100 Books to read before the apocalypse? [Archive]

Leaf Lander

10-01-2005, 03:12 PM

Nineteen Eighty Four (Orwell) -bleak book, but brilliant
http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/1984/1984.htm
Animal Farm (Orwell)

McBeth (Shakespeare)
Othello (Shakespear)

interview with a vampire (anne rice)

Lord of the Flies (Golding)

The Pearl ( John Steinaback) -traditional tale beautifully rewritten

Paradise Lost (John Milton)

The Bible (God and friends )

Harry Potter Series (J. K. Rowling) -pure fantasy, yet fantastically written by a born storyteller

the lord of the rings trillogy ( j.r.r.tolkien)- Tolkien created a whole world before he wrote these books. Created the languages, historys, and social and cultural millieux for many different races. It reads like no other mythical tale ever written. Phenomonal.

A brief history of time. (Stephen Hawking)

The Stand (Stephen King)

The Outsider - (Albert Camus)

The Metamorphosis -- (Frans Kafka)

Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)

Alice in Wonderland - (Lewis Caroll) -Best children's book, completely written for kids minds.

The Lost World- ( Arthur Conan Doyle) not the Jurassic Park sequel

Private Parts -(Howard Stern)

the oddysey (homer)

dracula (bram stoker)

Poetry Yeats Woordsworth Blake T. S Elliott

PK*

10-01-2005, 03:24 PM

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary

Moon Man*

10-01-2005, 03:39 PM

Nice to see you back in action, LL... Some nice picks there but... Anne Rice?

The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
Ulysses by James Joyce
On the Road by Jack Keroac
The Sojourner by Majorie Kinnan Rawlings

Moon Man*

10-01-2005, 03:41 PM

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary

...I also suggest... (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767906071/103-6406069-3703859?v=glance)

Raging Bull

10-01-2005, 03:41 PM

101 Things to Do When Awaiting the Apocalyspe - John Steinback

For a real pick: Mein Kampf, it is actually interesting and a real insight into a very sick man. Pretty long though.

FLYLine24*

10-01-2005, 03:48 PM

Old Yeller

Unholy Diver

10-01-2005, 04:06 PM

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

BackGroundMusic

10-01-2005, 04:12 PM

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Fantastic book. It's so engrossing, I read half of it in one night.

Zodiac

10-01-2005, 04:15 PM

Dracula
Frankenstein
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
Moby Dick
Jaws

Beatnik

10-01-2005, 04:17 PM

Sorry to repeat some. Those are the books I enjoyed the most and were the more important for me.

Veronika decides to die: Paolo Coelho
On the Road: Jack Kerouac
The vampire chronicles; Anne Rice
L'étranger: Albert Camus
The Catcher in the Rye: J.D Sallinger
One Hundred Year's of Solitude: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Winger98

10-01-2005, 04:44 PM

House of Leaves of Mark Danielewski
America by Land by Robert Olmstead
The Shadow of the Wind by William Carlos Zafon
Into the Wild by Jon Krakeaur
Of Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Neuromancer by William Gibson

sorry for any misspelled names

FRZ95

10-01-2005, 04:54 PM

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0142001198/qid=1128203613/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-7721577-7001623?v=glance&s=books

Ric Flair

10-01-2005, 05:17 PM

So the guy who couldn't spell CAT if you spotted him the C and the A is suggesting books on quantum physics? How many of those have you actually read leaf lander?

Leaf Lander

10-01-2005, 06:11 PM

So the guy who couldn't spell CAT if you spotted him the C and the A is suggesting books on quantum physics? How many of those have you actually read leaf lander?

everyone but 4

Harry Potter sieries - but i plan on reading it

Private Parts -(Howard Stern)

the oddysey (homer)

dracula (bram stoker)

Form and Substance

10-01-2005, 07:28 PM

Satantango by László Krasznahorkai (it's a bit of a mouthful that name)
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

StevenintheATL

10-01-2005, 09:03 PM

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson
Walden; Or, Life In The Woods and Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau
The Crucible Arthur Miller
The Manchurian Candidate Richard Condon
Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe For Business and Personal Success Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg

PK*

10-01-2005, 09:09 PM

BackGroundMusic

10-01-2005, 11:56 PM

A few I'd like to read in the near future :

Communist Party Manifesto - Marx (already read)
The Prince - Machiavel
Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler
Politics - Aristotle
The Republic - Plato (already read)
Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
The Will to Power, The Gay Science - Friedrich Nietzsche
Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoievski
The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money - John Maynard Keynes
The Spirit of The Laws - Montesqieu
The Social Contract - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Perpetual Peace - immanuel Kant
Reflections on the French Revolution - Edmund Burke
The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine

I sense a theme....

