especially after you read some of the heavier subject matter.

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  18. Might be slightly mistaken, but I believe Sitch went to school with Rockefeller. Don't tell that to the wrong people, they'll be on it like flies on shit

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  19. Yes, I can see why! Lol! Interesting though...

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  20. I would HIGHLY reccommend The Fall of Lucifer by Wendy Alec - I'm IN NO WAY religious, but it's just a brilliant adaptation of the story.

    http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Lucifer-Chronicles-Brothers/dp/1591858143

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