Must Read List

[Fat Mike]

Hi all!

Christmas is coming and I still haven't decide what to wish for. I thought that some good books could be the right thing. I hoped that you could help me, so here are my "requirements":

I want to learn from the book. I'm in great need of enlightenment. I really enjoy dystopian books, like 1984 and Brave New World. I think they open your eyes. I also loved Eduardo Galeano's Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World which gave a lot of new information. So if you have books in the same taste, please post them here.

Different goals with the books: Enlightenment, to see how our world "works", the detailes connected to each other. Entertainment and maybe some political information.

I would be really thankful if you could help me.

Thank you all!

P.S: The classics I've read which is under this category:
1984
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451

[Whifflingpin]

Utopia - Thomas More
Erewhon - Samuel Butler

Oroonoko - Aphra Benn

Giles Goat Boy - John Barth

[Jean-Baptiste]

Hi Mike!

The only thing I can think of at the moment is a novel called Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy. I don't think it's quite what you're looking for, but you might get a kick out of it.

You can take a look at this thread (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18706&highlight=dystopian) for some suggestions.

I hope your wishlist is fulfilled.

[Fat Mike]

Thanks for your fast answer! Those are some good books, though it's a bit hard to find them in my language. I'll do my best.

I'd also like to read some up-to-date books which writes critical about our society. Explains how things work, like political and economical issues if you know what I mean. Do you have any suggestions on those books?

Thanks!

[Whifflingpin]

How about books by Jean Raspail, Michel Houellebeq, John le Carre.

The first 2 are French authors, but their works are available in English.

John le Carre is an English novelist most noted for spy novels (rather more intellectual than, say James Bond) but his latest works might fulfill your criteria.

*** ***

I've just seen, from your profile, that you are Hungarian - so I'm baffled. I certainly do not know any writers (apart from Artur Koestler, and he more or less escaped from his Hungarian origins) who might relate to Hungarian society and economics. Good hunting

.

[Wintermute]

Hi there Fat Mike,

You might enjoy William Gibson's, Neuromancer. Mr. Gibson won a Hugo for this work in 1984, and is generally considered the orginator of the genra of Cyber Punk. Don't let this name scare you. It's a beautifully written novel that, 20-some years later, seems rather fey in its insight into the cyber-culture of the near future. It's one of my favorites of all time :)

[EAP]

We - Yvegny Zemyatin
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Borderliners - Peter Hoeg
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Most social sci-fi novels are dystopian in nature.

[Redzeppelin]

Along with Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, I would recommend her newest novel Oryx and Crake. Devastatingly scary - a far more frightening vision of the future than 1984 or HT.

[Fat Mike]

Thanks for your responses. I guess I have to read some of those books in English, which isn't bad after all.

Whifflingpin, your observation is correct, I'm Hungarian but living in Sweden since 6 years. I'm not looking for literature concentrated on Hungary, but worldwide. Globalism and capitalism is an actual issue which I'd like to read books about which has a critical view on those subjects. I hope you understand me so keep up the suggestions, I'm really satisfied with them.

Thank you!

[Guzmán]

Right now im reading "Doctor Faustus" by Thomas Mann.
My to-read list for next year:
"Ulysses" having already read "A portrait of the artist as a young man" this year and "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon; I read "The crying of lot 49" a few weeks ago and loved it.

[Fat Mike]

Hi again!

Now I've made a short list out of your suggestions, and also added a couple of works that I wanted to read for a long time. I would be very pleased if you could give me your thoughts about these books if you've read it. Here it comes:

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
Crime and Punishment - Fjodor Dostojevskij
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Neuromancer - William Gibson
We - Yvegeny Zemyatin
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
No Logo - Naomi Klein
Patents, Myths and Reality - Vandana Shiva
Globalisation and it's discontents - Joseph E. Stiglitz
Colonization: A global history - Marc Ferro

I'm also interested in a lot of works by Noam Chomsky. Any specific you suggest?

Thanks a lot for your oppinions! Marry Christmas and a happy 2007!

[jon1jt]

put all your other books away for the new year and read dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (that doesn't mean only read its The Grand Inquistor chapter! :) )

[ghideon]

Read anything by:
1. Philip K Dick
He is one of the most important sci-fi writers of the past 50 years and has a cult type following. His stories are not simple adventure tales but often urban based and complex. His work is almost its own genre.

2. If you enjoyed 1984 then pick up anything else Orwell wrote because he is that good.

3. You might try(the title has slipped my mind) but it is a short novel written, I believe, in the 60s about the children who survive a plane crash on a deserted island and how they survive through inteligence and eventually real brutality.

4. If you want bleak and dark try the crime-noir genre. There is a good anthology put out by Library Of America. One author who I found fascinating is Jim Thompson. His crime stories involve characters who seem to have no real moral compass guiding their actions other then pure self-interest. His most famous novel is called The Killer Inside Me and it is just as tough and frightening as the title.

5. Oh...I remember the title...Lords Of The Flies...about the kids surviving on an island.

6. My favorite Shakespearian play is King Lear and talk about tragic, bleak, dark...For more then a century the play was considered so tragic that it could not be acted on stage.

