Required reading for humanity
 

ITT we wax intellectual about books everyone should read before they die. Love them or hate them of course, some books are like eating your vegetables - awful but still good for you.


To start:

Catch-22
The Fountainhead
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Last Exit To Brooklyn

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

I loved Catch-22. And I don't know anyone who didn't like One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Sadly, I have never read The Fountainhead. And I own a copy of Last Exit to Brooklyn; But have not gotten around to reading it for one reason or another.

Sons and Lovers by Lawrence anyone? And I always suggest American Psycho to everyone even though it seems to be pretty much love or hate. I happened to love it.

Modern classics are totally valid. I'd pick Less Than Zero over American Psycho but that's just my preference.

Maus would be one I'd add, just because it changed my perspective on graphic novels and showed me they're worth taking seriously.

itt we continue using MB like reddit.


thanks for bringing quality to the boards.

Yours was a comment especially full of quality, being a dick is definitely good for the boards.

Haven't read Nea's recommendations and I've never made it through anything by Ayn Rand. I just... I can't. Too dull. Maus (along with Love & Rockets) got me into graphic novels, too! Great stuff, I still have it somewhere.

I'll recommend Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.

Basically any book that deals with strategy I think people should read, like A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi and of course, The Art of War by you-know-who.

I personally see applications of the simplest principles in these two books EVERYWHERE, from sports to politics.

Ham On Rye and while I don't like it much, The Bell Jar. Both important memoirs IMO

:yikes:

this makes me sad

i just don;t see how you can have someone like Herbert Selby Jr and that tart Ayn Rand in the same list

although i will be honest....i have never read The Fountainhead....but i did read Atlas Shrugged....and i will say that she was a very good writer

but to counter the Objectivism....

first and foremost please read

The Illuminatus! Trilogy.....not only is this book a backlash to neo conservative ideals....but it has talking dolphins....and a giant naked woman....and an army of dead Nazi's....and EVERYBODY in it is on more drugs than those cats at Woodstock!

plus it really is a wonderful satire while also being a wonderful book about why life should only be for the living

also

Journey to the Center of Night and Death on the Installment Plan

Céline is truly a personal hero of mine.....don't like the way i write....blame him

existential nihilism explained perfectly

reading his books is like having a drunk, bitter old man yell at you inside your head

a quote to get you going

“To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!”

The Sheltering Sky

if you like any underground music from the 70s-present...you should probably give a nod to Paul Bowles

everything i've ever read by him is full of amazing lucid landscapes coupled with the one thing we as humans all share...existential despair

i can honestly say that The Sheltering Sky is one of my all time favorite books ...and i try to give a copy of it to everyone who is interested

The Book of the Law

Thelema is not for everyone.....but i think everyone should know about it....and understand what it is....the Book of the Law and maybe The Book of Lies will give you a full understanding of just what Gnosticism is

Howl

Ginsberg really knew his shit and i't amazing how every fucking word in this book is as relevant as it was when City Lights first printed it....or maybe it's sad

The Function of the Orgasm

Reich would be another hero of mine....

the man was seriously onto something when the American government arrested him and all copies of his books burned in 1956....simply for trying to heal the Earth and everything on it

this book really is the basis for all of his work

i also suggest The Mass Psychology of Fascism....as it really is as relevant as it is when he wrote it....

funny....one of the first books on Hitler's to burn list was The Mass Psychology of Fascism and the last major book burning conducted by the United States government was anything he ever wrote

ever heard the song by Kate Bush called Cloudbusting?

that song is about Reich's arrest told from the point of view of his son Peter

I'm not a fan of Ayn Rand, but I do think it's worth putting on the list. Same with Kerouac.

Oh yeah, seconded.

Also:
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

wait did you mention a book by Kerouac?

i caught the Bukowski book....but not the Kerouac

sorry i really have a deep hatred for Ayn Rand

i would also think that everyone should read The Wizard of OZ....if anything for the origin story of the tin man

ohhhh great choices :)

Thanks! :)

A few more I'd add that I think are incredible but very underrated or not well known:

The Kryptonite Kid by Joseph Torchia
A novel written in the form of a series of letters to Superman from a young boy growing up in an abusive home in the 50s.