The Harry Potter series is excellent, and it only gets better as it goes on. Another great series is the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, though it drags a bit in the middle. The first book, Eye of the World, is fantastic. Other recommended books:

Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
Bushwhacked by Molly Ivins
The Once and Future King
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy

tml_4ever

10-02-2005, 12:38 AM

The Little Prince by Antoire de Saint Exupery :bow:

i know it's like a kids book, but seriously...it takes someone older to get the true meaning

you can read it here if you wish
http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/chapter1.html

Moon Man*

10-02-2005, 01:16 AM

Another great series is the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, though it drags a bit in the middle. The first book, Eye of the World, is fantastic.

LOL... True, Robert Jordan is up there in scope and depth with Tolkien... but having an all-powerful character as well as a never ending tale (I quit at Crown of Swords) just made things dull after 7 novels.

nyr5186

10-02-2005, 01:56 AM

Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Brave New World - Alduos Huxley
Into the Wild - John Krakauer
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
Rabbit, Run - John Updike

Porn*

10-02-2005, 10:14 AM

clockwork orange- anthony burgess
requiem for a dream- ???? shelby
vampire chronicles- anne rice
IT- stephen King
Sun Tzu on the Art of War
a prayer for owen meaney- ??? *irving I think*
the world according to garp
ferenheit 451
the outsiders
a perfect spy- john le carre
stranger in a strange land- robert A. Heinlein
hitchikers guide...
lord of the rings *trilogy*
all neil peart books
all books by Will Self
poems/writings by edgar allan poe
shakespeare *all*
rainbow 6
catchre in the rye
there are probably many more that I can't think of at the moment...

BackGroundMusic

10-02-2005, 10:50 AM

LOL... True, Robert Jordan is up there in scope and depth with Tolkien... but having an all-powerful character as well as a never ending tale (I quit at Crown of Swords) just made things dull after 7 novels.

It might be worth picking up again, though. I think book 8 and 9 are pretty good. I wasn't crazy about the way 10 was written, and 11 came out yesterday, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I think the books pick up once Rand leaves the Waste [of time]. Just an fyi.

Transplanted Caper

10-02-2005, 10:54 AM

An EXCELLENT, non-fiction historical read is Maragret MacMillons Paris 1919, which chronicles the process of creating the Treaty of Versailles.

Beatnik

10-02-2005, 11:22 AM

A few I'd like to read in the near future :

Communist Party Manifesto - Marx (already read)
The Prince - Machiavel
Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler
Politics - Aristotle
The Republic - Plato (already read)
Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
The Will to Power, The Gay Science - Friedrich Nietzsche
Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoievski
The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money - John Maynard Keynes
The Spirit of The Laws - Montesqieu
The Social Contract - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Perpetual Peace - immanuel Kant
Reflections on the French Revolution - Edmund Burke
The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine

Don't even try to read Smith and Keynes. Bad reads and biased science. Burke, Hobbes and Machiavel are must read. Rousseau is interesting but lack realism.

Something great you missed is John Locke; A Letter Concerning Toleration: and specially; The Second Treatise of Civil Government Among the classics nothing is more actual.

http://www.constitution.org/jl/tolerati.htm
http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtreat.htm

I have'nt read the Gay science but I think Genealogy of moral and Zarathoustra are more representative and important in Nietzche work.

Form and Substance

10-02-2005, 02:12 PM

WillardJFredricks

10-02-2005, 02:23 PM

Here's some great Fiction books:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay-Michael Chabon
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh-Michael Chabon
Wonder Boys-Michael Chabon
A Model World and Other Stories-Michael Chabon
Werewolves in their Youth-Michael Chabon
The Hotel New Hampshire- John Irving
The World According To Garp-John Irving
A Widow For One Year-John Irving
The Cider House Rules-John Irving
Until I Find You-John Irving
The Virgin Suicides-Jeffrey Eugenides
David Copperfield-Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens
Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
Bleak House-Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop-Charles Dickens
The Mayor of Casterbridge-Thomas Hardy
To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe-CS Lewis
East of Eden-John Steinbeck
Bag of Bones-Stephen King
Hearts in Atlantis-Stephen King
A Painted House-John Grisham
Where the Red Fern Grows-Wilson Rawls
The Great Gatsby-F Scott Fitzgerald

kira

10-02-2005, 02:38 PM

Someone already picked up on my first choice...Catch-22. That's probably one of the only books I ever read at least 3 times.

Watership Down

Histrion

10-02-2005, 02:59 PM

A few I'd like to read in the near future :

Communist Party Manifesto - Marx (already read)
The Prince - Machiavel
Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler
Politics - Aristotle
The Republic - Plato (already read)
Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
The Will to Power, The Gay Science - Friedrich Nietzsche
Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoievski
The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money - John Maynard Keynes
The Spirit of The Laws - Montesqieu
The Social Contract - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Perpetual Peace - immanuel Kant
Reflections on the French Revolution - Edmund Burke
The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine

Just started reading Montesquieu's masterpiece.

