After reading it in my early teens, I didn't know anyone who might enjoy it. So I took the book and wrote a note that said "This book is not just a book you find, it also finds you." and I put it in someones mailbox. I sometimes wonder if that person whoever it was liked it or even read it.
I’ve read the series (well only the Douglas authored books). I have a copy of The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which I have not read. Does it make a difference?
Much like the TV minseries, book, movie, radio play and audiobooks - all incarnations of The Guide are accurate and complete, especially the parts that contradict.. It just depends on which multiverse you have existen been fromme. (Universal relativism weirds language.)
While the Guide is important, I actually think Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul might both be more important. I'm actually often saddened they didn't get as much love as Hitchhiker's Guide.
The exclamation mark is part of the title. I would say the hard stop goes at the end of the sentence otherwise the exclamation mark could be construed as part of the sentence and not part of the title.
You can think of an exclamation mark like a period that's had a line drawn above it; it takes the place of a period, rather than having both side by side.
1984/farenheit 451/Brave New World are the adolescent trilogy for me that anyone who wants to understand the nature of people and mechanics of power would do well to read.
It's good to add the other two too but I never could read brave new world, I struggled page by page and gave up. Can not name a specific reason other than I could not get into it.
From a story perspective it should be perfect for me.
Aldos Huxley is not a great writer. I think he had a better understanding of humanity than Orwell... Or at least, I feel like his books are more insightful, but he is not as good of a writer.
One of the few times reading a translated book is better tgan the original, I read it in Spanish and I guess the translator made it more tolerable because I'm not much of a reader at all (I've read at most five books on my own, less if we don't count unfinished)
Follow it up with Settlers, a history of settler-colonialism and the slave trade in the US. No matter how much you think you know about the history of indigenous genocide and chattel slavery in the US, reality is likely far worse than you think.
The first that I usually mention is the Coal Wars / Battle of Blair Mountain or the Sand Creek Massacre, but there are many events that American students are made to be ignorant if on purpose.
It also got me to learn that after meeting the natives for the first time, Columbus literally wrote in his diary about how easy it would be to steal from them because they were so peaceful.
Cool, I knew about those! The ones that threw me for a loop were Seneca Village (Black community bulldozed for Central Park) and the bombing by police in Philly in 1983.
I've heard of those two as well, but even so, there's a lot written about in the book that I never learned, even through the earning of my bachelors degree, which is why I'm always quick to recommend that people read it.
A pixie book or equivalent. Pixie books are short children's books (maybe 12 DinA6 pages with very little text and lots of pictures). They are dirt cheap and there is a big bowl full of them in many books stores in Germany.
They are meant to get kids into reading and that's why I 'nominated' them here xD
I was about to type 'I've been meaning to read that' for the Stephen King book, but I have now and it's fine. I wouldn't call it a must read. As a time travel story it's in the top three
I haven't tried to audio book his stuff. The style of writing seems like it wouldn't translate well. I think Blood Meridian is my second favorite book he wrote.
Oh, I mean yeah they are bad people and based off real people that existed. The Judge is also literally an allegory for the devil/pure evil. Its a good book about bad people. The Road might be more your speed. Still plenty of evil characters but at least your protagonists are good. The boy in that story is basically the antithesis of the judge and is representative of purity in the face of evil. Still has some particularly rough parts. I get what you're saying though. I tapped out of American Psycho for like 3 years after one particularly rough section, only finished it recently. Different author but the only book I've had to put down.
Few other sci-fi books do as good a job of depicting how a gift/library economy could work like in practice. It's quite a hopeful vision of where we can collectively go in the future.
I don’t agree at all. The first book was great, no argument there - but the series matures with Le Guin as it goes. It’s a truly magnificent breakdown of the fantasy genre.
Which is ridiculous. I've read one book since the weekend.
It should be made clear though that there are book and there are Books. I feel like this question is about the latter and those are not the ones you had to read in as part of your middle/high school curriculum. Also the one that I read probably doesn't qualify as a capital B book.
A lot of fiction here so I'll go the other way and suggest "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else" by David Cay Johnston.
If people aren't outraged, they aren't paying attention.
Sample:
"Once, Blattmachr devised a way that Bill Gates, the richest man in America, could reap $200 million in profits on Microsoft stock without paying the $56 million of capital gains taxes that federal law required at the time. The plan was so lucrative that Gates would not have to pay a single dollar in tax and would even be entitled to an income tax deduction of $6 million or so. And that was just the initial plan.
The concept could be applied endlessly, allowing Gates to convert billions of dollars in Microsoft stock gains into cash over the years. So long as the Internal Revenue Service did not challenge the deals, then
Gates could realize unlimited capital gains without the pain of taxes.
The trick was in manipulating charitable trusts, a common enough device used by generous people who own an asset, such as stock or a building that has appreciated in value. Instead of selling the asset and investing the after-tax proceeds, an individual or a married couple can donate the asset to a charitable trust that they control. The trust sells the asset tax-free and invests the proceeds, giving the donating individual or couple a lifetime income, typically 6 percent per year. When the donors die, what remains in the trust, typically half its value, goes to charity.
Blattmachr’s plan was to take back not 6 percent annually for life, but 80 percent per year for two years. Gates could have pocketed at least $192 million without paying any tax. Then the trust would fold and a charity would get the remaining sum, less than $8 million. Under the plan Gates could have converted into cash more than 96 percent of gains on the Microsoft shares he donated, not the 72 percent he was entitled to after federal capital gains taxes. The charity would get less than four cents on each donated dollar. The government would collect nothing.
The scheme even created a tax deduction that was enough to reduce Gates’s income taxes by about $2 million.
Whether Gates took advantage of such a plan is not known for sure because the law makes individual income tax records confidential. What is known is that when Blattmachr made this route available to
others, it sold like a treasure map where X marks the tax-free spot. Billions of dollars of assets poured into these short-term charitable trusts and their super-rich owners took many millions of dollars of income tax deductions that further cut into the flow of revenue to the government.
The technique was so outlandish that when some other tax lawyers got their hands on the map in March 1994, they sent it to the Department of the Treasury in a plain brown envelope. That July, Treasury blocked the route to newcomers and said that it would pursue those who used the device. However, the Internal Revenue Service never announced whether it collected any of the taxes. One hint that the IRS may not have acted against those who used the technique can be found in the records of United States Tax Court, which is where taxpayers challenge the IRS. There are no Tax Court cases in which taxpayers fought for a court blessing on the device, known in taxspeak as an “accelerated charitable remainder trust.”
The Treasury rules shutting down this route to tax-free investment profits were not the end of stretching charitable trusts in ways never anticipated by Congress. So facile is Blattmachr’s mind that from those 1994 rules he divined a new route to tax-free gains. He started selling a new treasure map and billions of dollars more in capital gains passed untaxed into the bank accounts of his clients before the government blocked that second path, known in taxspeak as “son of accelerated charitable remainder trust.”
