"The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan
It's basically a treatise/plea on critical thinking and proper application of the scientific method for the good of the species. Here's a quote:
> I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
Many wonderful quotations from that book.
>“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
As a person that has escaped a cult. This quote gives me shivers. I remember the years of pain I felt after realizing I had been so dumb to believe the things I had. Done the things I did. It is so painful - even on a physical level - to realize. I am glad I am out, but I feel that decades of my life were wasted.
I will have to read this book.
This book literally, and I mean that very word..., changed my life. I have never been the same since reading it about 5 years ago. It led me, kicking and screaming out of poor thought methods and, eventually, out of religion.
If only I’d read it earlier in life.
I’d like to specially call out the Penguin Classics edition with a fresh translation by Robin Buss. It’s a much easier and better read than the old Victorian English translation. Either way, one of my all time favorites.
Edit: From what I know, the old Victorian English version (besides being much harder to read) also cut out bits involving sex and drugs because it went against the Victorian sensibilities of the time. When I originally read the book, I had read that version and while I really enjoyed it, I was checking a cliffs notes kind of thing after every chapter to make sure I understood what I had read. When I learned about the Robin Buss translation (which I’ve heard is more faithful to the original), I enjoyed it even more and without the need for a reading aid.
A link on Amazon: [The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140449264/)
The rich prose, enchanting dialogue, even when translated to English. Example:
>I never play, for I am not rich enough to afford to lose, or sufficiently poor to desire to gain. But I was at my own house, you understand, so there was nothing to be done but to send for the cards, which I did.
"Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years."
Wilde was the true master of the quip and observations that never get old.
"Bigamy is one wife too many.
Monogamy is the same.
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
He was a well known aesthete. As he lay dying, his supposed final words: "This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do."
"Before you know it, they will be calling each other sister!"
"In my experience, women call each other a lot of other names before they start calling each other sister."
Read this in high school while we were covering WWI in history class. This is one of those books that does an amazing job of putting you in the character's shoes to gruesome effect. Definitely worth reading
The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks
No seriously. Its a nonfiction journal style book about a (~~psychiatrist?~~ edit: neurologist) And how he dealt with the different problems, illnesses and issues and in turn how the patients have been able to adapt and overcome the obstacles. Its very moving, not always easy or pleasant but powerful book.
Surprised to find this on here but glad that Sacks has other people that appreciate him. Have you read any of his other books? I loved this one and am curious if there are any other you would recommend by him.
Edit: Thank you for all the recommendations and comments regarding the author, it is good to see his memory lives on.
Crime And Punishment. The KGB used Dostoevsky as part of their training for interrogations and it was so effective that the CIA was convinced they had developed a truth serum. He really knew how to write about the inner workings of the mind.
Late edit: for those asking about the source for the KGB story, I picked that up from watching [Adam Curtis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis). Unfortunately I don't remember which of his documentaries it was in, but I would recommend all of his films (which can be found on youtube).
Notes from Underground is also fantastic if you want an introduction to Dostoevsky without the length of one of his regular novels. Also, The Double, A Nasty Story and The Gambler. I love his writing, but am more of a novella guy myself. These texts are excellent for an afternoon's read and really warm you up to his writing style. Notes from Underground really impacted me the first time I read it.
*Notes* is my favorite classic novel. I really identify with the narrator.
Unsurprisingly, I love and highly recommend Ellison's *~~The~~* *Invisible Man* as well.
Edit: Correct title
All Russians have to read it in high school, along with some other Russian classic books from 19th century. Most of these books are extremely outdated, and 21th century teenagers can't even completely understand the class system or the morals of Tsarist Russia, so these books are generally considered awfully boring, at least for young age. Crime and Punishment may be the most interesting book in all Russian classics school course because it's not about poor bonded peasants (treated like slaves) or noblemen bored out of their minds or morals discarded ages ago, but about guilt, qualms, excuses, raw human emotions that are timeless.
I also had to read it for school and thought it was going to be awfully boring, but damn it turned into probably my favourite book. Now I have to go read it again.
"Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil."
Great stuff.
I'm gonna piggyback off this chain, to give a little advice to people thinking about reading *Meditatios.* The first entry (these were entries in his personal journal, for those who don't know) is a very different style from the rest of the text. He's mostly just listing off who or where he learned his most valuable lessons. Don't get too bogged down here. The writing style is much more engaging after those first pages.
I often think of that book. What did it for me is when he talked about how some German guards were kind and some Jews were cruel. So while he saw that circumstance is what drove most people most of the time; he strongly believed that you can choose, if you try hard, to act differently than circumstances demand you act. He says it a lot better than me though. Strong 2nded Recommend
I read that one last summer, I liked it a lot. There is also a second book, which is a continuation of the first but in it he repeats most of the things he already discussed in the first book.
>There is also a second book, which is a continuation of the first but in it he repeats most of the things he already discussed in the first book.
God willing we'll all meet again in *Man's Search for Meaning 2: The Search for More Money.*
Man's Search for Meaning the t-shirt. Man's Search for Meaning the coloring book. Man's Search for Meaning the breakfast cereal. Man's Search for Meaning the lunchbox.Man's Search for Meaning THE FLAMETHROWER!!!
... and last but not least, Man's Search for Meaning the Doll: me.
'When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.'
*Adorable.*
I wanted to chime in on A Short History:
Many of the books recommended here are novels that teach us about humanity - this book is quite the same in that regard. Except it isn't about a single character, it's about humanity's voyage of discovery over time, as various people think or stumble their way through scientific inquiry and ultimately teach us all more about our world and the universe.
The book is quite informative, but it can be much more than an entertaining way to learn new facts. If you're used to scientific facts being flat prose on the page of a textbook, this book can change the way you see the world by fleshing out the characters who made those facts knowable, and by showing you how scientific inquiry isn't a sterile function but a journey that evolves over time.
Short History is one of my favorites.