But... there's something weird about your list. There is a bunch of great intellectuals on it and then I see... Ayn Rand. What the...

Form and Substance

10-02-2005, 06:50 PM

MAF

10-02-2005, 07:50 PM

"Akte Zirkon" by Bernd Michels

I doubt, that there is an english version...even not easy to get the original from amazon.de

Aerolanche

10-02-2005, 08:02 PM

100 books in 9 years?

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/wwn/20050912/112653720001.html

Good luck.

benji

10-02-2005, 08:18 PM

The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson

PK*

10-02-2005, 08:19 PM

Just started reading Montesquieu's masterpiece.

But... there's something weird about your list. There is a bunch of great intellectuals on it and then I see... Ayn Rand. What the...Well, Atlas Shrugged is considered by many as a masterpiece of modern philosophy. Rand created the philophical movement (objectivism) that is by far the most popular amongst governments all over the world.

BlueAndWhite

10-02-2005, 09:21 PM

This is going to be hard - but I'll attempt it (something I just couldn't bring myself to do in the "Favourite 20 songs" thread)

A Bend In The River - V.S. Naipul
Things Fall Apart -Chinua Achebe
As I Lay Dying - Faulkner
Brave New World - Huxley
The Trial - Kafka
A Passage To India - Forster
In Search Of Lost Time - Proust
Nostromo - Conrad
The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Sybil - Disraeli
Clarissa - Richardson
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Austerlitz - W. G. Sebald
Haroun And The Sea Of Stories - Rushdie
The BFG - Roald Dahl
Song Of Solomon - Morrisson
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez
Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rad
The Plague - Camus
The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence
Ulysses - Joyce
The Call Of The Wild - Jack London
Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky
Brothers Karmazov - Dostoyevsky
The Idiot - Dostoyevsky
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
War and Peace - Tolstoy
Catch 22 - Heller
David Copperfield - Dickens

....damn...I give up. Too many to list.

Legionnaire

10-03-2005, 06:38 AM

Don't even try to read Smith and Keynes. Bad reads and biased science. Burke, Hobbes and Machiavel are must read. Rousseau is interesting but lack realism.

Something great you missed is John Locke; A Letter Concerning Toleration: and specially; The Second Treatise of Civil Government Among the classics nothing is more actual.

http://www.constitution.org/jl/tolerati.htm
http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtreat.htm

I have'nt read the Gay science but I think Genealogy of moral and Zarathoustra are more representative and important in Nietzche work.

Definitely agree. I was just thinking that as I read his list.

Are you conservative? I mean that in today's relative terms.

Legionnaire

10-03-2005, 06:39 AM

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

THE definitive book on WWII. Good call.

Beatnik

10-03-2005, 07:18 AM

Definitely agree. I was just thinking that as I read his list.

Are you conservative? I mean that in today's relative terms.

In today's North-American term, I'd say i'm a libertarian. I'm an atheist and I think our western civilizations are safe enough so I don't really feel close to american conservative.

I prefer considering myself a liberal (as opposed to socialist in the political science tradition).

Legionnaire

10-03-2005, 07:43 AM

In today's North-American term, I'd say i'm a libertarian. I'm an atheist and I think our western civilizations are safe enough so I don't really feel close to american conservative.

I prefer considering myself a liberal (as opposed to socialist in the political science tradition).

That's why I asked about economics.

john g

10-03-2005, 02:53 PM

The Bible (choose your own denomination)

Vietnam: A History (by Stanley Karnow)

Heart of Darkness (by Joseph Conrad)

A Bright Shining Lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (by Neil Sheehan)

Texas-Israeli War (by Howard Waldrop)

Chronicles of Narnia (by C.S. Lewis)

________________________________________

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (by Bernard Edelman) -- would be my #1 choice

Shrapnel in the Heart : Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (by Laura Palmer) -- #2

john g

10-03-2005, 03:01 PM

100 books in 9 years?

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/wwn/20050912/112653720001.html

Good luck.

It's only going to affect America so don't worry about it.

"The existence of this so called chaos cloud is only a theory. Americans shouldn't panic until all the facts are in."

john g

10-03-2005, 03:08 PM

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Am I wrong here, but this wasnt a book was it? The book from what I remember was The Sentinel.