There’s been a lot of abuse of Trusts in finance for a while. This seems like a good recommendation.
One thing I don’t follow; if someone puts their money into a charitable trust, achieving those lighter tax rules, wouldn’t the obvious rule be that the trust could only then be spent on communal benefit, NOT withdrawn as a personal piggy bank?
It’s fine if someone wants to make an account that is given to charity in case of their death, but then pro-charity tax rules shouldn’t take effect until they die. I’m confused as to why it wouldn’t work that way.
recommends incest with large breasted red heads as much as stranger in a strange land.
Whut?
I guess I’ll bite, what’s the message?
That life is inexplicable and overly complicated because people are hung up on others perceptions instead of what makes them happy. And if everyone just chilled out and tried to make shit a lot better, we'd all be better off
This is my mistake,.I went through a Heinlein phase and this one was the last straw for me.I may have had some bleedover from his other books, where I recall his treatment of women sucked ass, was pretty incestuous, and always features promiscuous red heads. I did really like "the moon is a harsh mistress" even if I think libitarism is purile.
I still think stranger is just a Jesus story (it's been ages), where hhgtg didn't have a point except maybe you are at the mercy of the universe, and God is sorry for the inconvenience.
I'm not sure how you got that message, Arthur specifically isn't even aware of his friend being an alien when his house is demolished. He kind of just faces what's next in terror, at least until the fenchurch bits. Even when he's stuck on earth I wouldn't say he's having a good time.
Genesis. Dude invented sin by putting a random tree down with a whole made up lore on it for no reason other to tempt his "beloved" creation. Of course it all goes to plan—since the dude apparently knows what comes ahead of time—and he gets to do what he wanted all along; fuck with the ants.
And Lucifer, the only person to try overthrow this monster tragically lost and paid the ultimate price for it.
This slots in so much better than the original, I think. They should incorporate it into Diablo somehow.
The "Gnostics" believed that the Creator wasn't really the God, but a malevolent lesser deity who condemned our consciousness to the suffering of the physical world.
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death
Imagine wiping an entire city off the face of the earth because they just are a bit kinky. That was the loving and just god.
Of course Jesus said to basically throw out the entire old testament and focus on the love one another bits, but it doesn't seem like the churches caught that
Even then, the whole city? Women and children too? There were no innocents there? Nah I don't buy it. If god was all powerful he could have selectively smoten.
Jesus absolutely did not say that. He said to follow the law.
Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Also, it's been a while since I read it, and it's a bit didactic, but Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. It's about a telepathic gorilla, and it had the capacity to blow minds.
The egg by Andy Weir. It gave me the basis for Gnosticism / the spirituality that I genuinely think is closest to the truth ie: humans do have a soul, but it's all the same soul / consciousness that just splits up into sperate little chunks of perception for a little bit at a time before rejoining the whole in different places and splitting off again from and to a completely different place. Honestly the main thing I learned from psychology, neurology, and physics classes is that time, or at least the human perception of it, is almost completely bullshit, and that our perception of our brain as a separate thing that controls the rest of our body, or even as our body as a separate thing from the world like a suit in space is a significant cause of mental illness.
Why does our sense of self so often stop at our brain when most of our neurotransmitters are in our gut? How can you be the cells but not the fluid you filter then piss out? Your upper layers of skin and hair are dead how can they be more you than the air trapped between them? There's a reason drugs dissolving your sense of self, even temporarily, is often described as a positively transformative experience.
My summer reading list (not that I get to read both every year):
The Songs of Distant Earth, by Arthur C. Clarke
The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
The first is about what we never prepared for, but could try to thrive through. (Mike Oldfield made a cool concept album about this. One of the songs is called "Only time will tell")
The second is a murder mystery set in a medieval monastery. But wait! Is it actually a multilayered examination of our notions about information? Oh hell yeah.
Love that Oldfield album. Had it for decades, and was thrilled to find out it was based on a book I’d read quite a long time before discovering the album.
i keep seeing this listed, but I saw the Wishbone episode of it when i was younger and i dont think i could take it as seriously and also already knowing the twist at the end
The Art of UNIX Programming by Eric S Raymond. I’m only half-joking; I used to read it when I had insomnia because it was equal parts fascinating but verbose enough to get me to sleep.
Otherwise Waking Up by Sam Harris. I’d only heard of him after a group meditation session which I’d never done before and immediately became hooked: that you could be spiritual without religion was an entirely new concept for me.
I think you'd have to pick something more geared towards children as books for older people will potentially be too narrowly focused or infused with cultural or regional influences.
Something like the giving tree has some good staying power and discuss concepts that should be beneficial across time/cultures/religions.
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels. Short, yet clearly elaborates on the shift from earlier utopian views of socialism of figures like Robert Owen to the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels. One of the best explanations of Marxism itself, other than the essay Principles of Communism. It was taken from the larger and more comprehensive Anti-Dühring as it was believed to be an excellent work for propaganda purposes (and this judgment proved correct, as the booklet spread like wildfire).
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I'd have never picked it up if I hadn't been bored and trying to kill time, but it really put life in a new perspective. Genuinely think it's made everything lighter since reading that one.
I actually haven't read any of his other books. When I was in high school Slaughterhouse 5 was one of the default books on class book report lists, so I assumed he was a dry, dusty, old-timey author. One of the things that surprised me reading Timequake was finding out he has a daughter my age.
It's a very weird book. But it's brilliant and touching and heartbreaking and eye-rolling kind of funny. He's writing in his own voice. The setup is that "Timequake" was a draft novel he never finished.... I'm not sure if that's true on some level, or just a literary device. He says that in that novel the Timequake occurred in 2001, and pushed everyone, everywhere, backward to 1991.
But... not to change anything. Every single thing plays out exactly as it did the first time around. Everyone ended up in some kind of conscious "autopilot" with no free will, forced to repeat every event, every choice, every moment they had lived over those 10 years all over again, conscious they're stuck in some kind of loop/nightmare watching and doing but unable to do even the tiniest thing differently.
Seems like it would make a horribly boring, pointless scifi story... but as a literary device, it's amazing. It's him looking back on life and coming to terms with getting older and not being able to change the things we've fucked up. One of the things that stuck with me the most was him saying that no one asked to be born, no one got an instruction manual for this "life" and "self-aware consciousness" nonsense, no one has any real idea what the hell we're doing. Every one of us is just making it up as we go. We never got a chance to practice, just pushed out into this shit with no warning at all.
My parents weren't the best, and I've definitely had my own relationship issues. It really helped put existence into perspective. It's not a book you read for a story, it's just sort of his life... but it's the parts that pretty much anyone over 40 is sure to relate to.