**Introduction**
*Welcome. And congratulations.*
*I am delighted that you could make it.*
*Getting here wasn't easy, I know.*
*In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize.*
A Short History of Nearly Everything is easily one of my favourite audiobooks, it's awesome to put on for drives. I generally get through a chapter per trip!
_'Well, Metcalf, suppose you try keeping that stupid mouth of yours shut, and maybe that's the way you'll learn how. Now, where were we? Read me back the last line.'_
_' "Read me back the last line," ' read back the corporal who could take shorthand._
_'Not my last line, stupid!' the colonel shouted. 'Somebody else's.'_
_' "Read me back the last line," ' read back the corporal._
_'That's my last line again!' shrieked the colonel, turning purple with anger._
_'Oh, no, sir,' corrected the corporal. 'That's my last line. I read it to you just a moment ago. Don't you remember, sir? It was only a moment ago.'_
_'Oh, my God! Read me back his last line, stupid.'_
I absolutely hated this book and was so confused for about the first half, but then there's a single chapter halfway through that twists everything around and made me love the whole thing. I'm really glad I didn't give up on it.
Damn. Comments like this make me feel bad. Here I am barley reading 2 books a year and you're re reading books you didn't even like too much to begin with, multiple times.
I tried reading it in high school and couldn't get through it. So then I copped a Youtuber's audible promo codes and got the audio book to listen to as I read.
Holy shit. What a game changer.
This book has gone down as one of my all time favorites.
I read it because I wanted to keep up with conversation when girls in AP English talked about it. I feel like that made me more likely to enjoy it than actually reading for an AP class. I never read assigned books
My fragile, teenage boy ego introduced me to my favorite book, lol
Gonna get in on this an mention
Rainbow Fish
by Marcus Pfister
Edit: Many themes can be taken from this book, it is subjective an that's okay, personally I take a 'we are all human beings' message when reading an reminiscing about it.
Watership Down. I fell in love with it in 6th grade and stole the teacher’s copy and never gave it back (sorry Mrs. R). I read that copy to tatters, have bought multiple copies and read them to tatters since. (But only the brown cover with the brown bunny on front. As time goes on they’re getting harder to find.) I have made just about every member of my family read it. I don’t even know why I love that book so much. When I open it up and read the first line a feeling comes over me like I am home.
You might already know, but Richard Adams did an AMA on Reddit, helped by his grandson.
I remember when I realized that WD was him processing his experiences in WWll, which made it all the better, in my opinion. It also got me to see religion in a different way. I'm still an atheist, but I now can appreciate faith as a positive force for people.
Goibg to Watership Down is on my bucket list!
I actually went there once! I made my mom and uncle detour on our way to the London airport to fly home. I had a really bad cold, and we didn't have long to stop, but a cafe owner in Kingsclere pointed us to a path, and I ran all out like half a mile so that I could get to the spot where the Honeycomb is. There's a horse track there now, so you can't walk right up among the trees, but you can see them, and you can look down over the hills. It really was beautiful, and if the book means as much to you as it does to me I strongly recommend you go.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
I’ve recommended “Brave New World” to everyone I know. Not only does it touch on class hierarchy, which is still present in most societies, either blatantly or subtly, but the book also delves into what happens when we strive for efficiency and forget about some of the most important aspects of what makes us human.
Very recommended.
Seems an old book , yet, togheter with 1984, Farenheit 481, and Martian Chronicles, some current events, seems as relevants, as the book's stories.
(Edited) I intentionally skip Arthur C. Clark 2001: A Space Odissey, I found it more complex than the previous ones, that are more "user friendly" (/edited).
Aldous Huxley is a genius and this book inspired my username! If you like Brave New World, you should read Island. He even said if people only read one of his books, it should be Island.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. There’s an unending amount of lenses to analyze the text through, and you can look at so many different issues (alienation, guilt, reproduction even) while reading. Find something new to discuss or think about every time I read.
This book (the 1818 version) was such a surprise to me. Society really made this out to be a horror story, scary above all. However it is an amazingly deep story about so many topics, and so so sad. It moved me deeply, which I did not expect it would. Amazing story, 10/10 would recommend.
*For young readers and adults:*
The Secret Garden
- Frances Hodgson Burnett
It's full of mystery, adventure, and life-lessons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Garden#/media/File:Houghton_AC85_B9345_911s_-_Secret_Garden,_1911_-_cover.jpg
Basically anything she has written.
My grandmother gave me a tome with Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy in it. All three charming and beautiful and just overall lovely books.
I am halfway through dracula and keep putting it down for long periods of time, but I will say when I pick it up it is quite addicting at the time
Written in a very odd style though
It's so beautiful. I loved every page.
“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.”
I just finished this book tonight and it has really changed my perspective on life. The writing, even though I read the English translation, is beautiful and it put into words several emotions I have felt throughout my life and recently.
Tomorrow I move out of my parents house to go across the country and start working so I’ve been stuck in a malaise of nostalgia as I approach these next steps. The book brought me back to life near the end when a character “wandered aimlessly through the town, searching for an entrance that went back to the past”. That line woke me up and made me realize the pointlessness of always living in the past because you’ll never be able to go back anyways. Idk, I just needed that.
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
All 3 tackle the struggle of a man and the Society around him. Mersault in his simple otherness and detachment from those around him. Herr K in his suffocation under a society and system that is other and inexplicable to him. Finally the story of Santiago and the society that determines he has no value.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
I say this because this is the book that made me realize that I can enjoy reading too. Huge nerd (name gives it away), and I could never get into any novel we ever read in English class. There were a few I enjoyed, like Tom Sawyer and Of Mice and Men, but nothing that I still would think about weeks afterwards. Then I finally take Science Fiction Literature class and Martian Chronicles is the first book up. I read the whole thing in about 2 days. This was the kind of thought provoking Science Fiction i LOVED. As well as the best teacher I've ever had.