The Nuclear Age by Tim O'Brien
Far better than the more acclaimed The Things They Carried imo. It's the life story of an obsessive man told in fragments as he digs a massive hole in his backyard for a fallout shelter.

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill
A funny, sad, poetic book about the Minotaur living out his days in a trailer park and working as a prep cook. It's a hard book to describe, but it really is something special.

Oh god I know. If she wanted to write something that turns liberals into caricatures so overblown that it stops being useful as a critique then she should have just done another essay. Quit writing dull fiction, you cow. I got halfway through Atlas Shrugged and just couldn't take it anymore. I don't care about some revolutionary metal. I don't care about some revolutionary car engine. I don't care about a train ride. I don't care about what these are metaphors for. I just care about setting this book on fire so I can jump off a cliff to rid myself of your awful, awful writing.

And I say this as someone who was a goofy libertarian at the time.

so you didn't get to the 80 page monologue by John Galt....where he describes the opening question :)

weird...,.i actually think she really was a good writer....just that her morals and philosophy were absolute shit

I don't do much reading, but I had to read this for college and I thought it was interesting.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...istoryzinn.jpg

One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My favourite book probably. I did my highs school dissertation on this book and the more I delved into it the more I loved it.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is another favourite novel.

For poetry I would suggest the collected John Keats.

Last of all and perhaps most importantly please read the collected plays of Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov.

This is an actual question, but what did you find good about her writing? I just found her to be pretentious for the sake of being pretentious. Like she was so arrogant that she just couldn't believe that she wasn't the second coming of James Joyce.

Douglas Coupland- Generation X

Nick Hornby- Fever Pitch and High Fidelity

Stephen Hawking- A brief history of time

Never read Fever Pitch, but I'd definitely put About a Boy ahead of High Fidelity. Both great books, but About a Boy was almost perfect. Of course I might be biased as I identify far too much with Will Freeman (though not with the lying to get into women's pants thing).

generation x is couplands weakest, change that out for Girlfriend in a Coma and I'd agree

also agree with batty on about a boy. I love that ****ing book

Oh hell no.

High Fidelity is my favourite Hornby book. It just nails what it's like being an elitist music fan. I can relate.
'Am I depressed because I listen to pop music, or do I listen to pop music because I'm depressed?'

I wouldn't put Douglas Coupland on any 'required reading' list but I do think the prologue to Girlfriend In A Coma might be the best thing he's ever written.

I always thought that was a stupid question. Neither of the two caused the other. You're depressed cause you're an obsessive with the maturity of a ten-year-old, which is also the same reason you're a music nerd. Not that maturity necessarily has to do with being a music nerd, but... it certainly doesn't help the situation.

Rob is for sure a bit of a manchild, he's a good character though. I think I prefer the movie though.

tbh this is the best thing he's ever written
http://i.imgur.com/INzkph8.jpg

In some ways I do too. The ending of the book was depressing.

required reading for humanity right here.

ikr?

oh yeah and I put my vote in for the Cider house Rules and A Widow for One Year

Cider House Rules is ****ing depressing. I didn't hate it, but it was a tough read.

it's literally the best pro choice book ever.

i honestly think that this is exactly what i liked about her writing

hmmm i have never read anything by Hornby or Copeland.....guess i need to remedy that

this one is pointed directly at Junkyard Donner

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

probably my favorite memoir

A Widow For One Year is a much tougher read than Cider House Rules.

I wouldn't disagree, but I tend to avoid books that make me feel like i've been punched in my ballsack upon setting it down.

Hotel New Hampshire is my fave but if were recommending to all humanity... A Widow for one year affected me more tho

I still haven't read that one.

what the **** is wrong with u!!!! it's in the Dropbox if I gave you an invite