Sheesh I guess I'll have to try again. I didn't like that it seemed shallow and... without a plan? Like you get some mild character explanation through time but it is mostly just kind of surface level/shock value weird.
I think the most character developed Vonnegut books are Galapagos and Breakfast of champions. I also just read Mother night, which has many thought-out characters (I was fascinated by Resi Noth, who isn't a main character by any stretch of imagination).
Edit: But yes, the characters are weird and cynically exaggerated in most of his works.
World-2023 ESN Publications and London Organisation of Skills Development Ltd
About 100000 pages. If you read a page per minute, continuously without breaks you'll lose over 60 days of economic activity to this. This would massively disrupt the world if everyone had to read it.
How is it not hard scifi? Genuinely curious given the whole hyper advanced civilisation, interdimensional space travel, transhumanism as a part of daily life,
::: spoiler spoiler
entire chapters that introduce characters and settings that are wiped out of existence in a single sentence along with the underpinning story showing the contrasts between interstellar warfare and microscopic warfare over the artificially created representation of capital H Hell being used as a prison for political dissidents.
::: (minor ish spoiler)
Yeah, I'm afraid your understanding of what the "hard" part of hard SciFi is not correct.
Most people who use the term refer to SciFi that does not exceed the bounds of what we know to be physically possible, e.g., no FTL, not sapient AIs, etc.
Although I can see how you might misinterpret it to indicate anything that might be possible.
Ohhh so Hard scifi as a term means hard limited to the scientific knowledge of the time. I was thinking it was more like a mature category where it's less fantasy more "The fantasy part of this story is the exotic metals and technology beyond the knowledge of a sub type 1 civilisation (hey that's us!)"
Anything by E.B. White. While the narratives are simplistic, there is a gentile under tone of trauma in each one that I feel might be rather meaningful and resonant to today's emotionally fragile youth. These are books that deal with inevitable death, discrimination and ableism in frank, but subversively subtle ways.
Illusions by Richard Bach, subtitled The Tale of the Reluctant Messiah. A beautiful book about the universe and spirituality. The author wrote it on the premise of "what if I had my own, personal, Jesus... Or Buddha or Messiah that was hanging out with me and explaining the universe". So this guy is a Messiah that one day just quits to fly airplanes.
It's funny, it's inspiring, it's a little sad, but hopeful. It's also very short, you can easily read it in an afternoon.
Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah. The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in awhile and watch your answers change.
It should probably be a book the reading of which would be most beneficial to everyone. That’s a high bar pointing to some form of practical philosophy. I’d go with an introduction to Buddhism, something like What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula though perhaps there are others better suited for a general audience.
This book is very well written but I disagreed completely with the premise. I believe is true that we don't choose to be born. We're forced into existence kicking and screaming but that's the nature of being. We are born we grow up we procreate and then we die. Some of us don't procreate by choice but I feel the desire to have offspring is innate to being alive. Some people and beings have a stronger desiree than others, and there's nothing wrong on following through and cires related to the suffering we impar into our offspring is not reason not to do it. Just like children's role is not to take care of their parents when they're old. All things considered, this is quite a philosophical debate.
I disagree. If you enjoy raising someone and taking care of somebody, who later becomes an independent person, you can adopt children and not create a new life, that gets repressed by capitalism, authoritarianism and humanity itself. You can love other people's children as much as your own.
Bioethicist David DeGrazia published a rebuttal to Benatar's arguments in 2010; although he disagrees with Benatar's conclusions, he praises the book for its intellectual rigor and philosophical engagement
Ok first of all, it's a turn of phrase that means "recommend a book you really like". Secondly, people should absolutely read books they don't understand and also should absolutely read books they don't like. The former challenges you to learn and the latter challenges your taste or morals. Those types of books help you grow.
Ok first of all, it’s a turn of phrase that means “recommend a book you really like”.
Not really. "A book everyone should read once in their lifetime" implies more a book that is so culturally valuable and important that everyone should know it, not just something "you really like". If we're talking about books you just "really like" than you would simply recommend it as something you like, not say "everyone should read it". Unless you think your taste in books is so great everyone will like what you like.
Secondly, people should absolutely read books they don’t understand and also should absolutely read books they don’t like.
Yes, tell children to read books about quantum mechanics. They will not understand anything but will be challenged to learn...
Some books are just beyond some people. What's the point of reading things you can't comprehend? You should read books about things you don't know about but not understanding what you're reading makes no sense.
Same with books you don't like. Reading books should be fun, not a chore. I used to finish all the books I've started, even if I didn't like them. I meant I wasted a lot of time struggling through books I didn't enjoy. Nothing morally challenging in it.
Describing public events and the private machinations behind them (through the participant's journals and letters), revealing how the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions.
Capital and ideology by Thomas Piketty. An eye opener on wealth distribution throughout history and the arguments that held societies together to allow wealth disparity.
Perhaps you could dismiss it as having too much of a Western focus, but it really was an eye opening book that made me reexamine various cultural institutions at the time I read it
Reading isn't about any single book. Each book is a peice in a larger concept of expanding ones mind outside the small part of the world they live in. Some expand more than others. But one alone makes only a small difference.
206 Comments
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 105 pts · 35d
The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
All of Discworld.
Zorque@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 35d
That'd be a pretty big book...
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 35d
It’s sooooooo worth it
psud@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 35d
Now I want it in a single volume (electronic)
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 34d
I'm working on that currently. I think I'm on book 6, so only about 40 more to go lol
innermachine@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
What order are u reading them in? I just started with color of magic and am on light fantastic now!
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
It goes by too fast
Tujio@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 35d
I don't know exactly how much of my warped view on reality is directly attributable to reading the Guide at a young age. I hope most of it.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 35d
Me too.
psud@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 35d
Likewise. I think it made us better people
pmk@piefed.ca · 8 pts · 35d
After reading it in my early teens, I didn't know anyone who might enjoy it. So I took the book and wrote a note that said "This book is not just a book you find, it also finds you." and I put it in someones mailbox. I sometimes wonder if that person whoever it was liked it or even read it.
tamal3@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 33d
As a math teacher, I really wish the kids would realize that 42 is the number to beat all numbers
hopesdead@startrek.website · 9 pts · 35d
I’ve read the series (well only the Douglas authored books). I have a copy of The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which I have not read. Does it make a difference?
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 35d
Much like the TV minseries, book, movie, radio play and audiobooks - all incarnations of The Guide are accurate and complete, especially the parts that contradict.. It just depends on which multiverse you have existen been fromme. (Universal relativism weirds language.)
At least that’s what I believe.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 35d
The Guide from Mostly Harmless agrees with you.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 35d
See? Its even more internally consistent than the Bible.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 35d
I only wish we had gotten The Salmon of Doubt.
