Some good books to read (I wants to be smarted)
polycounter lvl 18
Hey all, I'm just looking for some suggestions on some good books to pick up, the last book I read was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy which was a pretty nice read, but now I hunger for more knowledge then anything else really.
I'm personally interested in the unknown or the human sub-conscience, anything that dives deep into self discovery is something that I really want to pick up on. I've been tired of reading about fictional stories, and I'm having troubles finding a book that talks about what I'm looking for... I mean I really don't know where to start.
It would be interesting to read both analytical and exploratory pieces, both I enjoy very much, maybe finding too books with the same topic, but from different points of view could help balance me out a bit.
I'm also debating on actually reading the bible... I'm not "religious", but I've been interested in reading it for quite sometime now, learning and forming some new opinions is what I enjoy most
So if any of you guys or girls out there have suggestions, please feel free and post.
It doesn't have to be a book either, it could be blogs for all I care, just something that revolves around discovery / opinions of the unknown (focusing on humans and the universe).
This should be fun :P
I'm personally interested in the unknown or the human sub-conscience, anything that dives deep into self discovery is something that I really want to pick up on. I've been tired of reading about fictional stories, and I'm having troubles finding a book that talks about what I'm looking for... I mean I really don't know where to start.
It would be interesting to read both analytical and exploratory pieces, both I enjoy very much, maybe finding too books with the same topic, but from different points of view could help balance me out a bit.
I'm also debating on actually reading the bible... I'm not "religious", but I've been interested in reading it for quite sometime now, learning and forming some new opinions is what I enjoy most
So if any of you guys or girls out there have suggestions, please feel free and post.
It doesn't have to be a book either, it could be blogs for all I care, just something that revolves around discovery / opinions of the unknown (focusing on humans and the universe).
This should be fun :P
Replies
To Kill a Mockingbird
Starship Troopers < never judge a book by it's film.
Mr Pip
The Cone Gatherers
Heart of Darkness
The Great Gatsy
Maus
Stranger in a Strange Land
Fahrenheit 451
Sirens Of Titan
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
I know I will think of more later..
...and I did.
Food of the Gods - Terence McKenna
There are plenty of audio files floating around as well. He is the most succinct, coherent spokesman I've ever heard, he doesn't bullshit.
Bookswise - this one might appeal to you more as it is more rounded (as rounded as mckenna & co. can get):
Terence Mckenna - The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination and Spirit - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Mind-Conversations-Science-Imagination/dp/0974935972/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222222688&sr=1-4[/ame]
Here is the Bible being ready by Alexander Scourby (online listening)
http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/bible.html
And you can pretty much always find a Bible at Wal-Mart or another store for $5 or so or sometimes even less. I like the KJV best, it was translated in 1605-1611 or there about, and printed by Oxford and Cambridge (these were the only authorized printers at the time for it, hence the term "authorized version).
http://bibledatabase.net/html/kjv/john_1.html
God i love you bear. Every time you post you make me pee my pants out of joy. Just a little tinkle.
Black Swan - Nassim Taleb (about predictions)
Anything by Buckminster Fuller, Alfred Korzybski, Timothy Leary, Allister Crowley, Michael Persinger.
I've got more somewhere in my book of things to research. Just gotta find them amongst the scrawl.
I think I actually may tackle the bible first, but i'll make sure to visit the book stores soon, should be a good year for reading.
Thanks again.
Terence Mckenna
Philip K. Dick
Allister Crowley (would have never thought that anybody on here would be into this guy!)
I will also add anything by William Burroughs, Phil Hale, Austin Osman Spare and Grant Morrison.
Knowledge eh? Well, here's a little tidbit: 'then' deals with time, 'than' deals with preference, in this case. So a step by step would use 'then', but here you would want to say 'than anything else'.
I'm being a wiseguy, ofcourse, but I must say that I was genuinely thankful when someone told me.
Reading the bible isn't a bad idea. I've read it, and the part of me that enjoys mythology quite enjoyed it. That's really all it is, a collection of myths and stories meant to portray a moral, somehow.
A lot of good suggestions in this thread so far. I think I'm going to have to take the lists that include some of my favourites, and read all of the other ones that I haven't yet read. Kub's list is looking great, I must say. I haven't read Food of the Gods yet, so thanks for the suggestion, kub!