7. And as far as gaining insights...any of the books I have listed and any of the books listed in the other posts are very good, solid reads...the insight is, in part, born from the novel and to a great extent extracted from the attention and depth the reader brings to the read.

8. Oh...Stephen Kings Dark Tower series might be worth a look. Also a new novel called The Road about a father and son on a highway during armagedon.

good luck

[jon1jt]

Read anything by:
1. Philip K Dick
He is one of the most important sci-fi writers of the past 50 years and has a cult type following. His stories are not simple adventure tales but often urban based and complex. His work is almost its own genre.

2. If you enjoyed 1984 then pick up anything else Orwell wrote because he is that good.

3. You might try(the title has slipped my mind) but it is a short novel written, I believe, in the 60s about the children who survive a plane crash on a deserted island and how they survive through inteligence and eventually real brutality.

4. If you want bleak and dark try the crime-noir genre. There is a good anthology put out by Library Of America. One author who I found fascinating is Jim Thompson. His crime stories involve characters who seem to have no real moral compass guiding their actions other then pure self-interest. His most famous novel is called The Killer Inside Me and it is just as tough and frightening as the title.

5. Oh...I remember the title...Lords Of The Flies...about the kids surviving on an island.

6. My favorite Shakespearian play is King Lear and talk about tragic, bleak, dark...For more then a century the play was considered so tragic that it could not be acted on stage.

7. And as far as gaining insights...any of the books I have listed and any of the books listed in the other posts are very good, solid reads...the insight is, in part, born from the novel and to a great extent extracted from the attention and depth the reader brings to the read.

8. Oh...Stephen Kings Dark Tower series might be worth a look. Also a new novel called The Road about a father and son on a highway during armagedon.

good luck

3. Lord of the Flies?

[Kurtz]

put all your other books away for the new year and read dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (that doesn't mean only read its The Grand Inquistor chapter! )


I could not agree more. It is surely a wonderful book. Probably more ideas between the covers of this book than any other.

[jon1jt]

put all your other books away for the new year and read dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (that doesn't mean only read its The Grand Inquistor chapter! )


I could not agree more. It is surely a wonderful book. Probably more ideas between the covers of this book than any other.


hey kurtz buddy great to see you!! i was actually looking for you a couple weeks ago in here---there was this guy who had some really BIG questions on Dostoyevsky and i was a bit baffled to tell you the truth. i was able to hold up with Camus pretty good, and so i told him you were the resident scholar here, and in my mind you are! anyway great to see you hope you stick around and i'll look forward to some engaging philos chats with ya! take it easy, and merry christmas!

[Kurtz]

hey kurtz buddy great to see you!! i was actually looking for you a couple weeks ago in here---there was this guy who had some really BIG questions on Dostoyevsky and i was a bit baffled to tell you the truth. i was able to hold up with Camus pretty good, and so i told him you were the resident scholar here, and in my mind you are! anyway great to see you hope you stick around and i'll look forward to some engaging philos chats with ya! take it easy, and merry christmas!


Hey man, Glad to be back. I have been in and out of town lately and have not had much time to post. I plan on frequenting the boards more often and am looking forward to some good topics to talk about. I am reading Heidegger's "Being and Time" right now and am loving it. I am surely looking forward to discussing it. Merry christmas!

[jon1jt]

Hey man, Glad to be back. I have been in and out of town lately and have not had much time to post. I plan on frequenting the boards more often and am looking forward to some good topics to talk about. I am reading Heidegger's "Being and Time" right now and am loving it. I am surely looking forward to discussing it. Merry christmas!

Kurtz you're the man!!! Being and Time?!! you know heidegger still confuses the heck out of me! :lol: there are some great companions my old profs recommended - the one by Joan Stambaugh and the other is Michael Galvin's. i was planning to read Heidegger's From Enowning - AGAIN! that is the toughest darn book i ever read, published posthumously - i think - after B&T and supposedly takes a philosophical turn from his being-in-the-world/lifeworld theme into the realm of naturalism. one of my old prof's is Robert Corrington, a naturalist scholar - published a zillion books/articles! - great guy too. i'm reading his nature and spirit now. maybe i'll read being/time again too! :lol: v. cool

[Laindessiel]

They've already mentioned Crime and Punishment (which I'm still currently in the midway of) and The Dark Tower. Lord of the Flies too. Maybe you can check out:

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
The Green Mile by Stephen King
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The God Delusions by Richard Dawkins (although I've never read it yet, LitNetters find it really fascinating).

http://www.cosgan.de/images/midi/verschiedene/f045.gif

[Fat Mike]

Thank you for your tips!

I've read a couple of books you've mentioned above, and they were good. Although I'm not sure that you read my first "Post", about what kind of books I want. You suggested some great literature, but it's not quite what I'm looking for.

I'd like to read books about our society that are up-to-date. About the problems in our world. So I still think that my list is the best so far.

But keep'em coming! Thanks.