While the Guide is important, I actually think Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul might both be more important. I'm actually often saddened they didn't get as much love as Hitchhiker's Guide.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 35d
To me it’s a bit like the Bible. You’ve got the big few books and then so many supporting documents explaining the mindset behind the revelation.
ripcord@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 34d
The Douglas-authored books would be...all of the Hitchhikers' Guide books. Which is what the Complete Hitchhiker's Guide is.
I think it may not make a difference, no.
hopesdead@startrek.website · 1 pts · 34d
There is a sixth book that Jane Belson, Adam’s widow supported, called And Another Thing… written by Eoin Colfer.
yermaw@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 34d
I was trying to narrow it down to 1 discworld book. Ive got it down to Small Gods, Jingo or Thud!.
I also got confused whether a full stop goes after the ! Or not.
Merritt@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 33d
Small gods is for sure one of my favorites!
If there's an exclamation mark (!) there's generally no period (.).
yermaw@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 33d
Even in this case, where the ! is part of the title?
It was 50/50 and looks like i picked unwisely
Mobiuthuselah@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 33d
The exclamation mark is part of the title. I would say the hard stop goes at the end of the sentence otherwise the exclamation mark could be construed as part of the sentence and not part of the title.
Merritt@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 30d
You can think of an exclamation mark like a period that's had a line drawn above it; it takes the place of a period, rather than having both side by side.
ripcord@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
You missed 0art of the assignment
someguy3@lemmy.world · 79 pts · 35d
1984
Strider@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 34d
Was going to say this, many people cite it but never read. It is readable well, do it.
Also, I think Fahrenheit 451 translates far better to our situation, as I see media and social media in there long before it was even thinkable.
pdxfed@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 34d
1984/farenheit 451/Brave New World are the adolescent trilogy for me that anyone who wants to understand the nature of people and mechanics of power would do well to read.
I'd add Animal Farm to that as well.
Strider@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
It's good to add the other two too but I never could read brave new world, I struggled page by page and gave up. Can not name a specific reason other than I could not get into it.
From a story perspective it should be perfect for me.
echindod@programming.dev · 3 pts · 34d
Aldos Huxley is not a great writer. I think he had a better understanding of humanity than Orwell... Or at least, I feel like his books are more insightful, but he is not as good of a writer.
Fierro@piefed.social · 2 pts · 34d
One of the few times reading a translated book is better tgan the original, I read it in Spanish and I guess the translator made it more tolerable because I'm not much of a reader at all (I've read at most five books on my own, less if we don't count unfinished)
Strider@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
Thanks, confirmed.
neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 34d
As they say, Orwell didn't stop it from happening, he just postponed it by 30-40 years.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 51 pts · 35d
A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn.
There is so, so much that Americans don't know that they don't know.
MrSelfDestruct@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 35d
Reading that right now. Definitely changing my perspective that America was once a good place.
Cowbee@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 34d
Follow it up with Settlers, a history of settler-colonialism and the slave trade in the US. No matter how much you think you know about the history of indigenous genocide and chattel slavery in the US, reality is likely far worse than you think.
KokusnussRitter@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 35d
I'm curious; Would you mind to give some highlights?
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 35d
Got some random highlights? I’m curious how many I’ve seen mentioned on Lemmy.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 35d
The first that I usually mention is the Coal Wars / Battle of Blair Mountain or the Sand Creek Massacre, but there are many events that American students are made to be ignorant if on purpose.
It also got me to learn that after meeting the natives for the first time, Columbus literally wrote in his diary about how easy it would be to steal from them because they were so peaceful.
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 34d
Cool, I knew about those! The ones that threw me for a loop were Seneca Village (Black community bulldozed for Central Park) and the bombing by police in Philly in 1983.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 34d
Oh yeah. Thank you for sharing.
I've heard of those two as well, but even so, there's a lot written about in the book that I never learned, even through the earning of my bachelors degree, which is why I'm always quick to recommend that people read it.
KokusnussRitter@discuss.tchncs.de · 32 pts · 35d
A pixie book or equivalent. Pixie books are short children's books (maybe 12 DinA6 pages with very little text and lots of pictures). They are dirt cheap and there is a big bowl full of them in many books stores in Germany. They are meant to get kids into reading and that's why I 'nominated' them here xD
Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 35d
Excluding religious text~
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Any book written by Cormac McCarthy
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Short stories by Kurt Vonnegut
Do Androinds Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Definitely lots more
Vegan_Joe@anarchist.nexus · 18 pts · 35d
I like where this list is going, having read all those. I'm curious what else you would add to it!
Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 34d
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (was my favorite book for years)
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Stand by Stephen King
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
The Chamber by John Grissom
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
Armor by John Steakley
Off the top of my head but I'm sure lots more would qualify if I looked at my library.
Vegan_Joe@anarchist.nexus · 3 pts · 34d
This is great! 'The History of the World in Six Glasses" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" look especially intriguing.
I've read Victor Frankel and Nietzsche before, otherwise they would be intriguing as well.
I'm currently reading Steinbeck's East of Eden, and it may be a while before I finish it. But, when I do, I thank you for the next in queue.
psud@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 35d
I was about to type 'I've been meaning to read that' for the Stephen King book, but I have now and it's fine. I wouldn't call it a must read. As a time travel story it's in the top three
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 33d
Instead of Sapiens I'd suggest The Dawn of Everything.
chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz · 0 pts · 34d
I tried to listen to the audio book of Blood Meridian and it was awful. I couldn't stomach it.
Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
I haven't tried to audio book his stuff. The style of writing seems like it wouldn't translate well. I think Blood Meridian is my second favorite book he wrote.
Sektor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
I have BM audiobook downloaded on my phone. I haven't read many books but this one is probably top 3 for me.
chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 34d
It wasn't the style that bothered me. It was the horrible acts committed by the main characters. Just non-stop brutality.
Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
Oh, I mean yeah they are bad people and based off real people that existed. The Judge is also literally an allegory for the devil/pure evil. Its a good book about bad people. The Road might be more your speed. Still plenty of evil characters but at least your protagonists are good. The boy in that story is basically the antithesis of the judge and is representative of purity in the face of evil. Still has some particularly rough parts. I get what you're saying though. I tapped out of American Psycho for like 3 years after one particularly rough section, only finished it recently. Different author but the only book I've had to put down.
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 28 pts · 35d
Dune.
psud@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 35d
The book of the universe of books
I read all of those by Frank, and none of the others
MrOtingocni@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 35d
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
MisterNeon@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 35d
Came here to suggest that.
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net · 23 pts · 34d
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.
Few other sci-fi books do as good a job of depicting how a gift/library economy could work like in practice. It's quite a hopeful vision of where we can collectively go in the future.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 34d
That reminds me that I really need to put more le guin into my book pile
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 33d
It also shows a realistic version of utopian hope. An eternal struggle for better
fireweed@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 34d
1984, so that people mentioning it online will stop sounding like complete fucking idiots.