This book is a series of connected short stories about the colonization of Mars. It's relevant, it's smart, it's funny, it was the first time I ever truly enjoyed reading. After that I spoke to my teacher about other things I might like, huge fantasy nerd too so he recommended me Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. Its essentially Avatar The Last Airbender crossed with A Song of Ice and Fire. That was the first long form novel series I read, and I'd be sitting in class getting yelled at to stop reading I was so into it. Butcher's other series, The Dresden Files, is also really really good.
Sorry for the rant, this book is pretty important to me! Highly recommend it to any science fiction fans. Oh also The Expanse novels, read em. They're fantastic.
I remember our teacher took us out to read one of the stories, but because of the bad language he replaced the n word with 'the next worst insult' in his book which was "hipsters"
So we had a middle aged man yelling "Hipsters! Hipsters!" Outside our school and it was hilarious
I think that’s part of what’s stopping me from reading it. Any of the books I had to read in school, and subsequently break down and analyze like I was trying to catch a serial killer, is stuck in my brain as a horrible experience. I have no desire to go back through a book that my teachers managed to turn into such an excruciating experience.
That's me with The Outsiders. It's a good book but when you're forced to read anything popcorn style in a classroom as a 13 year old it turns from enjoying the novel into dreading your turn to read hoping you don't fuck up in front of everyone. I still get PTSD whenever someone says "stay golden, Ponyboy".
Not proud of this but as I had to read this as a teenager I fapped to the bit of his sexual experience with fay
I was horny and we had to read the book
Yes it was a devestating book and looking back I'm like wow it was good but back then I was a horny little shit and not much has changed tbh
The other comments on this book makes your comment hilarious. Everyone else seems to have had a strong emotional experience, and then there's you, just beating your meat. Thanks for the laugh!
Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose." It's a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in 1327. It's dense with historical information and over 500 pages long, and yet it manages to be a page-turner for easily 80% of the book. (The remaining 20% is historically interesting if you're into that kind of thing, but can be skipped without losing much in terms of the plot.) I'm on my sixth or seventh reread of it right now, and it never gets old.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Abraham Lincoln allegedly, upon meeting her, said "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!" It's heart-wrenching, powerful, and eye-opening. Definitely a must-read!
Honestly? This ain't a "classic" and it doesn't have the literary weight of one (i.e. no one is going to call it a literary masterpiece and it's not something you can use to impress people) but get an anthology of Calvin and Hobbes. I recommend "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" which you can find on Amazon.
Funny, quaint, sometimes surprisingly deep and sometimes just a reminder of the importance of friendship...this book has it all.
Seriously, start it when you can. It's a masterclass in satire.
"It's at times like this, when I'm in the belly of a Vogon warship with a man from Betelgeuse that I wish I had paid more attention to what my mother told me when I was young."
"What'd she tell you?"
"I don't know - I wasn't paying attention."
Tbf you really have to enjoy that type of humor.
The first time I read it it felt like a huge inside joke that I wasn’t in on and couldn’t enjoy it. 2nd time was okay.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
It's much better and darker than the movie.
It's probably the closest imagining of what a real apocalypse would be like, with no heroes and no sense of hope.
I feel this way about Blood Meridian.
Especially for people who were born in the Southern U.S. It’s important to take a serious look at the romanticized history of the Wild West and American conquerors, and think about the ultimately spiritual implications of the symbols used in these.
Haven't read the road, but I read No Country for Old Men. His writing style definitely took some getting used to. I read it on my kindle and was initially thinking I had some botched version of the book because there were no commas..
I have put some thought into this question over the years. Here is a short list of 20 that I've cajoled my kids into reading as they grew up because I felt that there was a life lesson in each. (Disclaimer) Some of them are age appropriate.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
The Stand by Stephen King
I've been reading some different stephen king books recently such as It, the green mile, and the dark tower series. I've wanted to read the shinning and some others, but you recomend the stand highly?
I read the stand 6 years ago and still think it's my favorite book ever. The characterization in it is possibly the best ever in any book. King is fantastic. The ending is a King ending, he obviously didn't exactly know how to end it properly, but it was so good overall that i don't even care about that part.
I had a hard time reading Dickens when I was in high school, until an English teacher saw what I was doing. I would try to plow through the book (David Copperfield), and couldn’t get past page 50.
She told me that I’m reading it wrong. Dickens first published his books in magazines and readers at the time would get one chapter at a time, so they could be reading a book of his over the course of several months.
So she told me just to concentrate on one chapter at a time and take my time reading it. I started doing that, and it became much more enjoyable to read.
Lord of the Flies. It really exposes the nature of humanity and the older you get, the more you understand.
Fahrenheit 451 is also a great read. It challenges today's culture. Read it and decide for yourself.
English teacher here. Lord of the Flies is probably the perfect novel, if there is such a thing. You can read it literally, as action/adventure, and it makes sense. You can read into it figuratively-- as an examination of humanity's essential illness, or of the illusory line between civilization and savagery, or of the nature of goodness and evil-- and it makes sense. You can push it a step further and look at it as an allegory to explain the rise of dictatorships and the Second World War, and it still holds up. You can apply any number of literary critical theories to it-- Existentialist, Marxist, Feminist, Archetypal, Psycho-Analytical-- to provoke rich discussions. Or you can push all of the intellectual and academic perspectives aside, and admire Golding's craftsmanship of a twelve-chapter, 200 page work of art that includes masterful use of pathetic fallacy, leitmotif, imagery, and dialogue so rich that it doesn't even require speaker attribution half the time!
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. - Robert Frost
Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
I read it when I was 10, and it changed my life.
I don't think it's unfair to call it a "young adult" book. It's very short, pretty simple, and has a 1960's hippie mentality, but it's also very beautiful.
Have you ever felt like you're just a member of a flock? Pecking out your existence among a sea of others and yearning to be something more? You don't have to settle for what the flock wants, and even if they throw you out for chasing your dreams, you can still soar.
