Scots Taffer on 28/2/2006 at 03:40
So, there's all sorts of lists if you look for them as to what books you MUST READ if you want to consider yourself well read, yeah and by who's perspective, so rather than submitting to a few intellectual frameworks as to literary greats, I thought I'd open it up to the board to discuss.
I'm hoping to typically eschew the dredge of Catcher in the Rye and Pride and Prejudice replies, hoping for a different flavour... something more idiosyncratic. But anyway, try not to let this devolve into OMG I'LL POST MY FAVE BOOKS HERE NOW LIST ITEM 1 LIST ITEM 2...
I, for example, am not going to list any books because there are none that I can think of that I consider a "must read" book, or a book that was groundbreaking. I've enjoyed many books and thought they've done something interesting and can appreciate the messages and so forth, but I don't know... I guess I'm looking for the really unusual, or something.
doctorfrog on 28/2/2006 at 04:09
* No 'recognized' classics.
* Must imbue the sense of intellectualismness upon reading.
* No front-table-at-the-corporate-bookstore crap.
* No personal favorites.
Inline Image:
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1512/clipboard019ec.jpgI'll forge ahead anyway. I consider these must-reads, and they're fairly well-known:
* Paradise Lost, by John Milton: some of the best use of the English language I've ever read. But it isn't enough to scan it, you have to read between a lot of the lines to really appreciate it, as well as the footnotes. Then read it again (it is a poem, after all, and needs to be appreciated on that level). Also, its influence on western literature is obvious.
* Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: I've never read comic books or graphic novels or whatever, seems like a good way to spend a lot of money on very little paper. I've been told this was one of the most groundbreaking and influential series in comic history. From my view, it is an excellent, compulsive read, as well-crafted as any book or movie, pulling visual and written tricks that I hadn't thought of in the comic book format.
I've got a lot more, but I'll spare you guys the grandiose talk, because this will swiftly turn into the favorites list Scots fears (I've already deleted four other choices, so I'm cutting my losses and sticking with the above two.)
Scots Taffer on 28/2/2006 at 04:14
Okay, so I guess what I'm asking for is rather than simply stating that a book that is amazing and why, more of a discussion of why a particular author has produced some groundbreaking work, or has fantastic literary merit worthy of discussion - and the reason I'm asking for individual contributions is because these "classics" lists are often so general and similar as to miss the point entirely.
Jennie&Tim on 28/2/2006 at 04:18
Oh, I'll play.
I think that some of Pratchett will become classic as time goes by.
I like Jane, so can I vote for Emma because it reduces me to a giggling fool?
Horton Hears a Who and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, plus some other Seuss too, because it is part of the general culture that most people read so you'll miss all sorts of cultural referents if you don't know them.
Gingerbread Man on 28/2/2006 at 04:27
I don't really know what makes you "well-read" other than the dreary usual replies (more than half of which I don't agreee with at all, anyway) but here are some that affected me in various ways over the years as far as my outlook and general mindset goes:
Vonnegut : Cat's Cradle
Solzhenitsyn : Cancer Ward
Virgil : Aeneid
Tom Sharpe : Wilt
Hesse : Magister Ludi
Bourdain : Kitchen Confidential
Scots Taffer on 28/2/2006 at 04:30
Interesting, GBM. I recognise a lot of those names and by chance I picked up a used Wilt novel (one in the series, not the first) a few weeks back. I'm currently working through this pile of second handers and it's next on the list.
I guess I'm also fishing for any really interesting philosophical or ideological books that have a real impact beyond the academic, without wandering into the arena of pretentious wankery and artsy fartsy bollocks.
Vernon on 28/2/2006 at 05:23
I'll just put down three books.
Leonov Tolstoy's 'War & Peace' changed my life profoundly. I don't personally know anyone else who has read it, which is sad, as it is the kind of book you could quite happily talk about for days. It took me more than six months to finish in my spare time (between job and university) and the epilogue took three reads to understand fully, but was well worth it. If you ever get the time, read it. P.S. good reading for anyone interested in pantheism.
Voltaire's 'Candide' - Voltaire was flogged, sent to the Bastille and exiled for his works. This is an hilarious eighteenth-century satire following Candide through some very strange turns of fortune.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 'The House of the Dead' - Based on Dostoyevsky's experiences in a Siberian penal colony, this is one of the first books I read that helped me gain a good understanding of the roots of existentialism. The story itself is extremely disturbing - his encounters with cropped noses, psychopaths, cockroach soup and bollock-shatteringingly cold temperatures are enough to forever make you wake up each day grateful just to be able to go and have a cup of hot tea and a ciggie whenever it takes your fancy. Another piece of essential reading that you won't forget quickly.
I'm currently reading Archimandrite Sophrony's 'The Undistorted Image' after it took me six months to hunt down the right translation (this I'm used to, now that I've worked my way through a good number of the big works of the Russian Masters, paying S&H up my ass), but unless you're interested in Russian Orthodox Sprituality, it might not take your fancy.
But I don't really read much modern literature. :erg: The only stuff I can think of that is really any 'fun' would be Chekhov.
Wyclef on 28/2/2006 at 05:49
Formerly I would have said Philosophical Investigations, but I'm currently working through Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, along with three commentaries. It really rewards careful reading, and I see in Heidegger what I like in Kant and the later Wittgenstein -- and concerning the latter, I prefer Heidegger, for reasons I'm not yet willing to articulate. It's not terribly obscure if you make sure you understand each word of his philosophical vocabulary as he introduces it.
I don't expect Heidegger to sweep the nation, but Plato's Republic should be obligatory reading. I'm continually surprised by the sophistication and clarity of Greek thought. Actually, more so than Republic, I'd recommend the early Socratic dialogues. I particularly admire Socrates, and middle and late Plato are less Socratic and more, well, Platonic. Having read "Euthyphro" should be a prerequisite for INTERNET ARGUMENT.
Starrfall on 28/2/2006 at 06:03
Get yourself one of the Borges collections floating around. There are several. They have to be collections because what he did a lot of was these nuttily tightly packed short stories (sometimes two or three pages short) that manage to draw on a wide array of inspirations yet remain unique.
Plus since they're so short it trying to figure out what the hell is going on isn't nearly as hopeless as it is when you're trying to battle through some classic thousand page tome of doom.
And Wyclef's got a good mention in Plato/Socrates.
Vernon on 28/2/2006 at 06:14
Great suggestion, Starrfall - Borges seems like it might just be what Scots is looking for. I know Borges' 'Doctor Brodie's Report' was a good collection, and includes 'The Gospel According to Mark.'
ps We all know what Nietszche said about Plato, don't we?
