Book Meme 2: Nominations

published in 2009, on Aug 14 at 9:30 AM and tagged with:

So, I'm thinking of compiling my own list of "Books You Should Read". It will likely be as skewed towards my own reading habits as the so-called BBC Book Meme is towards the reading habits of whoever compiled that list. But I'm taking nominations for my list of the 100-ish Books You Should Read. I'd prefer to know what books you think should be read by most people but commonly aren't included on these sorts of lists. Also, unlike the other list, I won't include a series or compilation and one of the titles included in that series.

By the way. Anything by Hemingway or any of the Brontes or Dan Brown is explicitly forbidden from appearing on this list. Seriously, why do people read that crap?

7 Comments

On 2009, on Aug 14 at 10:06 AM mikelietz said:

This could easily just be a list of "Books I think more people I like should read":

After all, isn't it "most people" driving Dan Brown right up the charts?

I'm sure this is terribly skewed toward the modern.

Gun, with occasional music, by Jonathan Lethem
The time traveler's wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
Shenzhen, by Guy Delisle
The mezzanine, by Nicholson Baker
You poor monster, by Michael Kun
Mother night, by Kurt Vonnegut
Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn
The white tiger, by Aravind Adiga
Angry young spaceman, by Jim Munroe
Being there, by Jerzy Kosinski

If I think some more, I'm sure I can come up with others.

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On 2009, on Aug 14 at 10:29 AM Katrina said:

- At least one book by Ayn Rand - I like Atlas Shrugged
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- You'll cover Neal Stephenson without my reminder.
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, although Sphere was his best
- The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis?
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- Something by Lucy Maud Montgomery (although I'm a girl and a sap, so I expect you to disregard this) Anne of Green Gables is her classic, but The Story Girl is pretty good.
- On Writing by Stephen King

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On 2009, on Aug 14 at 12:47 PM Geoffrey said:

Dan Brown books are good reads. Not enlightening or anything, but good reads none the less. Plus he nails a yoga instructor in one of them.
A few from my list:

I second Time Traveler's Wife. Excellent read.
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
My all-time favorite ever: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
Dune and its companions by Frank Herbert
the Dune prequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. Same universe, very different style so I'm classifying them as a different group.
Master and Margarita by Bulgakov (spelling varies. yay for transliteration!)
Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand

There are more I'll add later.

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On 2009, on Aug 14 at 12:50 PM Geoffrey said:

I don't know who katrina is but I like her.

Add 1984
I second everything she said except that I preferred Congo to Sphere (slim margin) and never read Montgomery.
Stephenson = cryptonomicon in my head though snow crash was a fascinating and disturbingly accurate guess at the future. and Gaiman is amazing.

Three cheers for katrina.

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On 2009, on Aug 14 at 1:10 PM Dad said:

"To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card (thanks, Geoff for turning me on to those books!)
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
"Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown
"Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury
"To Your Scattered Bodies Go" by Phillip José Farmer
"The Collected Stories of Phillip K. Dick"
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
"Animal Farm" and "1984" by Orwell
"Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis
"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
"Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift (and a watered down child's version doesn't count!)

Dad

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On 2009, on Aug 19 at 4:29 PM J said:

Several more I thought of--several books with which I think you'll vividly disagree with the author, but it's valuable to do that from time to time, if you haven't read these before:

A People's History of the United States--Howard Zinn
Confessions of an Economic Hitman--John Perkins (something's off with him and this book, but it is useful to read, even if one wonders what's being smoothed-over behind-the-scenes of this behind-the-scenes book)
Rogue States--Noam Chomsky (Chomsky tends to cause numerous vehement disagreements between pretty much any group of 5 Americans who know who he is, but it's worth reading, especially considering he's one of the most cited people in the world)
Sync-A damned good book by Steven Strogatz talking about the interesting places synchronicity pops up in nature, well worth reading for the chapters on sleep cycles alone

I need to read more fiction...

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On 2009, on Aug 19 at 4:31 PM J said:

Oh, here we go, at least one book of fiction:

Time enough for love--Robert Heinlein
Battlefield: Earth--L. Ron Hubbard; I know L. Ron was a wacko and/or a charlatan, and that the movie of this book sucked so hard that people are still sore, but I think the book taken as itself is a fun read, though slow to start. Most interesting to me was that there was a whole postscript AFTER the "they blow up the Death Star" moment that deals with, unlike 99% of other fiction, the rebuilding in the aftermath of a "Rebel Victory." Reconstructions are strange, difficult, and tricky and more authors should tackle them as a matter of course.

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