Recommend 5 books

[nietzsche]

Ok. Which one do I read first, Siddharta or Demian?

The Glass Bead Game, you might like, haven't read Demian, but Siddartha isn't the best intro to his stuff.

I haven't read The Glass Bead Game, but I agree with Symmetry on Siddhartha. Demian is a little faster paced, though both are pretty short and can be read quickly.

If Demian were made into a film, Wes Anderson would direct it. So, if you like Wes Anderson films, but wish they were a little darker, you would like Demian.

Uh Oh.

Some movies by Wes Anderson are good, some are awful.

[Symmetry]

Ok. Which one do I read first, Siddharta or Demian?

The Glass Bead Game, you might like, haven't read Demian, but Siddartha isn't the best intro to his stuff.

I haven't read The Glass Bead Game, but I agree with Symmetry on Siddhartha. Demian is a little faster paced, though both are pretty short and can be read quickly.

If Demian were made into a film, Wes Anderson would direct it. So, if you like Wes Anderson films, but wish they were a little darker, you would like Demian.

Uh Oh.

Some movies by Wes Anderson are good, some are awful.

The words of a true sage.

[Neoteny]

Catch-22!

I dunno if I want to come up with four more. I <3 all the books. So I'm just going to pick ones off my bookshelf that I think make me look smart.

f*ck Heinlein (not really): Asimov's Foundation
Sagan's Demon-Haunted World
Preston's The Demon in the Freezer
Watterson's Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink'

[maxfaraday]

"Les Fleurs du Mal" ("The Flowers of Evil") - Baudelaire.

Also I agree with everyone who suggested Asimov, haven't read Foundation (yet), but his short stories are beautiful.

[Gillipig]

The Swarm - Frank Schätzing
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Candide - Voltaire
Free Will - Sam Harris
On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin

Good reads for those who are interested in biology, religion and free will.

"Candide" and "Free Will" can be read in a few hours. It's the type of book you read again and again because with each reading you notice something new.
"The Swarm" is a massive book, close to nine hundred pages, yet I have read it from start to finish three times. Something as odd as an Eco Thriller has to be read to be understood! The book ignores the common rule of having only a few main characters. This book is stuffed with main characters and they're all being explored deeply. Thereof the immense number of pages. If you also have an interest in biology, this book is a must read!
"On the Origin of Species" and "The God Delusion" deals with evolution. Darwin's book laid the foundation for everything written on the subject. Dawkins takes Darwin's theory and showcase more clearly the implications it has on religion. More than anything his book displays the futility of religios belief. If you think a certain religion is true or that it's useful, he has a few words to say about that .

[thegreekdog]

So...

Without too much thought, I'd say

Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy
TH White's The Once and Future King
Colin Wilson's Origins of the Sexual Impulse
Larry Gonicks's Cartoon History of the Universe
Alton Brown's Good Eats

I could be persuaded to change my mind about which Heinlein (maybe The Moon is a Harsh Mistress instead), which Colin Wilson (maybe An Introduction to Phenomenological Existentialism instead), and which Gonick (maybe Cartoon History of the New World instead), and for a food book I might go with Pat Chapman's Vegetarian Curry bible instead, in a different mood.

I also enjoyed The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Never read Citizen of the Galaxy. I have now added another book to my growing list.

[jonesthecurl]

It was one of his juveniles, but does his thing of exploring how people live together, what the rules should be, and what constitutes right and wrong, delightfully while serving up a bloody good story.

[AndyDufresne]

Catch-22 is a good book but I feel like it isn't as...macroscopic...I guess as the other books I mentioned.

That's a pretty good way of looking at it- it focuses on the small absurdities. My favourite joke in the book is when Yossarian describes one of his dreams to a doctor and another patient (Orr?) confirms it to be true.

How did he know? He was in the dream too.

Catch 22 is all about the little things. Nothing macroscopic.

I think the absurdity of war and human emotion in conflict is pretty macroscopic.


