Any one of them.
Please.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.
Few other sci-fi books do as good a job of depicting how a gift/library economy could work like in practice. It’s quite a hopeful vision of where we can collectively go in the future.
It also shows a realistic version of utopian hope. An eternal struggle for better
That reminds me that I really need to put more le guin into my book pile
The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
All of Discworld.
All of Discworld.
That’d be a pretty big book…
I’m working on that currently. I think I’m on book 6, so only about 40 more to go lol
It goes by too fast
What order are u reading them in? I just started with color of magic and am on light fantastic now!
It’s sooooooo worth it
Now I want it in a single volume (electronic)
I don’t know exactly how much of my warped view on reality is directly attributable to reading the Guide at a young age. I hope most of it.
As a math teacher, I really wish the kids would realize that 42 is the number to beat all numbers
Me too.
Likewise. I think it made us better people
After reading it in my early teens, I didn’t know anyone who might enjoy it. So I took the book and wrote a note that said “This book is not just a book you find, it also finds you.” and I put it in someones mailbox. I sometimes wonder if that person whoever it was liked it or even read it.
I was trying to narrow it down to 1 discworld book. Ive got it down to Small Gods, Jingo or Thud!.
I also got confused whether a full stop goes after the ! Or not.
Small gods is for sure one of my favorites!
If there’s an exclamation mark (!) there’s generally no period (.).
Even in this case, where the ! is part of the title?
It was 50/50 and looks like i picked unwisely
You can think of an exclamation mark like a period that’s had a line drawn above it; it takes the place of a period, rather than having both side by side.
The exclamation mark is part of the title. I would say the hard stop goes at the end of the sentence otherwise the exclamation mark could be construed as part of the sentence and not part of the title.
I’ve read the series (well only the Douglas authored books). I have a copy of The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which I have not read. Does it make a difference?
Much like the TV minseries, book, movie, radio play and audiobooks - all incarnations of The Guide are accurate and complete, especially the parts that contradict… It just depends on which multiverse you have existen been fromme. (Universal relativism weirds language.)
At least that’s what I believe.
The Guide from Mostly Harmless agrees with you.
See? Its even more internally consistent than the Bible.
I only wish we had gotten The Salmon of Doubt.
While the Guide is important, I actually think Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul might both be more important. I’m actually often saddened they didn’t get as much love as Hitchhiker’s Guide.
To me it’s a bit like the Bible. You’ve got the big few books and then so many supporting documents explaining the mindset behind the revelation.
The Douglas-authored books would be…all of the Hitchhikers’ Guide books. Which is what the Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide is.
I think it may not make a difference, no.
There is a sixth book that Jane Belson, Adam’s widow supported, called And Another Thing… written by Eoin Colfer.
You missed 0art of the assignment
1984
Was going to say this, many people cite it but never read. It is readable well, do it.
Also, I think Fahrenheit 451 translates far better to our situation, as I see media and social media in there long before it was even thinkable.
1984/farenheit 451/Brave New World are the adolescent trilogy for me that anyone who wants to understand the nature of people and mechanics of power would do well to read.
I’d add Animal Farm to that as well.
It’s good to add the other two too but I never could read brave new world, I struggled page by page and gave up. Can not name a specific reason other than I could not get into it.
From a story perspective it should be perfect for me.
Aldos Huxley is not a great writer. I think he had a better understanding of humanity than Orwell… Or at least, I feel like his books are more insightful, but he is not as good of a writer.
One of the few times reading a translated book is better tgan the original, I read it in Spanish and I guess the translator made it more tolerable because I’m not much of a reader at all (I’ve read at most five books on my own, less if we don’t count unfinished)
Thanks, confirmed.
As they say, Orwell didn’t stop it from happening, he just postponed it by 30-40 years.
1984, so that people mentioning it online will stop sounding like complete fucking idiots.
Or perhaps The Jungle; it sparked public outcry and major overhauls the last time it became popular, maybe it can work its magic again.
1984 was about the government being able to read your mind so they can give you a rat, right?
No, that was the diary of Ann Frank actually.
deleted by creator
No,I think that’s Helter Skelter (?)
wasnt that He-man’s nemisis?
He-man’s nemesis is She-man, everybody knows that.
I was going to say this.
1984, A Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451.
Add Animal Farm to that list.
