Books that shake the world

[mal4mac]

Schopenhauer has been the most shattering/enlightening/disgusting read for me. Try "Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life" for starters

Others:

American Psycho
Blood Meridian
Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky
Barnaby Rudge - perhaps surprisingly, but this is Dickens at his most extreme... example (slight spoiler): one anti-hero ties his employer to a chair and destroys his home and workplace around him, shattering his mind; then he sets fire to the mansion house of the local squire while dragging two young ladies off to a world of sex slavery... (What the Dickens!)

"Life is not really given to us to be enjoyed, but to be overcome, to be got over." - Schopenhauer.

[_Paul]

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. That is the book that brought me crashing down from the clouds into the cruel world of reality with an almighty bang. It has however improved my quality of life as I with a fresh insight I managed to turn a somewhat destitute life around.

[ChicagoReader]

I agree with Blood Meridian, probably the most violent book I have ever read.

[Stonebolt]

The Game by Neil Strauss. This book is a true story. If you don't believe me, pick it up yourself and do a quick google search of some of the main characters. It contains themes of desperation, deception, insanity and misogyny. By the end of the book, you will believe in Karma, I can promise you that.

[Propter W.]

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn might not be putrid enough for your tastes, but it's very interesting all the same.

Read about the human brain and consciousness.

[mortalterror]

Tropic of Cancer- Henry Miller
120 Days of Sodom- Marquis de Said
The Farce of Sodom: or The Quintessence of Debauchery- John Wilmot
Naked Lunch- William Burroughs
Delta of Venus- Anais Nin
American Psycho-Bret Easton Ellis
The Turner Diaries- William Luther Pierce

[Caliban's Isle]

Pride and Prejudice

[Delta40]

Disgrace by Jim Coetzee

[Cunninglinguist]

Communist manifesto
Critique of pure reason
The Origin of Species (already been mentioned)
Principa Mathematica - Newton
The Wealth of Nations - Smith
Social Contract, & Discourse on Origins of Inequity - Rousseau
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood - William Harvey
The Comedy
The Aeneid
The Iliad, & Odyssey

I suppose I should also mention Aristotle and Plato, but you can't get too much better than that unless you resort to the Bible or the Qur'an

Edit:

I forgot to mention Freud

[Antares]

Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince

I remember this book really riled up some people in a College English class I was in some decades ago.

I thought Machiavelli was simply codifying some observations. He seemed to be reporting on some pretty normative ways power people stay in power. Accurately, I thought!

I think the same. This book has been roundly slammed because people presume the message that Machiavelli is sending is "do whatever it takes to meet your end and everything is ok. In fact, you SHOULD be amoral if you want to get anywhere in life". He's merely the observer. A brilliantly insightful one at that, but fallen into the wrong hands and used by unscrupulous politicians, it could wreck the world.

[Otokonoko]

I love A Clockwork Orange. It's frustrating, difficult to read and opens doors to an exclusive club of people who tolchok [sp?] people over the gulliver - or at least know what that means. It didn't rock my world, though. Perhaps I didn't think too deeply about it.

One that rocked a small part of the world (mid-20th Century Australia) was Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy. He ended up in prison for writing it, and staunch supporters of the Australian Labor Party still curse his name.

Pride and Prejudice

I'm with you there. No book has ever disturbed me more. I use it in class as the exemplar of literature that is unworthy of that title. Maybe I'm just to much of a barbarian to appreciate it.

[exodus238]

i reccomend Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun (Same author)
Purple Hibiscus looks at the relationship between father and children and Half of a Yellow Sun is set throughout the Nigerian War. These are my favourite books. I love them

[tonywalt]

The Bible
The Koran
Talmud Text

[educatedNreverS]

yes..

[educatedNreverS]

chuck palahniuk..