What Books Do You Think Are Among The MOST Helpful Books...

[DistressedAmerican]

of the 19th and 20th centuries.

In response to the great post regarding the Freeper site's online book burning thread:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3756246#3758810

I thought we could save some from the fire.

Nominate a book.

My nomination:
The Origin Of Species
By Darwin

Also had a nod for any Howard Zinn Book!

[mcscajun]

1. Top Ten "Must Reads" from the last century

for those of us in the 21st:

1. Hiroshima by John Hersey
Containing first-hand accounts of the aftermath of nuclear destruction, EVERYONE should read this.

2. 1984 by George Orwell
Ignore the date: Newspeak and Doublethink live. A primer for understanding political and media manipulation.

3. Animal Farm by George Orwell
"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." If you think this book is just an analogy about Communism, think again.

4. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Human cloning, soma (feelgood drug), social engineering; fiction?

5. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
1950's: "Are you now or have you ever been?" 2003: "Free Speech Zones". Still a timely work.

6. It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis shows that it could...and how.

7. Human Scale by Kirkpatrick Sale
Bigger ISN'T always better -- in fact it can be the reverse. Go beyond ergonomics.

8. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander
No, we can't put the genie back in the bottle. Think "conglomerate media" and "reality TV" -- then read this.

9. The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War by Paul R. Ehrlich, et al
The Cold War may be over, but the risk of a nuclear winter will never be.

10. The Handmaid's Tale : A Novel by Margaret Atwood
The scenario as a whole *is* far-fetched to be sure, but worthwhile nuggets are in there.

[salib]

3. Cool list!

How about "Man's Search For Meaning" by Victor Frankel?

Now, for a little more obscure, "The Journal of Albion Moonlight" by Kenneth Patchen.

But, my choice is "Always Coming Home" by Ursula LeGuin.

[mcscajun]

5. Thanks. Larry Gelbart had a good line on "1984" just recently

in a post he made on the Huffington site:

"Thought police. Perpetual war. 1984 is here -– 20 years late and way over budget."

[DistressedAmerican]

8. I'm With You!

An Early Graphic of Mine:

[immoderate]

6. I'd like to add some, if I may

As an Orwellian, his books would top any list I made. But a couple that I found most instructive were:

Games People Play by Erich Berne -- A popular view of his Transactional Analysis, which leads to...

Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud marvelous introspection on how the great doctor developed the notion of the unconscious.

Dune by Frank Herbert -- starts a little slow, but provides insight into the ecology of earth by modeling the ecological-social system of the much simpler Dune.

Letters to the Earth by Mark Twain -- not really twentieth century, but models thinking for the new century.

--IMM

[schrodingers_cat]

2. my vote from the 21st Century......

'American Dynasty - Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush'
Kevin Phillips

[DistressedAmerican]

4. Very Good Book.!

[schrodingers_cat]

9. Yep!

Had to read it in small doses so that my brain wouldn't explode. Well researched,wonderfully pragmatic.

[Tux]

7. Mine

God's Politics by Jim Wallis

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

In The Wake of 9/11 by Tom Pyszcznski, Sheldon Solomon, and Jeff Greenburg

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

1984 by George Orwell

Walden by Henry Thoreau

Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth by Thomas Jefferson

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

[roscoeroscoe]

10. good choices!

may i join in recommending 'starship troopers' by heinline. test your thinking against the discussion here. also,
'moon is a harsh mistress,' heinline
'mars trilogy,' kim stanley robinson **highly recommended**
'dispossesed,' ursula k leguin
'people's history of the united states,' howard zinn
'you are being lied to,' 'everything you know is wrong,' etc by disinformation.com, russ kick editor **highly recommended**
richard belzer's book on ufo's
'cuba libre,' elmore leonard
'ugly american,' sorry don't know the author
then get back with me and let's have coffee!

[Tux]

13. Need a job and time

Before i can get coffee.

[intheflow]

18. Stranger In A Strange Land

absolutely rocked my world when my older sister read it to me. She (7 years older than I) was taking a sci-fi English class in high school. I must have been 9 or 10. It's probably #1 on my list.

:thumbsup:

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan. nt

[FSogol]

12. Catch-22 and anything by Vonnegut

"Someone must make God pay for all this pain and suffering. I know, Judgment Day. Then I'll be close enough to get my hands around his scrawny neck and..."

and

"Yossarian was angry because every day he saw dozens of women and girls he would never get to sleep with. Not even once."

[etherealtruth]

35. Agree with you n/t

[bloom]

14. Silent Spring

I've also enjoyed Annie Dillard's books. Like "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek".

[Canadian Socialist]

15. Agree with the whole list

would like to add:
"The Man who Fell to Earth" (sorry, don't remember author, but was a great movie w/David Bowie and Rip Torn).

As well, want to take umbrage w/the poster who said "A Handmaiden's Tale" was a little farfetched. From what I read in the American MSM, not so much anymore. YMMV.

And anything by Kurt Vonnagut.

[Ezlivin]

16. To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee (or Truman Capote ye doubters) gives us unforgettable characters and a searing portrayal of bigotry, hatred and injustice.

