What is the most intellectually stimulating book that you have ever read?
What is the most intellectually stimulating book that you have ever read?
Wilfred
. . . It had to've been Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson.
There isn't just one, in my `book'...
The Perennial Philosophy , Aldous Huxley, it's so stimulating I've been working through it for over a year now!
The Essential Rousseau , J.J. Rousseau, another hefty tome I'm working on, `The Social Contract' and `Discourse on Equality' are included, and also I've read his `Confessions'. Sure he was a spoiled self-absorbed prat, but he was also ahead of his time in much of his philosophy.
Well, my favorite book is really two... but a continuation if you will.
I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves
They both impress the heck out of me. I've read them 3 times each and I still have so much to learn from them.
~ Brenna
There is more than one for me too, but one that was very intellectually challenging, and really required very focused concentration was To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.
"Who Moved My Cheese" -- I was offered that book by a former boss. Oh, it was enlightening! I say former boss because I was a "cut back" about two years ago. There were two of us with the potential to remain at the company. The one who did remain turned out to be the one the boss was sleeping with. I don't think he was going to let his cheese be moved!
My problem with the book? Most of us don't fit into the scenario. Most of us working drones are the the **** roaches under the table that has all the cheese. The whole cheese way of life gets played out above our heads, but we survive anyway.
Can't beat Joyce for an intellectual challenge. Or any book that attempts to explain Cricket to Americans.
Currently reading "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog." Perhaps not overtly intellectual, but a pure reading delight.
ihrocks
The revolution is just a T-shirt away -- Billy Bragg
Possibly Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
fascinating.
"When I get a little money, I buy books... and with whatever's left I buy food and clothes." --Aristophanes
Alexander The Great by Lewis V. Cummings
Hey Hey My My
Rock And Roll Will Never Die
"The Cat and the Hat" - Green Eggs and Ham- has got to be the most intellectually stimulating book i have ever read.
Wish I was too dead to cry
My self affliction fades
Stones to throw at my creator
Masochists to which I cater
You don't need to bother
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on
I won't let go 'till it bleeds
Well, I like "The Catcher in the Rye" a lot...
I have a plan: attack!
In fiction - the entire Glass saga by Salinger. Non fiction- Orientalism hands down.
I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?
There's a pair of us, don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know!
How dreary to be somebody!
Well, I wouldn't exactly call them the most intellectually stimulating books I've ever read (I actually reread a lot of Salinger's work because it's easy reading), but obviously I love these books too.Originally Posted by Sindhu
For the prize as the most intellectually stimulating book I've ever read would go the remarkable Mrs. Dalloway.
"To get straight to the worst, what I'm about to offer isn't really a short story at all but a sort of prose home movie..."
Memories of the Future
Hey Zooey 8) , it's been a long time since I saw you around...
Welcome back![]()
I have a plan: attack!
Thanks, Jay. It's good to be back!Originally Posted by Jay
It looks like things have picked up around here and some new personalities have given life to the forum. That's what I like to see!
"To get straight to the worst, what I'm about to offer isn't really a short story at all but a sort of prose home movie..."
Memories of the Future
DOriginally Posted by Stillborn
off topic-i think my literature snobbery began as a kid. all the other kids read doctor seuss while i read beatrix potter.
it's funny that you would write that though. I know some other ppl who think the same way. D
Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
(Mark Twain)