I'll second the Brave New World suggestion, I've read that book over and over, and I still love it. There are a few books that I would consider similar in theme or 'feeling' that I really like as well (some of these were mentioned on other lists, but take that as a '+1', I suppose):
-Do Androids Dream About Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick. (the basis for the film Bladerunner). In fact, any Philip K Dick book is worth a read, even the more disjointed ones.
-1984 by George Orwell, who also wrote Animal Farm, which I would also suggest.
-Neuromancer by William Gibson
-Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
-Watership Down by Richard Adams
Other suggestions would be:
-Nobody's Boy by Hector Marlot. You may find it under 'Sans Famille', its original title, I'm not sure. I got the english title off wikipedia. A quite sappy book, but one of my favourite from my childhood. It's actually quite heavy reading for a child though, since it's at moments through-and-through gloomy.
-Alice in Wonderland and Through the Lookingglass by Lewis Carrol. Not entirely highbrow, you'd think, but then none of the books listed so far are. Nevertheless, it's a brilliant novel.
-Keeping theme with your mention of the bible (and therefore mythology), check out EVERYTHING by Neil Gaimain. American Gods might be a good one to start with.
-The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (whose name I had to google). There's apparantly a film, but I've never seen it. If anyone has, is it worth it? Anyway, the book's great. Nothing like I would've expected it to be, from having heard so many highbrow, monocle-wearing intellectuals recommend it, heh.
There are more I'm forgetting, but these are all highly recommended, so go for them! Let me know what you think.
Sectaurs, is Ishmael related to Moby Dick? If so, I'll have to check that out.
I've always wanted to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugs, ever since finding out about it (which was incidentally while playing Bioshock, heh), but its length is quite frightening.
p.s. MightyPea smells like anus
General author recommendations:
Jack Kerouac
Allen Ginsberg (my #1 author of all time)
Lawerence Ferlinghetti (met him at City Lights in San Fran about 3 or 4 years ago...a high point of my life.
Don't worry, I will think of more... ;D
anything by Ray Kurzweil. The Selfish Gene by Dawkins. Any of the 'Connections' books by James Burke....those connections books are like 'Choose your own adventures'....only with information, invention and history!
"Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology, psychology, and social psychology. Gladwell's first work, The Tipping Point, discusses the potentially massive implications of small-scale social events, while his second book, Blink, explains how the human subconscious interprets events or cues and how past experiences allow people to make informed decisions very rapidly."
They're fairly easy but intelligent reads. So it's a good starting point. If they sound interesting to you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon
Fiction, noir, cyberpunk and badass.
I second that! great book by Margaret Atwood
"The Tao of Pooh" is a fun read if your lookin for something different.
Amazing book, hard to read at times but greatly written.
and I second The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
-God and other minds by Alvin Plantinga. You'll learn much about the classical proofs for god and natural atheology (problem of evil and that stuff). It's a piece of analytic philosophy, you'll hardly find anything better in this area. It's in some areas hard to read, but it's worth to fight through them.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/God-Other-Minds-Justification-Paperbacks/dp/0801497353/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222327434&sr=8-1[/ame]
-Universes by John Leslie. A discussion about the anthropic principle. Why is there a universe, that supports life? If there are many universes, why is it exactly our universe? Also a classic piece, easier to read.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Universes-John-Leslie/dp/0415139554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222328157&sr=1-1[/ame]
-Is there a god? By Richard Swinburne. A short version of his famous book "The existence of god". Easy to read and a great introduction into Richard Swinburnes philosphy of religion.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/There-God-Richard-Swinburne/dp/0198235453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222327768&sr=8-1[/ame]
-Mind, an introduction by John Searle. It's certainly not the best introduction into the questions about our own mind, but I have never read a more entertaining one. If you've read this, you're ready to read most about the greatest question of all: what is our mind and consciousness?
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Brief-Introduction-Fundamentals-Philosophy/dp/0195157346/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222327907&sr=1-1[/ame]
-And I second Master_v12s "Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene. It's a breathtaking journey into modern physics and especially into string theories.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Universe-Superstrings-Dimensions-Ultimate/dp/0393058581/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222328337&sr=1-1[/ame]
-The Selfish Gene by Dawkins. A really fun introduction into modern theory of evolution. I'd also read an philosophical interpretation of the theory of evolution, for example the one by John Polkinghorne ([ame]http://www.amazon.com/Science-Creation-Understanding-John-Polkinghorne/dp/1599471000/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222328348&sr=1-7[/ame]). Dawkins is a good scientist, but he's utterly lost in philosophy.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary-Introduction/dp/0199291152/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222328489&sr=1-1[/ame]