[etherealtruth]

36. I reread it at least every decade n/t

[bpilgrim]

17. a peoples history of the US - slaughter house 5

What Uncle Sam Really Wants
http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/sam/

just to add to the excellent list :hi:

peace

[DistressedAmerican]

19. Late Night Kicker!

[Swamp Rat]

20. qd 9237 4yr-173f

[DistressedAmerican]

21. I Think New Orleans Is No Good For The Health!

Go To Bed You Freak!

[Swamp Rat]

23. FREAK!

[DistressedAmerican]

27. George Clinton NEVER Sleeps!!!

[Swamp Rat]

28. Neither do lizard slayers...

... except when they begin their statistics class tomorrow. :puke:

[cquik18]

22. "House of Bush, House of Saud" by Craig Unger....

..this book came out at least 6 months BEFORE "Fahrenheit 911"..Unger was featured in the movie...I recommend the book as a MUST READ to people, and they just look with glazed eyes...when the Great Book Burning DOES come, safe bet it will be one of the first to go up...also, "Worse than Watergate", by John Dean...the average American sheep won't bother to read it...but if Britney Spears talks into a tape recorder and some ghost writer makes a book of it, you better believe it will get read!

[Melodybe]

25. OK here we go

#1 MUST be 1984, it is their god damn play book and everyone in America should be forced to read it.

#2 Animal Farm

#3 Brave New World

#4 Handmaid's Tale

#5 It Can't Happen Here

#6 Fahrenheit 451

#7 The Oxford translations of Hitler's speeches (read'um and then look at your hero freepers!)

#8 The Lord of the Rings

#9 The Tao te Ching

#10 The New Testament, the whole thing, cause fundies obviously can't get past 10 passages.

#11 Watership Down, cause I love that book and it never gets mentioned around here.

[hfojvt]

24. Revenge of the Latch-key kids by Ted Rall

Small is Beautiful E.F. Schumacher
Poverty of Affluence Paul Wachtel
Ishmael and My Ishmael Daniel Quinn
Stand on Zanzibar John Brunner

[davekriss]

26. In no special order

And as relevant to me -- ask me again tomorrow and I'm likely to list a whole new set of books...

Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital
Michael Harrington, The Twilight of Capitalism
Stuart Ewen, Captains of Consciousness
Paul Sweezy, Monopoly Capital
Norman O Brown, Life Against Death
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Creative Mythology, Volume IV
Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronomous Bosch
Howard Zinn, A Peoples History of the United States
Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent
Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions
Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
Andre Malraux, The Voices of Silence
Julia Kristeva, Black Sun
Gary Snyder, Earth Household
Alan Watts, Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown
Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism
Benjamin Friedman, Day of Reckoning
Fredrich Nietzche, Beyond Good and Evil
Arthur Rimbaud, Complete Works (specifically for The Wastelands of Love, which I read over and over again after my first love failed)
Michael Parenti, Power and the Powerless
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Word as Will and Representation, Vol 1
T.S. Elliot, Complete Works (specifically for The Four Quartets)
Alan Ginsburg, Howl
James Joyce, Ulysess
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Ranier Marie-Rilke, Letters to a Poet
Rene Pascal, Pensees
The Bible, Old and New Testaments
David Perkins (ed), English Romantic Writers (though I love them all, specifically for John Keats' Endymion, which I quote here because I think it is the most beautiful passage in the English language, though many other passages come close...

Endymion (Excerpts)

BOOK I

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

Nor do we merely feel these essences
For one short hour; no, even as the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
The passion poesy, glories infinite,
Haunt us till they become a cheering light
Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast,
That, whether there be shine, or gloom o'ercast;
They always must be with us, or we die.

Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
Will trace the story of Endymion...

[DistressedAmerican]

30. Try Chomsky's Hegemony Or Survival Too!

From your list, I suspect you'd love it!

[OrlandoGator]

29. Most of the books in that "harmful" list are on my "good" list.

I learned more about human nature from reading Mein Kampf than from reading the Bible.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

31. "War and Peace", "Catch-22", "The Grapes of Wrath"

"1984"
"Guns, Germs, and Steel"
"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"Life"
"Hucklebery Finn"
"Anna Karenina"
"Black Boy" - Richard Wright
"The Souls of Black Folk" - W.E.B DuBois

and, many more. Almost all of which have come under attack by the right wing.

[bpilgrim]

32. make sure you check out PROJECT GUTENBERG (free on-line books) -> LINKS

http://gutenberg.hwg.org

see also...
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au

(they removed Sinclair Lewis since the last time i been there :shrug:)
found it here...
IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html

psst... pass the words ;->

peace

[bpilgrim]

33. The American Revolutionary War - ALHN: (read on-line, FREE)

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/revwar

psst... pass the word ;->

peace

[DistressedAmerican]

37. I Love Those Folks! Great Archive!

[XemaSab]

34. Some top books

War is a force that gives us meaning

Confessions of an economic hit man

Silent Spring

The Poisonwood Bible

1984

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Much of Steinbeck (eg The Grapes of Wrath, the Moon is Down)

Lord of the Flies