Or perhaps The Jungle; it sparked public outcry and major overhauls the last time it became popular, maybe it can work its magic again.
craftrabbit@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 34d
1984 was about the government being able to read your mind so they can give you a rat, right?
Tiral@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 34d
No, that was the diary of Ann Frank actually.
snerkbleat@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 33d
Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf · 5 pts · 33d
No,I think that's Helter Skelter (?)
Upgrayedd1776@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 33d
wasnt that He-man's nemisis?
Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf · 2 pts · 33d
He-man's nemesis is She-man, everybody knows that.
absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz · 3 pts · 33d
I was going to say this.
1984, A Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451.
Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 33d
Add Animal Farm to that list.
fdnomad@programming.dev · 20 pts · 34d
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Just the intermissions would get everyone's blood boiling.
GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 34d
One of my favorite books and unfortunately lots of the story still is relevant today.
calebwill@lemmy.zip · 19 pts · 35d
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 35d
the only thing about this is the first book is great and then the series overall is kinda a letdown.
nightlily@leminal.space · 3 pts · 35d
I don’t agree at all. The first book was great, no argument there - but the series matures with Le Guin as it goes. It’s a truly magnificent breakdown of the fantasy genre.
blackbrook@mander.xyz · 19 pts · 35d
Atlas Shrugged
(Haha just kidding!)
courval@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 35d
I've bought that crap after the BBC promoted it with a dedicated article many years ago.. It's such a boring and average book .. I felt scammed.
nightlily@leminal.space · 4 pts · 35d
A former boss told me it was his favourite book. He didn’t like it when I laughed at him because I thought he was joking.
timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 34d
The Fountainhead was actually an interesting enough story even if you don't agree with the message Rand conveyed.
Atlas shrugged is just... Verbose. Has a plot but my god, the pages upon pages of monologue was too much.
But in the end neither are required reading (and I know you weren't suggesting as such.)
demonmariner@sh.itjust.works · 19 pts · 34d
Hah. I'd be happy to hear that everyone read at least one book in their lifetime.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 33d
Which is ridiculous. I've read one book since the weekend.
It should be made clear though that there are book and there are Books. I feel like this question is about the latter and those are not the ones you had to read in as part of your middle/high school curriculum. Also the one that I read probably doesn't qualify as a capital B book.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 35d
A lot of fiction here so I'll go the other way and suggest "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else" by David Cay Johnston.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291700/perfectly-legal-by-david-cay-johnston/
If people aren't outraged, they aren't paying attention.
Sample:
"Once, Blattmachr devised a way that Bill Gates, the richest man in America, could reap $200 million in profits on Microsoft stock without paying the $56 million of capital gains taxes that federal law required at the time. The plan was so lucrative that Gates would not have to pay a single dollar in tax and would even be entitled to an income tax deduction of $6 million or so. And that was just the initial plan. The concept could be applied endlessly, allowing Gates to convert billions of dollars in Microsoft stock gains into cash over the years. So long as the Internal Revenue Service did not challenge the deals, then Gates could realize unlimited capital gains without the pain of taxes.
The trick was in manipulating charitable trusts, a common enough device used by generous people who own an asset, such as stock or a building that has appreciated in value. Instead of selling the asset and investing the after-tax proceeds, an individual or a married couple can donate the asset to a charitable trust that they control. The trust sells the asset tax-free and invests the proceeds, giving the donating individual or couple a lifetime income, typically 6 percent per year. When the donors die, what remains in the trust, typically half its value, goes to charity.
Blattmachr’s plan was to take back not 6 percent annually for life, but 80 percent per year for two years. Gates could have pocketed at least $192 million without paying any tax. Then the trust would fold and a charity would get the remaining sum, less than $8 million. Under the plan Gates could have converted into cash more than 96 percent of gains on the Microsoft shares he donated, not the 72 percent he was entitled to after federal capital gains taxes. The charity would get less than four cents on each donated dollar. The government would collect nothing.
The scheme even created a tax deduction that was enough to reduce Gates’s income taxes by about $2 million.
Whether Gates took advantage of such a plan is not known for sure because the law makes individual income tax records confidential. What is known is that when Blattmachr made this route available to others, it sold like a treasure map where X marks the tax-free spot. Billions of dollars of assets poured into these short-term charitable trusts and their super-rich owners took many millions of dollars of income tax deductions that further cut into the flow of revenue to the government.
The technique was so outlandish that when some other tax lawyers got their hands on the map in March 1994, they sent it to the Department of the Treasury in a plain brown envelope. That July, Treasury blocked the route to newcomers and said that it would pursue those who used the device. However, the Internal Revenue Service never announced whether it collected any of the taxes. One hint that the IRS may not have acted against those who used the technique can be found in the records of United States Tax Court, which is where taxpayers challenge the IRS. There are no Tax Court cases in which taxpayers fought for a court blessing on the device, known in taxspeak as an “accelerated charitable remainder trust.”
The Treasury rules shutting down this route to tax-free investment profits were not the end of stretching charitable trusts in ways never anticipated by Congress. So facile is Blattmachr’s mind that from those 1994 rules he divined a new route to tax-free gains. He started selling a new treasure map and billions of dollars more in capital gains passed untaxed into the bank accounts of his clients before the government blocked that second path, known in taxspeak as “son of accelerated charitable remainder trust.”
Katana314@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 34d
There’s been a lot of abuse of Trusts in finance for a while. This seems like a good recommendation.
One thing I don’t follow; if someone puts their money into a charitable trust, achieving those lighter tax rules, wouldn’t the obvious rule be that the trust could only then be spent on communal benefit, NOT withdrawn as a personal piggy bank?
It’s fine if someone wants to make an account that is given to charity in case of their death, but then pro-charity tax rules shouldn’t take effect until they die. I’m confused as to why it wouldn’t work that way.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 34d
Sounds like a loophole that was either accidentally or intentionally inserted. This book is full of them.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 35d
Stranger in a Strange Land
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Same message, two vastly different methods of communicating it
karlhungus@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 33d
I'm not sure hhgttg recommends incest with large breasted red heads as much as stranger in a strange land.
I guess I'll bite, what's the message?
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 33d
Whut?
That life is inexplicable and overly complicated because people are hung up on others perceptions instead of what makes them happy. And if everyone just chilled out and tried to make shit a lot better, we'd all be better off
karlhungus@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 32d
This is my mistake,.I went through a Heinlein phase and this one was the last straw for me.I may have had some bleedover from his other books, where I recall his treatment of women sucked ass, was pretty incestuous, and always features promiscuous red heads. I did really like "the moon is a harsh mistress" even if I think libitarism is purile.