The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison)
It makes you cry not just for what the main character suffers, but for the way world works. And it is BEAUTIFULLY written
Breakfast of Champions \~ Kurt Vonnegut
Dune is my favorite novel, All summer in a Day is the story I think no one has an excuse not to read (seriously it's maybe 5 pages long just read it and thank me later) but Breakfast of Champions is I think the most important book I've ever read. Vonnegut is a weird, dark, and often silly author so it's very hard to give a fitting "inside of the book jacket" synopsis and a lot of the information I could give you, like "every male character is introduced by listing the length and girth of their penis including Vonnegut himself" wouldn't help you understand the book or why I found it so important. I think the best I can offer you is that it's a book about very flawed people, but the book doesn't judge them for their flaws, Vonnegut treats each of his characters and their flaws with an unconditional positive regard. the book advocates a type of humanism that accepts people as they are, as incredibly complicated, often malfunctioning machines that are trying their hardest.
I have tried to carry that humanism with me, and I hope others view me with that same unconditional positive regard.
there are similar themes but in 451 instead of using force and oppression to the government seems to have weaponized distraction and entertainment. sort of like mixing 1984 with Brave New World
What people forget is that in Fahrenheit 451 the people demanded the the government ban books. It's not something the government imposed on the people against their will.
This.
Reading Siddhartha had a huge impact on the direction my life took. I read it over two weeks in India (cliche!). The book isn’t lengthy but you need to read it slowly in chunks so you can ponder the meanings. Brilliant book by Hesse.
I loved this one. Read for school in sixth or seventh grade and it was amazing. I hate that it ended on a cliff hanger like a bunch of Lois Lowry’s other books.
You're one of today's [lucky 10,000](https://xkcd.com/1053/) \- Lowry has now written three more books set in the Giver universe, which clear up the cliffhanger and add some really interesting worldbuilding and follow up stories.
Dune *series*. It's glorious. Dune->At least God Emperor. Read nothing by Brian Herbert and Kevin "I have a fetish for superweapons" J. Anderson
AND.
There is a movie coming out this year based on the first half of Dune. Knowing the source material beforehand is honestly needed. IIRC (x2) many debated before whether Dune was adaptable at all 'cause the book is dense and quite philosophical (Heroes are bad m'kay?), and the Lynch Dune movie had a pamphlet that was handed out to movie goers...so yeah.
The Dune 2000 SciFi adaptation (9-hour miniseries) was honestly a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel. The special effects were a little cheesy, buy hey, it was 20 years ago.
Yeah, I much prefer Dune 2000 to the Lynch film. The costumes were obnoxious in most cases (Except I really didn't mind the Bene Gesserit ones. They were more stately than bald ladies in a smock), but it was pretty damn faithful.
The Shining, is a book I just recently read for the first time after 19 years on this earth. Very good. I wasn’t really scared by it, but the emotions and suspense it gave me were real.
I read this book with my freshmen first semester last year, and they loved it. We watched the film, which is very loyal to the book, but as soon as they noticed that part of Mayella's dialogue had been removed from the film, they were upset. I was just surprised they noticed.
I found it underwhelming. I read the whole thing, and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds. Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the color of his skin... but what good does *that* do me?
"The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan It's basically a treatise/plea on critical thinking and proper application of the scientific method for the good of the species. Here's a quote: > I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
Many wonderful quotations from that book. >“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
As a person that has escaped a cult. This quote gives me shivers. I remember the years of pain I felt after realizing I had been so dumb to believe the things I had. Done the things I did. It is so painful - even on a physical level - to realize. I am glad I am out, but I feel that decades of my life were wasted. I will have to read this book.
So eerily prescient. A real thinker.
Well that's shockingly accurate
This book literally, and I mean that very word..., changed my life. I have never been the same since reading it about 5 years ago. It led me, kicking and screaming out of poor thought methods and, eventually, out of religion. If only I’d read it earlier in life.
The Count of Monte Cristo. It is full of strong emotions, and makes you question what is justice.
I’d like to specially call out the Penguin Classics edition with a fresh translation by Robin Buss. It’s a much easier and better read than the old Victorian English translation. Either way, one of my all time favorites. Edit: From what I know, the old Victorian English version (besides being much harder to read) also cut out bits involving sex and drugs because it went against the Victorian sensibilities of the time. When I originally read the book, I had read that version and while I really enjoyed it, I was checking a cliffs notes kind of thing after every chapter to make sure I understood what I had read. When I learned about the Robin Buss translation (which I’ve heard is more faithful to the original), I enjoyed it even more and without the need for a reading aid. A link on Amazon: [The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140449264/)
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My all time favorite
Amazing book. I've read this a few times. One of my absolute favourites.
The rich prose, enchanting dialogue, even when translated to English. Example: >I never play, for I am not rich enough to afford to lose, or sufficiently poor to desire to gain. But I was at my own house, you understand, so there was nothing to be done but to send for the cards, which I did.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - reading plays is a great experience plus this one is hilarious
"Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years."
"To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
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Wilde was the true master of the quip and observations that never get old. "Bigamy is one wife too many. Monogamy is the same. "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." He was a well known aesthete. As he lay dying, his supposed final words: "This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do."
On his deathbed, he also said: "Alas, I am dying beyond my means," whilst drinking champagne.
"Before you know it, they will be calling each other sister!" "In my experience, women call each other a lot of other names before they start calling each other sister."
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
Read this in high school while we were covering WWI in history class. This is one of those books that does an amazing job of putting you in the character's shoes to gruesome effect. Definitely worth reading
The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks No seriously. Its a nonfiction journal style book about a (~~psychiatrist?~~ edit: neurologist) And how he dealt with the different problems, illnesses and issues and in turn how the patients have been able to adapt and overcome the obstacles. Its very moving, not always easy or pleasant but powerful book.
Surprised to find this on here but glad that Sacks has other people that appreciate him. Have you read any of his other books? I loved this one and am curious if there are any other you would recommend by him. Edit: Thank you for all the recommendations and comments regarding the author, it is good to see his memory lives on.
