Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too. <3
in no particular order:
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Swallows and Amazons
- How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People
- The Wizard of Earthsea
in no particular order
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Not sure if intentional but made me chuckle.
It’s worth a read.
I think it’s often frowned upon for being somewhat of a naive juvenile pocket philosophical rambling, or the dairy of a madman, but I’d say that it introduces some valid points about the concept of quality that you can then think about yourself.
It’s definitely on my top 10 list of books. Not because it’s great, but because I can often relate to it in miscellaneous situations even 30 years after reading it.
Same here, top 10 but lower half. I used to re-read it every 4 or 5 years, but I reached an apex point where it held up less and less well, and even abandoned the last read.
That might also be a result of having kids and realising that, while he went through something horrifying in the end, his behaviour before that was rather obnoxious. That said, he could have chosen not to have painted himself in that light, I just never figured out whether he realised it himself or was oblivious / felt it was justified.
Still, some magnificent prose pieces about quality and perception that are highly quotable, and broadly useful as tools to interact with the world around you.
Lila I never quite got to grips with, but my old man said I should try it “when you’re older, much older”
I feel the same way about Charles Bukowski. I can read, understand and appreciate the books without liking the guy. He also paints himself in a negative picture, but the thoughts are still worth considering or just knowing of. Whether or not it’s intended, I think it’s okay for litterature to provoke the reader to think that the author is wrong or plain crazy, because at least it makes me think about stuff instead of just entertaining my existing views.
I did read Lila 25 yeas ago, but I hardly remember it. It’s been a long time since I last read any books at all. Perhaps I ought to give it a second chance.
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. The first book I read was “Guards, Guards” and it’s still one of my favourites. I own the series and every few years I read through it again.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guinn
Survivor by Chuck “Fight Club” Palahniuk.
After Fight Club I went on a spree of reading this guys work. Survivor was the last of his written before the Fight Club movie made it big. It was also released a couple of years before 9/11 which killed its chance of being made into a movie.
I think it highlights how being passive in the world isn’t enough to avoid doing bad things. You have to make your own choices to avoid a bad result. Interesting story structure and has some dark comedic moments too.
Welp, I know what I’m reading next. Thanks!
Such a good book, I too went on a tear through his work after Fight Club and I think this and Choke are fighting for my top spot.
It’s more of a short story in a book filled with time traveling short stories.
I’m trying to find what it’s called, but I still have the book. After reading it, I had a brief period of time where I was questioning my own freewill and choices.
Basically it starts with a time machine being in a warehouse and scientists all around. The person inside is doing everything backwards and they are attempting to communicate with paper, often getting answers before there is a question. It’s a good read and I won’t spoil the end.
Time enough for love - Heinlein
Nor crystal tears - Foster
A world out of time - Niven
Ringworld - Niven
Sassinak - McCaffrey
The Martian - Weir
Time Enough for Love was my favourite book as a young man. Tried re-reading it recently and really struggled. I feel like the last 20 years of social progress has really dated Heinlein’s language especially (less so his ideas). Was a shame.
Agreed. Several of his books have suffered the same fate unfortunately.
That said, the ideas do still ring very true… Albeit, many of them are the ideas I wish were more fantasy.
Flowers for Algernon
Blackshirts and Reds - Parenti
She’s Come Undone and The Hour I First Believed both by Wally Lamb have made a immersion on me. They are both wonderful and hesrtwreathing novels. Also The Long Walk by Stephen King is frightening book that makes me wonder, what would happen if we allowed that in American.
Two books that made me cry at the end and helped me shape my idea of war and what really is for the common men are “Il sergente nella neve” (the sargent in the snow) by Mario Rigoni Stern, which is about the retreat of the Armir (italian army in Russia) after the second Don offensive by the Red Army from the point of view of Stern, as they started the endless march back to Italy on foot, with the Red Army biting their asses. Almost 80.000 between dead and missing. Amazing piece of literature and yet another reason to despise fascism; and All quiet on the western front, which doesnt need many explanations.
Absolute chills everytime i think about those books and the images of tragedy and hopelessness they shaped so vividly in my mind.
Whale Done by Ken Blanchard
Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky.
Harrison Bergeron is my favorite piece of US literature. Incredible short story
Another great short story that I never see mentioned is “Teddy” By J.D. Salinger.
There is also a Dave Eggars short story that always stuck with me from his one collection called, “After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned.”
Also, almost forgot, “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce is also fantastic.
Top three short stories imo.
Edit: Yikes… without spoiling anything, I just realized that there is a (kind of dark) theme connecting all of those. Should I be worried?
So much impact for so short a story. Great pick!
The description of Harrison dancing with the ballerina in the studio is forever burned in my brain. Textbook case of words being “evocative.” I can see every second of that scene play out in my mind. It’s passion, it’s beauty and form, it’s the human spirit.
Ender’s Game is the first book that I ever read and then immediately re-read. And told people about how awesome it was. My librarian in middle school actually bought the book for me at a book fair. She saw that I was reading fantasy books to “fit in” but noticed that I seemed way more interested in Sci-Fi.
And Fight Club.
I read Ender’s Game more or less in one sitting. What a page turner.
Same, honestly. I think it was from the moment I got it in the afternoon at school all the way til past bed time.
I know Orson Scott Card is persona non grata these days, but his sci-fi is still some of the best for my money. His short story collections, the Maps in a Mirror series, are great stuff and would be a goldmine for screenplay writers.
As a kid I read Paulo Coelho’s ‘Veronika decides to die’ and it kinda reframed some of my thinking. From what I recall, it’s a very wholesome and light read!
Learning Perl, 2nd edition
There’s therapy for that.