I still think stranger is just a Jesus story (it's been ages), where hhgtg didn't have a point except maybe you are at the mercy of the universe, and God is sorry for the inconvenience.
I'm not sure how you got that message, Arthur specifically isn't even aware of his friend being an alien when his house is demolished. He kind of just faces what's next in terror, at least until the fenchurch bits. Even when he's stuck on earth I wouldn't say he's having a good time.
negativenull@piefed.world · 17 pts · 35d
Demon Haunted World -Carl Sagan
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz · 17 pts · 35d
The bible.
Sodom and Gomorrah and the story of Jacob are basically an iq test.
Not only do the stories sound highly unreal, even if they are real the only rational conclusion is that god is evil and petty.
That said, the philosophies of Jesus are pretty cool and often still relevant today.
saltesc@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 35d
Well of course god is the evil one.
Genesis. Dude invented sin by putting a random tree down with a whole made up lore on it for no reason other to tempt his "beloved" creation. Of course it all goes to plan—since the dude apparently knows what comes ahead of time—and he gets to do what he wanted all along; fuck with the ants.
And Lucifer, the only person to try overthrow this monster tragically lost and paid the ultimate price for it.
This slots in so much better than the original, I think. They should incorporate it into Diablo somehow.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 34d
The "Gnostics" believed that the Creator wasn't really the God, but a malevolent lesser deity who condemned our consciousness to the suffering of the physical world.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 15 pts · 35d
Dueuteronomy FTW
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 10 pts · 35d
Imagine wiping an entire city off the face of the earth because they just are a bit kinky. That was the loving and just god.
Of course Jesus said to basically throw out the entire old testament and focus on the love one another bits, but it doesn't seem like the churches caught that
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 33d
Sodom and Gomorrah were about raping guests, not sodomy
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 1 pts · 33d
Even then, the whole city? Women and children too? There were no innocents there? Nah I don't buy it. If god was all powerful he could have selectively smoten.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
Oh absolutely, evil evil god, but the sin of sodom wasn't what Christian pastors want you to think
HostilePasta@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 34d
Jesus absolutely did not say that. He said to follow the law.
Matthew 5:17-20 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
psud@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 35d
Skip the begats bits
anarchy79@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 33d
Any one of them.
Please.
9point6@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 35d
Feels pretty cliche to say them, but
1984, the handmaid's tale and brave new world
Should probably be on anyone's list that hasn't managed to get to them yet
Dude@feddit.org · 1 pts · 35d
Dont forget the graphic novel version of 1984. Awesome und a downer.
9point6@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 34d
Oh I've never actually read that one, thanks for the rec, I've not read 1984 in a good decade or so now, so that seems a good way refresh my mind
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
It Could Never Happen Here. A book about how fascism takes hold in America. Written in 1935
AmazingSUPERG@thelemmy.club · 13 pts · 35d
While I read it in university for a history class… I quite like Candide by Voltaire. Sometimes we all should just tend our own gardens.
naught101@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 35d
Aldous Huxley's Island. Something to aim for.
Also, it's been a while since I read it, and it's a bit didactic, but Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. It's about a telepathic gorilla, and it had the capacity to blow minds.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 12 pts · 35d
Shogūn (really hope I got that phonetic right) by James Clavell. Even, maybe especially if you're not a weeaboo.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 35d
I fell into an amazing illustrated edition from The Folio Society:
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 35d
Fuck it was the ō. That looks really sick though. Could you post a picture of one of the illustrations???
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 35d
That was a stock image, these are my personal copy.
Artist is Chris Malbon:
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 35d
Damn that looks cool. Congrats on that beautiful book
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 35d
Folio Society does drop dead gorgeous editions. I have spent ENTIRELY too much money with them.
whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 35d
The fellowship of the ring, the republic, the history of mathematics, the saga of swamp thing, the invisibles, Macbeth
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 34d
I second The Invisibles, but that's the sort of story you need to work up to.
BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 12 pts · 34d
Grapes of Wrath is a good one that's relevant now as when it was made.
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 34d
Flowers for Algernon
metalsd@eviltoast.org · 4 pts · 34d
This book is so beautiful and sad. Everyone should read it
newton@feddit.online · 11 pts · 35d
Project hail Mary ,better than movie.
radiofreebc@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 35d
Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist
Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Stephen King - The Stand
Apytele@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 34d
The egg by Andy Weir. It gave me the basis for Gnosticism / the spirituality that I genuinely think is closest to the truth ie: humans do have a soul, but it's all the same soul / consciousness that just splits up into sperate little chunks of perception for a little bit at a time before rejoining the whole in different places and splitting off again from and to a completely different place. Honestly the main thing I learned from psychology, neurology, and physics classes is that time, or at least the human perception of it, is almost completely bullshit, and that our perception of our brain as a separate thing that controls the rest of our body, or even as our body as a separate thing from the world like a suit in space is a significant cause of mental illness.
Why does our sense of self so often stop at our brain when most of our neurotransmitters are in our gut? How can you be the cells but not the fluid you filter then piss out? Your upper layers of skin and hair are dead how can they be more you than the air trapped between them? There's a reason drugs dissolving your sense of self, even temporarily, is often described as a positively transformative experience.
toiletobserver@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 35d
Oh the places you'll go!
Dr Seuss
elucubra@sopuli.xyz · 9 pts · 34d
Don Quixote
OmegaMouse@pawb.social · 2 pts · 34d
It's old but very readable and surprisingly funny. Even gets quite meta at points!
Goes off on some tangents at points (including some nested stories), but even these I found quite fun.
Sektor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
I haven't read it but i love this take by late great Michael Sugrue https://youtu.be/zQtP3ZHRA3Q
jet@hackertalks.com · 9 pts · 35d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Statistics
impairedimperator@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 34d
The Master and Margarita
Probably won't get as much out of it as someone who lived in the Soviet union, but it's an interesting dissection of the absurdity of authority.
demonmariner@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 34d
Yup, awesome book.
frostysauce@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 34d
The Stranger by Albert Camus. It's very short, barely over 100 pages, and it helped me realize that nothing really matters.
umbraroze@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 34d
My summer reading list (not that I get to read both every year):
The first is about what we never prepared for, but could try to thrive through. (Mike Oldfield made a cool concept album about this. One of the songs is called "Only time will tell")
The second is a murder mystery set in a medieval monastery. But wait! Is it actually a multilayered examination of our notions about information? Oh hell yeah.
jpreston2005@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 34d
Umberto Eco has beautiful prose, I wish I knew enough Italian to read it in the original text
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
Love that Oldfield album. Had it for decades, and was thrilled to find out it was based on a book I’d read quite a long time before discovering the album.