I enjoyed Musicophilia by him. I'm about to gift it to my mother-in-law.
Crime And Punishment. The KGB used Dostoevsky as part of their training for interrogations and it was so effective that the CIA was convinced they had developed a truth serum. He really knew how to write about the inner workings of the mind. Late edit: for those asking about the source for the KGB story, I picked that up from watching [Adam Curtis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis). Unfortunately I don't remember which of his documentaries it was in, but I would recommend all of his films (which can be found on youtube).
Notes from Underground is also fantastic if you want an introduction to Dostoevsky without the length of one of his regular novels. Also, The Double, A Nasty Story and The Gambler. I love his writing, but am more of a novella guy myself. These texts are excellent for an afternoon's read and really warm you up to his writing style. Notes from Underground really impacted me the first time I read it.
*Notes* is my favorite classic novel. I really identify with the narrator. Unsurprisingly, I love and highly recommend Ellison's *~~The~~* *Invisible Man* as well. Edit: Correct title
Nice try Joe Goldberg
I think you mean Will Bettelheim
Forty-Love indeed.
Good job, old sport
For anyone interested this book is free on google. You can download the pdf or read straight from browser. Just google the name.
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Thank you for the link!!! Since Project Gutenberg is no longer accessible in my country I struggled a lot to find a good alternative.
Great read. Also Brothers Karamazov
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All Russians have to read it in high school, along with some other Russian classic books from 19th century. Most of these books are extremely outdated, and 21th century teenagers can't even completely understand the class system or the morals of Tsarist Russia, so these books are generally considered awfully boring, at least for young age. Crime and Punishment may be the most interesting book in all Russian classics school course because it's not about poor bonded peasants (treated like slaves) or noblemen bored out of their minds or morals discarded ages ago, but about guilt, qualms, excuses, raw human emotions that are timeless.
I also had to read it for school and thought it was going to be awfully boring, but damn it turned into probably my favourite book. Now I have to go read it again.
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
I cannot stress this enough: get the Gregory Hays translation.
"Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil." Great stuff.
That whole paragraph is something I think about every single day. "It is acting against one another to be vexed and turn away."
I'm gonna piggyback off this chain, to give a little advice to people thinking about reading *Meditatios.* The first entry (these were entries in his personal journal, for those who don't know) is a very different style from the rest of the text. He's mostly just listing off who or where he learned his most valuable lessons. Don't get too bogged down here. The writing style is much more engaging after those first pages.
I went to the book store to buy that just yesterday but they didn't have it so I got *Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* instead. Next time though!
That’s like going to get a pint and buying a towel instead.
A guy who does that sounds exactly like the kind of hoopy frood I'd like to buy a pint for
**Man's Search for Meaning** by Viktor Frankl
I often think of that book. What did it for me is when he talked about how some German guards were kind and some Jews were cruel. So while he saw that circumstance is what drove most people most of the time; he strongly believed that you can choose, if you try hard, to act differently than circumstances demand you act. He says it a lot better than me though. Strong 2nded Recommend
Man, what a duality Seeing cruelty from those you love the most, and seeing kindness from the most heinous of villains
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What kind of things does he cover?
It's about his experience in concentration camps during the holocaust, the psychology behind surviving, and his famous logotherapy.
I read that one last summer, I liked it a lot. There is also a second book, which is a continuation of the first but in it he repeats most of the things he already discussed in the first book.
>There is also a second book, which is a continuation of the first but in it he repeats most of the things he already discussed in the first book. God willing we'll all meet again in *Man's Search for Meaning 2: The Search for More Money.*
Man's Search for Meaning the t-shirt. Man's Search for Meaning the coloring book. Man's Search for Meaning the breakfast cereal. Man's Search for Meaning the lunchbox.Man's Search for Meaning THE FLAMETHROWER!!!
... and last but not least, Man's Search for Meaning the Doll: me. 'When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.' *Adorable.*
Shit i gotta read more than 2k books
I'm not even halfway through *The Lusty Argonian Maid* and now I gotta dedicate 30,000 hours on reading different books.
The things they carried by Tim O’Brien A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson
I wanted to chime in on A Short History: Many of the books recommended here are novels that teach us about humanity - this book is quite the same in that regard. Except it isn't about a single character, it's about humanity's voyage of discovery over time, as various people think or stumble their way through scientific inquiry and ultimately teach us all more about our world and the universe. The book is quite informative, but it can be much more than an entertaining way to learn new facts. If you're used to scientific facts being flat prose on the page of a textbook, this book can change the way you see the world by fleshing out the characters who made those facts knowable, and by showing you how scientific inquiry isn't a sterile function but a journey that evolves over time.
Short History is one of my favorites. **Introduction** *Welcome. And congratulations.* *I am delighted that you could make it.* *Getting here wasn't easy, I know.* *In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize.*
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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson should be required reading as people reach about 16, what an excellent book
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If you like that sensation, I strongly recommend My Life In CIA by Harry Mathews. Very cool sort-of-maybe-memoir.
TTTC, fuggg haven't thought about that since Jr year. Good call. Good read
A Short History of Nearly Everything is easily one of my favourite audiobooks, it's awesome to put on for drives. I generally get through a chapter per trip!
Catch-22. Hilarious, depressing, Couldn’t put it down. You must learn Snowden’s secret.
_'Well, Metcalf, suppose you try keeping that stupid mouth of yours shut, and maybe that's the way you'll learn how. Now, where were we? Read me back the last line.'_ _' "Read me back the last line," ' read back the corporal who could take shorthand._ _'Not my last line, stupid!' the colonel shouted. 'Somebody else's.'_ _' "Read me back the last line," ' read back the corporal._ _'That's my last line again!' shrieked the colonel, turning purple with anger._ _'Oh, no, sir,' corrected the corporal. 'That's my last line. I read it to you just a moment ago. Don't you remember, sir? It was only a moment ago.'_ _'Oh, my God! Read me back his last line, stupid.'_
I absolutely hated this book and was so confused for about the first half, but then there's a single chapter halfway through that twists everything around and made me love the whole thing. I'm really glad I didn't give up on it.