Belgian Fan

10-03-2005, 03:24 PM

One can skip most Belgian literature but for a few books:

_'The Sorrow of Belgium' - Hugo Claus (Nobel prize is long overdue :rant: ) - this should be available in English in any decent library
_'Lijmen/Het Been' - 'Kaas' - 'Tsjip de Leeuwentemmer' - Willem Ellschot. These three have been translated (http://www.geocities.com/mihxil/elsschot/vertalingen.html) but I'm pretty sure they'll be extremely tough to find

As for Dutch literature, be certain to check out Willem Frederik Hermans!

guinness

10-03-2005, 04:21 PM

Watership Down
Neuromancer

And because I like bad women:
Sister Carrie
Madame Bovary
Blood Wedding
Hedda Gabler
The Master Builder
Dance of Death

Moon Man*

10-03-2005, 04:47 PM

Am I wrong here, but this wasnt a book was it? The book from what I remember was The Sentinel.

IIRC, The Sentinel was sort of a first draft of 2001 that Clarke wrote for a writing competition in the 40's/50's. After several re-writes and taking ideas and material from some of his other short stories, 2001 was published as a novel in conjunction with Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece in 1968, after Kubrick contacted Clarke regarding a collaboration.

So Kubricks wish to make a sci-fi flick was the kick in the pants for Clarke to tell this staggeringly imaginitive tale.

I recommend picking up some of H.G. Wells and Asimov's work as well as far as classic Sci-fi goes.

john g

10-03-2005, 05:35 PM

IIRC, The Sentinel was sort of a first draft of 2001 that Clarke wrote for a writing competition in the 40's/50's. After several re-writes and taking ideas and material from some of his other short stories, 2001 was published as a novel in conjunction with Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece in 1968, after Kubrick contacted Clarke regarding a collaboration..

I was incorrect (i should have looked online before yapping ;) ) -- I vaguely remember reading the Sentinel and just assumed the movie was a rehash of it (a la - Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now)

Porn*

10-03-2005, 10:42 PM

J-D

10-03-2005, 11:22 PM

tml_4ever

10-04-2005, 01:50 AM

Biographies:

Pavel Bure: The Riddle Of the Russian Rocket -- Kerry Banks :bow:

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1550547143/701-8656419-4161962 (http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1550547143/701-8656419-4161962)

this book is amazing...seriously, i've read it three times, and i still love it.

Baptism by ice -- Paul D. Grant

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670044377/qid=1128408485/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/701-8656419-4161962 (http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670044377/qid=1128408485/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/701-8656419-4161962)

Really hillarious. It's about this guy who takes his american friend to witness the greatness of the world's greatest game :D

Legionnaire

10-04-2005, 05:36 AM

Some of them are boring, but I'd definitely say Brothers Karamazov, Republic, The Prince, The Social Contract and Leviathan were immensely important readings for me.

Talk about boring..Snoooooze. Rosseau is the worst. At least Locke varies a bit.

john g

10-04-2005, 06:16 AM

whats this book about?

texas-israeli war?

I must selfishly say, this isnt a great book, but one that I have read numerous times. Firstly choosing it as a read item when I was a kid, when my parents made us have a reading hour every once and a while. And then after that reading it again, just for fun. Its a science-fiction story about post WW III. I was thinking of writing my own description but this review from Amazon pretty much sums up my feelings:

Saunders and Waldrop definitely get a "A" for imagiation on this book. When a nuclear war wipes out a good chunk of Earth's population, Israel is relatively untouched and helps America fight its wars in exchange for a place to live. Now a group of Israeli and American soldiers face a tough challenge. Rescue the kidnapped President of the United States from Texas, which has seceded from the Union.

It's a quick read with OK character development and decent action. I really liked the laser-armed Israeli Centurion tanks duking it out with a Texas heavy cruiser. Also, a first-rate job by the authors bringing out the harshness, and hopelessness, of a post-apocalypse world, from contaminated farmland to cities no longer maintained. The characters in many instances are torn between their dreams for life after fighting, then wonder if they will live long enough to see them or if they can even make a life in this miserable world. Some really good scenes when the Israelis ad Americans infiltrate the Texan compound. They learn of the conflict between the regular Texan Army and the fanatical faction called the Sons of the Alamo. One great aspect was the Israeli commander's view of one Texan general who comes off as an honorable warrior, leading the Israeli to dislike the idea that he may have to kill him in order to complete his mission.

J-D

10-04-2005, 12:35 PM

Talk about boring..Snoooooze. Rosseau is the worst. At least Locke varies a bit.

I must say that reading Rousseau in English is substantially duller than reading him in French, as I've had the privilege (uhhh well...) to read him in both language.

For instance, take his catch phrase "Men is born free, and everywhere he is in chains".
He originally wrote L'homme naît bon, la société le corromp, which can be translated loosely into - men is born good, but is corrupted by society. The reader will perceive a slightly different message here.

You can only grasp the immense importance of Locke's liberal philosophy when you take into consideration the impact his thoughts had on unfolding historical events, especially on the foundation of America's political life.