--Andy

[Symmetry]

Catch-22 is a good book but I feel like it isn't as...macroscopic...I guess as the other books I mentioned.

That's a pretty good way of looking at it- it focuses on the small absurdities. My favourite joke in the book is when Yossarian describes one of his dreams to a doctor and another patient (Orr?) confirms it to be true.

How did he know? He was in the dream too.

Catch 22 is all about the little things. Nothing macroscopic.

I think the absurdity of war and human emotion in conflict is pretty macroscopic.


--Andy

With Catch 22 though? I don't think it's a macroscopic book. I love it- indeed I'd put it well up there as a contender for the Great American Novel competition, but I wouldn't say it's macroscopic.

Its strengths are in the small tragedies for me. When it goes big it pushes into comedy, and yeah, absurdity, and doesn't always work. It gets too general (no pun intended).

[Army of GOD]

Catch-22 is a good book but I feel like it isn't as...macroscopic...I guess as the other books I mentioned.

That's a pretty good way of looking at it- it focuses on the small absurdities. My favourite joke in the book is when Yossarian describes one of his dreams to a doctor and another patient (Orr?) confirms it to be true.

How did he know? He was in the dream too.

Catch 22 is all about the little things. Nothing macroscopic.

I think the absurdity of war and human emotion in conflict is pretty macroscopic.


--Andy

With Catch 22 though? I don't think it's a macroscopic book. I love it- indeed I'd put it well up there as a contender for the Great American Novel competition, but I wouldn't say it's macroscopic.

Its strengths are in the small tragedies for me. When it goes big it pushes into comedy, and yeah, absurdity, and doesn't always work. It gets too general (no pun intended).

General General General

[Symmetry]

Catch-22 is a good book but I feel like it isn't as...macroscopic...I guess as the other books I mentioned.

That's a pretty good way of looking at it- it focuses on the small absurdities. My favourite joke in the book is when Yossarian describes one of his dreams to a doctor and another patient (Orr?) confirms it to be true.

How did he know? He was in the dream too.

Catch 22 is all about the little things. Nothing macroscopic.

I think the absurdity of war and human emotion in conflict is pretty macroscopic.


--Andy

With Catch 22 though? I don't think it's a macroscopic book. I love it- indeed I'd put it well up there as a contender for the Great American Novel competition, but I wouldn't say it's macroscopic.

Its strengths are in the small tragedies for me. When it goes big it pushes into comedy, and yeah, absurdity, and doesn't always work. It gets too general (no pun intended).

General General General

I give you three stars.

[muy_thaiguy]

I'm a more of a book series kind of guy, so here's a few.

1. Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan (posthumously) and Brandon Sanderson (last book coming out in January I believe).
2. Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik (Napoleonic wars, but with sentient dragons).
3. Vampire Earth Series by E. E. Knight (post apoclyptic horror series).
4. The Halfblood Chronicles by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey (evil elves, shape-shifting dragons, and magic humans).
5. Griffen McCandle's Seres by Robert Aspirin (New Orleans setting with dragons and a light humor-esque flare)

[koontz1973]

Books, love my horror.
Richard Laymon - Beast house trilogy.
Dean Koontz - Anything by him is fine by me.
Susan Hill - The woman in black is OK but I'm the king of the castle is superb.
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird

Well, only 4 authors but more than the five.

[Commander62890]

The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger (have reread it several times since high school, and it gets better every time)
Foundation Series - Asimov (favorite Sci-Fi, just above Stranger and Brave New World[/u])
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 - Judt (favorite history)
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City - Nick Flynn (favorite recently-read book... memoir about absent, alcoholic, homeless father)
Unfortunately, I haven't yet delved into the classics in psych and philosophy, so my recommendations there would be rather lacking...
I recently enjoyed Finding Flow (Csikszentmihalyi) and The Happiness Hypothesis (Haidt).