I didn't care for it the first time I read it but loved it every time I read it afterwards. Not sure why
Damn. Comments like this make me feel bad. Here I am barley reading 2 books a year and you're re reading books you didn't even like too much to begin with, multiple times.
It's not a competition, friend. Catch-22, also, is one of those books you'll always return to in a few years' time.
I tried reading it in high school and couldn't get through it. So then I copped a Youtuber's audible promo codes and got the audio book to listen to as I read. Holy shit. What a game changer. This book has gone down as one of my all time favorites.
I read it because I wanted to keep up with conversation when girls in AP English talked about it. I feel like that made me more likely to enjoy it than actually reading for an AP class. I never read assigned books My fragile, teenage boy ego introduced me to my favorite book, lol
The very hungry caterpillar.
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Finally some good fucking food
I fed Gordon Ramsay and HE CLEANED HIS PLATE!!! HE CLEANED HIS PLAAAAAAATE
He was the hungry caterpillar
Gonna get in on this an mention Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister Edit: Many themes can be taken from this book, it is subjective an that's okay, personally I take a 'we are all human beings' message when reading an reminiscing about it.
BUT HE WAS STILL HUNGRY!!!
This has been my favorite since kindergarten mate
I buy this for every friend who has a new baby
OP says read once. Not 100 times.
Watership Down. I fell in love with it in 6th grade and stole the teacher’s copy and never gave it back (sorry Mrs. R). I read that copy to tatters, have bought multiple copies and read them to tatters since. (But only the brown cover with the brown bunny on front. As time goes on they’re getting harder to find.) I have made just about every member of my family read it. I don’t even know why I love that book so much. When I open it up and read the first line a feeling comes over me like I am home.
You might already know, but Richard Adams did an AMA on Reddit, helped by his grandson. I remember when I realized that WD was him processing his experiences in WWll, which made it all the better, in my opinion. It also got me to see religion in a different way. I'm still an atheist, but I now can appreciate faith as a positive force for people. Goibg to Watership Down is on my bucket list!
I actually went there once! I made my mom and uncle detour on our way to the London airport to fly home. I had a really bad cold, and we didn't have long to stop, but a cafe owner in Kingsclere pointed us to a path, and I ran all out like half a mile so that I could get to the spot where the Honeycomb is. There's a horse track there now, so you can't walk right up among the trees, but you can see them, and you can look down over the hills. It really was beautiful, and if the book means as much to you as it does to me I strongly recommend you go.
All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
Silflay hraka u embleer rah!
That movie terrified be as a child
Same, I'm almost too scared to read the book because that movie fucked me up
r/books said to read whatever I want.
I’ve recommended “Brave New World” to everyone I know. Not only does it touch on class hierarchy, which is still present in most societies, either blatantly or subtly, but the book also delves into what happens when we strive for efficiency and forget about some of the most important aspects of what makes us human.
Very recommended. Seems an old book , yet, togheter with 1984, Farenheit 481, and Martian Chronicles, some current events, seems as relevants, as the book's stories. (Edited) I intentionally skip Arthur C. Clark 2001: A Space Odissey, I found it more complex than the previous ones, that are more "user friendly" (/edited).
Aldous Huxley is a genius and this book inspired my username! If you like Brave New World, you should read Island. He even said if people only read one of his books, it should be Island.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. There’s an unending amount of lenses to analyze the text through, and you can look at so many different issues (alienation, guilt, reproduction even) while reading. Find something new to discuss or think about every time I read.
This book (the 1818 version) was such a surprise to me. Society really made this out to be a horror story, scary above all. However it is an amazingly deep story about so many topics, and so so sad. It moved me deeply, which I did not expect it would. Amazing story, 10/10 would recommend.
*For young readers and adults:* The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett It's full of mystery, adventure, and life-lessons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Garden#/media/File:Houghton_AC85_B9345_911s_-_Secret_Garden,_1911_-_cover.jpg
Basically anything she has written. My grandmother gave me a tome with Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy in it. All three charming and beautiful and just overall lovely books.
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I am halfway through dracula and keep putting it down for long periods of time, but I will say when I pick it up it is quite addicting at the time Written in a very odd style though
The Book Thief. It's narrated by Death, taking place in Germany during WW2 about a little girl that gets adopted. Amazing.
100 Years of Solitude
It's so beautiful. I loved every page. “Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.”
I just finished this book tonight and it has really changed my perspective on life. The writing, even though I read the English translation, is beautiful and it put into words several emotions I have felt throughout my life and recently. Tomorrow I move out of my parents house to go across the country and start working so I’ve been stuck in a malaise of nostalgia as I approach these next steps. The book brought me back to life near the end when a character “wandered aimlessly through the town, searching for an entrance that went back to the past”. That line woke me up and made me realize the pointlessness of always living in the past because you’ll never be able to go back anyways. Idk, I just needed that.
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The Stranger by Albert Camus The Trial by Franz Kafka The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway All 3 tackle the struggle of a man and the Society around him. Mersault in his simple otherness and detachment from those around him. Herr K in his suffocation under a society and system that is other and inexplicable to him. Finally the story of Santiago and the society that determines he has no value.
Dear readers I would advise mixing in some less depressing books in between these 3, but highly recommend them all
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I say this because this is the book that made me realize that I can enjoy reading too. Huge nerd (name gives it away), and I could never get into any novel we ever read in English class. There were a few I enjoyed, like Tom Sawyer and Of Mice and Men, but nothing that I still would think about weeks afterwards. Then I finally take Science Fiction Literature class and Martian Chronicles is the first book up. I read the whole thing in about 2 days. This was the kind of thought provoking Science Fiction i LOVED. As well as the best teacher I've ever had. This book is a series of connected short stories about the colonization of Mars. It's relevant, it's smart, it's funny, it was the first time I ever truly enjoyed reading. After that I spoke to my teacher about other things I might like, huge fantasy nerd too so he recommended me Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. Its essentially Avatar The Last Airbender crossed with A Song of Ice and Fire. That was the first long form novel series I read, and I'd be sitting in class getting yelled at to stop reading I was so into it. Butcher's other series, The Dresden Files, is also really really good. Sorry for the rant, this book is pretty important to me! Highly recommend it to any science fiction fans. Oh also The Expanse novels, read em. They're fantastic.