Upgrayedd1776@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 33d
never heard of it, but cool video someone who liked the song also said was good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU2q36b2V-k
HorikBrun@kbin.earth · 7 pts · 35d
The Jungle. Coal. Ubik. Catch 22. HHGTTG.
a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 33d
The Count of Monte Christo, Fahrenheit 451, Neuromancer.
karlhungus@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 33d
Count of Monte Christo imo isn't so great, or maybe I've read too many shorter riffs on the theme. I'd also plop 1984 before 451.
Upgrayedd1776@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 33d
i keep seeing this listed, but I saw the Wishbone episode of it when i was younger and i dont think i could take it as seriously and also already knowing the twist at the end
neuroneiro@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 33d
Give it a try. I was blown away by how good it is. I prefer the audiobook because it's so long.
undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch · 7 pts · 35d
The Art of UNIX Programming by Eric S Raymond. I’m only half-joking; I used to read it when I had insomnia because it was equal parts fascinating but verbose enough to get me to sleep.
Otherwise Waking Up by Sam Harris. I’d only heard of him after a group meditation session which I’d never done before and immediately became hooked: that you could be spiritual without religion was an entirely new concept for me.
kbal@fedia.io · 7 pts · 35d
The Crying of Lot 49 — it's pretty short.
Chyioko@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 33d
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. For me, I think Russian literature is a must-read.
Snowballfighter@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 33d
To kill a mockingbird -Harper Lee
After reading it, I felt I had read and understood something important that remained with me. Not a difficult or long book, enjoyable and interesting.
Melobol@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 35d
The Tragedy of the Moon by Asimov.
Edit: And one more because why would be only one?
A Short History of Nearly Everything
jacksilver@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 35d
I think you'd have to pick something more geared towards children as books for older people will potentially be too narrowly focused or infused with cultural or regional influences.
Something like the giving tree has some good staying power and discuss concepts that should be beneficial across time/cultures/religions.
neuroneiro@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 33d
The Maxims of Ptahhotep. First book we know of & filled with practical advice.
anarchy79@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 33d
The section dealing with domestic demons by applying crocodile urine to your underwear is worth living by.
neuroneiro@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 33d
What number maxim is that?
Cowbee@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 34d
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels. Short, yet clearly elaborates on the shift from earlier utopian views of socialism of figures like Robert Owen to the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels. One of the best explanations of Marxism itself, other than the essay Principles of Communism. It was taken from the larger and more comprehensive Anti-Dühring as it was believed to be an excellent work for propaganda purposes (and this judgment proved correct, as the booklet spread like wildfire).
Honorable mentions go to Capital, Volume I by Karl Marx, Imperialism, the Current Highest Stage of Capitalism by Lenin, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, and Neocolonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah. This series of books expands on capitalism during its beginning, intermediate, and imperialist phases, and imperialism itself in its beginning, intermediate, and final phases as they relate to colonialism and neocolonialism.
ieGod@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 33d
A Brief History of Time
CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 33d
A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
Abyssian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 34d
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I'd have never picked it up if I hadn't been bored and trying to kill time, but it really put life in a new perspective. Genuinely think it's made everything lighter since reading that one.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 33d
Is it like his other books? Slaughterhouse 5 was totally and completely terrible. IMO.
Abyssian@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
I actually haven't read any of his other books. When I was in high school Slaughterhouse 5 was one of the default books on class book report lists, so I assumed he was a dry, dusty, old-timey author. One of the things that surprised me reading Timequake was finding out he has a daughter my age.
It's a very weird book. But it's brilliant and touching and heartbreaking and eye-rolling kind of funny. He's writing in his own voice. The setup is that "Timequake" was a draft novel he never finished.... I'm not sure if that's true on some level, or just a literary device. He says that in that novel the Timequake occurred in 2001, and pushed everyone, everywhere, backward to 1991.
But... not to change anything. Every single thing plays out exactly as it did the first time around. Everyone ended up in some kind of conscious "autopilot" with no free will, forced to repeat every event, every choice, every moment they had lived over those 10 years all over again, conscious they're stuck in some kind of loop/nightmare watching and doing but unable to do even the tiniest thing differently.
Seems like it would make a horribly boring, pointless scifi story... but as a literary device, it's amazing. It's him looking back on life and coming to terms with getting older and not being able to change the things we've fucked up. One of the things that stuck with me the most was him saying that no one asked to be born, no one got an instruction manual for this "life" and "self-aware consciousness" nonsense, no one has any real idea what the hell we're doing. Every one of us is just making it up as we go. We never got a chance to practice, just pushed out into this shit with no warning at all.
My parents weren't the best, and I've definitely had my own relationship issues. It really helped put existence into perspective. It's not a book you read for a story, it's just sort of his life... but it's the parts that pretty much anyone over 40 is sure to relate to.
JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 33d
Yep, that one's extremely boring, but the other ones are great. I think that's a relatively popular opinion.
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 33d
Sheesh I guess I'll have to try again. I didn't like that it seemed shallow and... without a plan? Like you get some mild character explanation through time but it is mostly just kind of surface level/shock value weird.
JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 33d
I think the most character developed Vonnegut books are Galapagos and Breakfast of champions. I also just read Mother night, which has many thought-out characters (I was fascinated by Resi Noth, who isn't a main character by any stretch of imagination).
Edit: But yes, the characters are weird and cynically exaggerated in most of his works.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 35d
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
karlhungus@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 33d
For Americans I think "slavery by another name" and "bury my heart at wounded knee" should be required reading.
Don't really know one book that everyone should read, maybe everyone should read more than one book
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 4 pts · 35d
Hagakure.
DonPiano@feddit.org · 4 pts · 33d
World-2023 ESN Publications and London Organisation of Skills Development Ltd
About 100000 pages. If you read a page per minute, continuously without breaks you'll lose over 60 days of economic activity to this. This would massively disrupt the world if everyone had to read it.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 34d
Bradbury's The Illustrated Man
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 34d
Surface Detail by Iain M Banks
Part of The Culture series but can be read standalone, potential for being one of the best hard scifi books out there
RecursiveParadox@piefed.social · 3 pts · 34d
I love this book and all his stuff, but this is not hard sci-fi at all.
Just so if anyone takes the recommendation they know what they are getting into :)
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 34d
How is it not hard scifi? Genuinely curious given the whole hyper advanced civilisation, interdimensional space travel, transhumanism as a part of daily life, ::: spoiler spoiler entire chapters that introduce characters and settings that are wiped out of existence in a single sentence along with the underpinning story showing the contrasts between interstellar warfare and microscopic warfare over the artificially created representation of capital H Hell being used as a prison for political dissidents. ::: (minor ish spoiler)
Or is my understanding of hard scifi wrong?
RecursiveParadox@piefed.social · 2 pts · 33d
Yeah, I'm afraid your understanding of what the "hard" part of hard SciFi is not correct.