[Symmetry]

Midnight's Children- Salman Rushdie
Dubliners- James Joyce
Men Without Women- Ernest Hemingway
Labyrinths- Jorge Luis Borges
Oranges are not the only fruit- Jeanette Winterson

[Frito Bandito]

In Cold Blood.. Truman Capote
really made me think about the criminal mind

To Kill a Mockingbird... Harper Lee
fantastic

The Envoy.... Alex Kershaw
regarding Raoul Wallenberg


The Martian Chronicles... Ray Bradbury

Lonesome Dove .... Larry McMurtry
even better in print than as a mini-series

[PLAYER57832]

Hard to pick just 5.

For pure pleasure:
Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Ann Mcaffrey's Dragon Riders of Pern

Mercedes Lackey, Heralds of Valdemeer. (Arow's flight, etc.)

The Rats of Nimh (the ORIGINAL book, not the movie!!!)

Thinking about #5.

Fun and "purpose"
Breaking Stalin's Nose By Eugene Yelchin
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Stalins- ... 0805092161

Oliver Twist (again, the original book, not the movies!)

Purpose/edification, though also enjoyable.

7 Habits of HIghly Effective People by Stephen Covey (yep, I know the irony is dripping there...)

The Bible, or at least Genesis, Exodus,Proverbs, the Psalms and the Gospels (for historical/cultural context)

Sand County Almanac

[DoomYoshi]

Ok saxi. You gave me an impossible task. I will reply with the most answer I can give.

There is currently a surge in Hipsters reading interwar novels in German. If you read them in the original language, you are twice as hip. If you read them in a non-English translation from German, you are twice as hip.

So, in no particular order:
HipsterYoshi's List of Top 5 Interwar German Books To Read:

1. Verwirrung der Gefühle bis Stefan Zwieg (1927)
2. Jean-Christophe de Romain Rolland (1912)*
3. Jud Süß bis Lion Feuchtwanger (1925)
4. Mephisto bis Klaus Mann (1936)
5. Radetzkymarsch bis Joseph Roth (1932)

*Yes, it's neither German nor interwar, but it was part of a Nobel Prize in Literature along with Au-dessus de la mêlée (1914), a neat little pamphlet.

[Phatscotty]

This book rocks

[DoomYoshi]

For some reason I thought saxitoxin started this thread...

[puppydog85]

1. The Bible

2. City of God
Augustine

3. Lex Rex
Rutherford

4. The Lord of the Rings
Tolkien

5. Anything by P. G. Wodehouse

[thegreekdog]

I just read Under the Dome by Stephen King. Good book, but a little long for what it was.

[whitestazn88]

Just read The Five People You Meet in Heaven today, and it really reaffirmed my faith in the good lord. I recommend it to anyone, especially those who feel like they haven't "figured it out" yet.

Aside from that, I like a lot of things. To pick 5 would be difficult, but I'll give it a shot.

1. The Holy Bible, New American
2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Aside from the Bible and the Harry Potter series (aka the Wizard Bible), this is probably the only book I've read more than once, and I love it. It's kind of hard to describe, kinda cult Americana meets religious mysticism? Seriously, my favorite book ever.
3. Harry Potter series. Hard to describe why I enjoy them, but they're easily accessible and quick to read, which I really enjoy because sometimes instead of a movie or a song I like to just zone out and power through a book.
4. Anything by Albert Camus. So far, I've read The Stranger, The Plague and The Fall. All are excellent reads, I love existential philosophy, and I enjoy getting my philosophy spoon-fed to me in the form of fiction rather than reading through boring essays, which is why I particularly like Camus' works.
5. Confederacy of Dunces by Toole. Catch-22 by Heller. Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut. I think these three books are all really great reads, and to pick one over another would be a difficult task. They are easy to get into, funny, and explore the idiocy of humanity in various ways.

[DoomYoshi]

Five books that people should read (but probably won't):

Analytical Theory of Heat by Joseph Fourier
On Conic Section by Appolonius
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Tom Jones by Harry Fielding
Principles of Biochemistry by Lehninger

[jonesthecurl]

I read the Fielding, and several others of his.
I once appeared in a musical based on his work too.