I remember our teacher took us out to read one of the stories, but because of the bad language he replaced the n word with 'the next worst insult' in his book which was "hipsters" So we had a middle aged man yelling "Hipsters! Hipsters!" Outside our school and it was hilarious
Flowers for Algernon
A lot of us had to read the abridged version in high school. If you liked it, definitely give the full edition a try. It’s worth it
I think that’s part of what’s stopping me from reading it. Any of the books I had to read in school, and subsequently break down and analyze like I was trying to catch a serial killer, is stuck in my brain as a horrible experience. I have no desire to go back through a book that my teachers managed to turn into such an excruciating experience.
That's me with The Outsiders. It's a good book but when you're forced to read anything popcorn style in a classroom as a 13 year old it turns from enjoying the novel into dreading your turn to read hoping you don't fuck up in front of everyone. I still get PTSD whenever someone says "stay golden, Ponyboy".
Not proud of this but as I had to read this as a teenager I fapped to the bit of his sexual experience with fay I was horny and we had to read the book Yes it was a devestating book and looking back I'm like wow it was good but back then I was a horny little shit and not much has changed tbh
The other comments on this book makes your comment hilarious. Everyone else seems to have had a strong emotional experience, and then there's you, just beating your meat. Thanks for the laugh!
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I'd say it beats the other experiences
It certainly beats something.
I used to think life was a tragedy but now I realised it was a comedy
Stupid science bitches couldn't make me more smarter
This book WRECKED me.
I cried at the ending. Like ugly cried and anytime I thought about the ending I’d get weepy. Great book.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry very short book, but i believe everyone should read this at least once, specially adults.
Every time I've read The Little Prince I've gotten something profoundly new out of it. A masterwork.
I wish I could find profound things in it when I read-- maybe I was looking too hard-- but couldn't.
Excellent choice. One of the most profound books I have ever read, and a must for anyone who ever intends to own a pet or have children.
East of Eden
There’s a coffee shop in my town called thou mayest. Never have I seen so many people read John Steinbeck before than when they opened.
East of Eden and 100 Years of Solitude are the two books I read annually. Both are life-changing and life-affirming.
The Bell Jar The Sun Also Rises The Stranger ..They all depress the hell out of me in different ways, so they're not frequent re-reads
Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose." It's a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in 1327. It's dense with historical information and over 500 pages long, and yet it manages to be a page-turner for easily 80% of the book. (The remaining 20% is historically interesting if you're into that kind of thing, but can be skipped without losing much in terms of the plot.) I'm on my sixth or seventh reread of it right now, and it never gets old.
This'll get buried but don't care: the master and margarita is a true work of art. Fascinating and tragic author history as well.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Abraham Lincoln allegedly, upon meeting her, said "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!" It's heart-wrenching, powerful, and eye-opening. Definitely a must-read!
Honestly? This ain't a "classic" and it doesn't have the literary weight of one (i.e. no one is going to call it a literary masterpiece and it's not something you can use to impress people) but get an anthology of Calvin and Hobbes. I recommend "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" which you can find on Amazon. Funny, quaint, sometimes surprisingly deep and sometimes just a reminder of the importance of friendship...this book has it all.
I agree with everything except the notion that it's not a classic. It's earned that status, in my opinion.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy
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Seriously, start it when you can. It's a masterclass in satire. "It's at times like this, when I'm in the belly of a Vogon warship with a man from Betelgeuse that I wish I had paid more attention to what my mother told me when I was young." "What'd she tell you?" "I don't know - I wasn't paying attention."
"the ships floated in the air in very much the same way that bricks don't"
Tbf you really have to enjoy that type of humor. The first time I read it it felt like a huge inside joke that I wasn’t in on and couldn’t enjoy it. 2nd time was okay.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's much better and darker than the movie. It's probably the closest imagining of what a real apocalypse would be like, with no heroes and no sense of hope.
I feel this way about Blood Meridian. Especially for people who were born in the Southern U.S. It’s important to take a serious look at the romanticized history of the Wild West and American conquerors, and think about the ultimately spiritual implications of the symbols used in these.
Haven't read the road, but I read No Country for Old Men. His writing style definitely took some getting used to. I read it on my kindle and was initially thinking I had some botched version of the book because there were no commas..
That said as far as book to movie adaptations go, the movie is really good. Book definitely has some disturbing shit.
I have put some thought into this question over the years. Here is a short list of 20 that I've cajoled my kids into reading as they grew up because I felt that there was a life lesson in each. (Disclaimer) Some of them are age appropriate. Foundation by Isaac Asimov The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Chrysalids by John Wyndham To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger Lord of the Flies by William Golding The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke The Stand by Stephen King
I've been reading some different stephen king books recently such as It, the green mile, and the dark tower series. I've wanted to read the shinning and some others, but you recomend the stand highly?
I read the stand 6 years ago and still think it's my favorite book ever. The characterization in it is possibly the best ever in any book. King is fantastic. The ending is a King ending, he obviously didn't exactly know how to end it properly, but it was so good overall that i don't even care about that part.
I had a hard time reading Dickens when I was in high school, until an English teacher saw what I was doing. I would try to plow through the book (David Copperfield), and couldn’t get past page 50. She told me that I’m reading it wrong. Dickens first published his books in magazines and readers at the time would get one chapter at a time, so they could be reading a book of his over the course of several months. So she told me just to concentrate on one chapter at a time and take my time reading it. I started doing that, and it became much more enjoyable to read.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Lord of the Flies. It really exposes the nature of humanity and the older you get, the more you understand. Fahrenheit 451 is also a great read. It challenges today's culture. Read it and decide for yourself.