Most people who use the term refer to SciFi that does not exceed the bounds of what we know to be physically possible, e.g., no FTL, not sapient AIs, etc.
Although I can see how you might misinterpret it to indicate anything that might be possible.
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 31d
Ohhh so Hard scifi as a term means hard limited to the scientific knowledge of the time. I was thinking it was more like a mature category where it's less fantasy more "The fantasy part of this story is the exotic metals and technology beyond the knowledge of a sub type 1 civilisation (hey that's us!)"
Cheers for the knowledge
RecursiveParadox@piefed.social · 2 pts · 31d
By your initial definition, the Culture series would certainly qualify!
kn0wmad1c@programming.dev · 4 pts · 35d
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Absolutely beautiful book
Corngood@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 34d
I love all his books, but I just want to recommend The Unconsoled. I found it an absolute trip and it's one of my favourite books.
TheStaffmaster@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 34d
Anything by E.B. White. While the narratives are simplistic, there is a gentile under tone of trauma in each one that I feel might be rather meaningful and resonant to today's emotionally fragile youth. These are books that deal with inevitable death, discrimination and ableism in frank, but subversively subtle ways.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 34d
Illusions by Richard Bach, subtitled The Tale of the Reluctant Messiah. A beautiful book about the universe and spirituality. The author wrote it on the premise of "what if I had my own, personal, Jesus... Or Buddha or Messiah that was hanging out with me and explaining the universe". So this guy is a Messiah that one day just quits to fly airplanes.
It's funny, it's inspiring, it's a little sad, but hopeful. It's also very short, you can easily read it in an afternoon.
stringere@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 34d
I love the movie theater analogy.
kombucha@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 33d
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
A short read that makes you think about how you interact with the world. I’ve read it multiple times and always take something new from it.
JoeKrogan@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 35d
The awakening of intelligence by Jiddu Krishnamurti
_deleted_@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 35d
Scuppers the Sailor Dog
Comrade_Squid@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 34d
State and Rev
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 33d
Everyone? Idk. For most people though GTD is pretty high on my list.
djmikeale@feddit.dk · 2 pts · 35d
The ones that influenced me the most earlier in life was
Both illuminate what it means to be human and what makes us (not) achieve happiness, but explained through very different lenses
karlhungus@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 33d
Recommend "if books could kill" podcast about sapiens. Might give you some pause on recommending that book
djmikeale@feddit.dk · 1 pts · 33d
Interesting, will check it out
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 33d
I enjoyed sapiens but I'm much faster to recommend The Dawn of Everything these days
Noctambulist@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 35d
It should probably be a book the reading of which would be most beneficial to everyone. That’s a high bar pointing to some form of practical philosophy. I’d go with an introduction to Buddhism, something like What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula though perhaps there are others better suited for a general audience.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 34d
Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence - David Benatar
I found reading this to be quite validating of my own life experiences and observations
metalsd@eviltoast.org · 2 pts · 34d
This book is very well written but I disagreed completely with the premise. I believe is true that we don't choose to be born. We're forced into existence kicking and screaming but that's the nature of being. We are born we grow up we procreate and then we die. Some of us don't procreate by choice but I feel the desire to have offspring is innate to being alive. Some people and beings have a stronger desiree than others, and there's nothing wrong on following through and cires related to the suffering we impar into our offspring is not reason not to do it. Just like children's role is not to take care of their parents when they're old. All things considered, this is quite a philosophical debate.
JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 33d
I disagree. If you enjoy raising someone and taking care of somebody, who later becomes an independent person, you can adopt children and not create a new life, that gets repressed by capitalism, authoritarianism and humanity itself. You can love other people's children as much as your own.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 34d
One of the reviewers had a similar take: commended the quality of the writing but disagreed with the author's conclusion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Never_to_Have_Been
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 33d
Green Eggs and Ham.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 1 pts · 35d
Different people like different books.
Azzu@leminal.space · 4 pts · 35d
You don't say? Thank you for this insight!
;)
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 4 pts · 35d
I mean, this questions suggests there are books that every person would like and/or understand. I don't thin there are.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 34d
Ok first of all, it's a turn of phrase that means "recommend a book you really like". Secondly, people should absolutely read books they don't understand and also should absolutely read books they don't like. The former challenges you to learn and the latter challenges your taste or morals. Those types of books help you grow.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 0 pts · 34d
Not really. "A book everyone should read once in their lifetime" implies more a book that is so culturally valuable and important that everyone should know it, not just something "you really like". If we're talking about books you just "really like" than you would simply recommend it as something you like, not say "everyone should read it". Unless you think your taste in books is so great everyone will like what you like.
Yes, tell children to read books about quantum mechanics. They will not understand anything but will be challenged to learn...
Some books are just beyond some people. What's the point of reading things you can't comprehend? You should read books about things you don't know about but not understanding what you're reading makes no sense.
Same with books you don't like. Reading books should be fun, not a chore. I used to finish all the books I've started, even if I didn't like them. I meant I wasted a lot of time struggling through books I didn't enjoy. Nothing morally challenging in it.
agent_nycto@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
Whatever, ya fun policing pedant. People just wanted to talk about books.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net · 1 pts · 34d
I love you too.
nosuchanon@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 33d
A short history of nearly everything. Snowcrash
solrize@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 35d
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
Paris in the Terror by Loomis
Describing public events and the private machinations behind them (through the participant's journals and letters), revealing how the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions.
BastingChemina@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 34d
The Tartar Steppe,
it's been a life altering book for me and it so come in my mind from time to find when I'm thinking about what I'm doing with my life.
leftascenter@jlai.lu · 1 pts · 34d
Capital and ideology by Thomas Piketty. An eye opener on wealth distribution throughout history and the arguments that held societies together to allow wealth disparity.
CyberneticOwl@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 35d
Perhaps you could dismiss it as having too much of a Western focus, but it really was an eye opening book that made me reexamine various cultural institutions at the time I read it
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d
Brothers Karamazov
Doctor Zhivago
To Kill A Mockingbird
Narnia series
Sundown Towns
karlhungus@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 33d
The Narnia series is not that great, think it only did so well cause it's so religious
Kaesekalup@lemmy.wtf · 1 pts · 34d
Yu Hua - Brothers
axx@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 33d
The Bible. No just kidding, but reading the God Delusion is a pretty good way to get rid of wanting to read that one.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 34d
Reading isn't about any single book. Each book is a peice in a larger concept of expanding ones mind outside the small part of the world they live in. Some expand more than others. But one alone makes only a small difference.
Jarix@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 34d
Yeah but what's one book everyone should read at least one in their lifetime?
stringere@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 34d
A cake decorating book for you, today.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world · -5 pts · 34d
None. One book alone is meaningless.
jpreston2005@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 34d
I knew I was right never to read, thanks!
If one book is meaningless, then 2 books is like, double meaningless!