A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn.
There is so, so much that Americans don’t know that they don’t know.
Reading that right now. Definitely changing my perspective that America was once a good place.
Follow it up with Settlers, a history of settler-colonialism and the slave trade in the US. No matter how much you think you know about the history of indigenous genocide and chattel slavery in the US, reality is likely far worse than you think.
I’m curious; Would you mind to give some highlights?
Got some random highlights? I’m curious how many I’ve seen mentioned on Lemmy.
The first that I usually mention is the Coal Wars / Battle of Blair Mountain or the Sand Creek Massacre, but there are many events that American students are made to be ignorant if on purpose.
It also got me to learn that after meeting the natives for the first time, Columbus literally wrote in his diary about how easy it would be to steal from them because they were so peaceful.
Cool, I knew about those! The ones that threw me for a loop were Seneca Village (Black community bulldozed for Central Park) and the bombing by police in Philly in 1983.
Oh yeah. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve heard of those two as well, but even so, there’s a lot written about in the book that I never learned, even through the earning of my bachelors degree, which is why I’m always quick to recommend that people read it.
Hah. I’d be happy to hear that everyone read at least one book in their lifetime.
Which is ridiculous. I’ve read one book since the weekend.
It should be made clear though that there are book and there are Books. I feel like this question is about the latter and those are not the ones you had to read in as part of your middle/high school curriculum. Also the one that I read probably doesn’t qualify as a capital B book.
The Maxims of Ptahhotep. First book we know of & filled with practical advice.
The section dealing with domestic demons by applying crocodile urine to your underwear is worth living by.
What number maxim is that?
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. For me, I think Russian literature is a must-read.
Don Quixote
It’s old but very readable and surprisingly funny. Even gets quite meta at points!
Goes off on some tangents at points (including some nested stories), but even these I found quite fun.
I haven’t read it but i love this take by late great Michael Sugrue https://youtu.be/zQtP3ZHRA3Q
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Just the intermissions would get everyone’s blood boiling.
One of my favorite books and unfortunately lots of the story still is relevant today.
A pixie book or equivalent. Pixie books are short children’s books (maybe 12 DinA6 pages with very little text and lots of pictures). They are dirt cheap and there is a big bowl full of them in many books stores in Germany. They are meant to get kids into reading and that’s why I ‘nominated’ them here xD
Dune.
The book of the universe of books
I read all of those by Frank, and none of the others
Excluding religious text~
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Any book written by Cormac McCarthy
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Short stories by Kurt Vonnegut
Do Androinds Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Definitely lots more
I like where this list is going, having read all those. I’m curious what else you would add to it!
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (was my favorite book for years)
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Stand by Stephen King
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
The Chamber by John Grissom
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
Armor by John Steakley
Off the top of my head but I’m sure lots more would qualify if I looked at my library.
This is great! 'The History of the World in Six Glasses" and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” look especially intriguing.
I’ve read Victor Frankel and Nietzsche before, otherwise they would be intriguing as well.
I’m currently reading Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and it may be a while before I finish it. But, when I do, I thank you for the next in queue.
Instead of Sapiens I’d suggest The Dawn of Everything.
I was about to type ‘I’ve been meaning to read that’ for the Stephen King book, but I have now and it’s fine. I wouldn’t call it a must read. As a time travel story it’s in the top three
Any book written by Cormac McCarthy
I tried to listen to the audio book of Blood Meridian and it was awful. I couldn’t stomach it.
I haven’t tried to audio book his stuff. The style of writing seems like it wouldn’t translate well. I think Blood Meridian is my second favorite book he wrote.
I have BM audiobook downloaded on my phone. I haven’t read many books but this one is probably top 3 for me.
It wasn’t the style that bothered me. It was the horrible acts committed by the main characters. Just non-stop brutality.
Oh, I mean yeah they are bad people and based off real people that existed. The Judge is also literally an allegory for the devil/pure evil. Its a good book about bad people. The Road might be more your speed. Still plenty of evil characters but at least your protagonists are good. The boy in that story is basically the antithesis of the judge and is representative of purity in the face of evil. Still has some particularly rough parts. I get what you’re saying though. I tapped out of American Psycho for like 3 years after one particularly rough section, only finished it recently. Different author but the only book I’ve had to put down.
A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