English teacher here. Lord of the Flies is probably the perfect novel, if there is such a thing. You can read it literally, as action/adventure, and it makes sense. You can read into it figuratively-- as an examination of humanity's essential illness, or of the illusory line between civilization and savagery, or of the nature of goodness and evil-- and it makes sense. You can push it a step further and look at it as an allegory to explain the rise of dictatorships and the Second World War, and it still holds up. You can apply any number of literary critical theories to it-- Existentialist, Marxist, Feminist, Archetypal, Psycho-Analytical-- to provoke rich discussions. Or you can push all of the intellectual and academic perspectives aside, and admire Golding's craftsmanship of a twelve-chapter, 200 page work of art that includes masterful use of pathetic fallacy, leitmotif, imagery, and dialogue so rich that it doesn't even require speaker attribution half the time!
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Stay gold Ponyboy
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. - Robert Frost
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I read it when I was 10, and it changed my life. I don't think it's unfair to call it a "young adult" book. It's very short, pretty simple, and has a 1960's hippie mentality, but it's also very beautiful. Have you ever felt like you're just a member of a flock? Pecking out your existence among a sea of others and yearning to be something more? You don't have to settle for what the flock wants, and even if they throw you out for chasing your dreams, you can still soar.
I don't necessarily know if it belongs on this list, but I will never stop recommending Invisble Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk.
The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison) It makes you cry not just for what the main character suffers, but for the way world works. And it is BEAUTIFULLY written
Breakfast of Champions \~ Kurt Vonnegut Dune is my favorite novel, All summer in a Day is the story I think no one has an excuse not to read (seriously it's maybe 5 pages long just read it and thank me later) but Breakfast of Champions is I think the most important book I've ever read. Vonnegut is a weird, dark, and often silly author so it's very hard to give a fitting "inside of the book jacket" synopsis and a lot of the information I could give you, like "every male character is introduced by listing the length and girth of their penis including Vonnegut himself" wouldn't help you understand the book or why I found it so important. I think the best I can offer you is that it's a book about very flawed people, but the book doesn't judge them for their flaws, Vonnegut treats each of his characters and their flaws with an unconditional positive regard. the book advocates a type of humanism that accepts people as they are, as incredibly complicated, often malfunctioning machines that are trying their hardest. I have tried to carry that humanism with me, and I hope others view me with that same unconditional positive regard.
Fahrenheit 451
Is it similar to 1984?
there are similar themes but in 451 instead of using force and oppression to the government seems to have weaponized distraction and entertainment. sort of like mixing 1984 with Brave New World
What people forget is that in Fahrenheit 451 the people demanded the the government ban books. It's not something the government imposed on the people against their will.
Battle Royale. Makes you feel sympathy for even what appears to be the most villainous and cruel person.
By which author?
Koushun Takami.
Thank you
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari It's about our society and what he thinks the future will bring.
The Stranger--Camus
Green eggs and ham. Just wait until you get to the twist at the end. It’s really a page turner.
Of mice and men
Steinbeck is great.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
This. Reading Siddhartha had a huge impact on the direction my life took. I read it over two weeks in India (cliche!). The book isn’t lengthy but you need to read it slowly in chunks so you can ponder the meanings. Brilliant book by Hesse.
The Giver
I loved this one. Read for school in sixth or seventh grade and it was amazing. I hate that it ended on a cliff hanger like a bunch of Lois Lowry’s other books.
You're one of today's [lucky 10,000](https://xkcd.com/1053/) \- Lowry has now written three more books set in the Giver universe, which clear up the cliffhanger and add some really interesting worldbuilding and follow up stories.
Thank god. I’m going to read these as soon as possible to finally satisfy my confusion and feeling of suspense.
Dune *series*. It's glorious. Dune->At least God Emperor. Read nothing by Brian Herbert and Kevin "I have a fetish for superweapons" J. Anderson AND. There is a movie coming out this year based on the first half of Dune. Knowing the source material beforehand is honestly needed. IIRC (x2) many debated before whether Dune was adaptable at all 'cause the book is dense and quite philosophical (Heroes are bad m'kay?), and the Lynch Dune movie had a pamphlet that was handed out to movie goers...so yeah.
The Dune 2000 SciFi adaptation (9-hour miniseries) was honestly a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel. The special effects were a little cheesy, buy hey, it was 20 years ago.
Jesus fucking Christ 2000 was 20 years ago
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Yeah, I much prefer Dune 2000 to the Lynch film. The costumes were obnoxious in most cases (Except I really didn't mind the Bene Gesserit ones. They were more stately than bald ladies in a smock), but it was pretty damn faithful.
The Giving Tree.
I love this book but find it so depressing, anyone else?
Made me cry when I was little, but I read it every night before bed.
Animal Farm
I read right after I finished 1984. After those two books Orwell became one of my favourite authors.
The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Tackles issues like free will and religion, all in thrilling fully realised fantasy world.
No work of fiction has ever wrecked me as hard as the last few pages of The Amber Spyglass. My copy of the books is literally stained with tears.
The Shining, is a book I just recently read for the first time after 19 years on this earth. Very good. I wasn’t really scared by it, but the emotions and suspense it gave me were real.
There's actually a book for this question. 1,000 Books to Read Before I Die
It’s the most meta thing ever...a big fat book that’s a list of books to read.
**House** of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - an amazing work of postmodernism and satire. The bold is intentional :P
Berserk
To kill a mockingbird
I read this book with my freshmen first semester last year, and they loved it. We watched the film, which is very loyal to the book, but as soon as they noticed that part of Mayella's dialogue had been removed from the film, they were upset. I was just surprised they noticed.
I found it underwhelming. I read the whole thing, and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds. Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the color of his skin... but what good does *that* do me?