Some books I ought to have read...

[Bertros Bertros]

I'm going away for 6 months soon, actually in 12 days so very soon. I don't suppose I'll play any CC or read any forums whilst im gone so while I'm here I may as well say an early, see ya! Not that this is a leaving thread, the funny farm can live on without just another bleedin' heart liberal in the ranks and besides I'll no doubt come back at some point.

And so to the point of my post, I'm figuring this is a good opportunity to read some books I really ought to have read. You know lots of trains and airports and hopefully hammocks over the next 6 months should provide ample time. A friend said don't waste it, learn something, so I'm going to annoy my girlfriend and learn the harmonica, and I'm going to read some books I really ought to have read.

I've got a list coming along nicely but I was hoping to get some more ideas. I'm not necessarily looking for your favourite books, or favourite authors, and not just Western Canon style entries either. I want the books that helped shape culture, or broke boundaries, were way ahead of the time etc. Any ideas most welcome. My list (in a vaguely chronological order) to take (or at least pick up along the way) so far (which I may keep up to date depending if anyone gives a shit about my literary education) is as follows:

Paradise Lost - John Milton
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
Don Quixote de la Mancha - Miguel de Cervantes
Gullivers Travels - Jonathan Swift
For whom the bell tolls - Ernest Hemmingway
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Animal Farm - George Orwell
1984 - George Orwell
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D H Lawrence
Catch-22 - Jopseph Heller
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles


I don't want to read any fantasy or sci-fi really, I have read way too much before and I don't want non-fiction. I've been thinking of maybe some Dickens for example but wouldn't know which to pick...

[XenHu]

East Of Eden by John Steinbeck.

-X

[sully800]

A Clockwork Orange
The Kite Runner
A Walk in the Woods

[The1exile]

King Solomons Mines
The Prisoner of Zenda
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Three Musketeers

[magneticgoop]

A Clockwork Orange
The Kite Runner
A Walk in the Woods

i am reading it in English and it is really good i was just about to recommend it. and Animal Farm is really good too an easy read but i loved it

[Genghis Khant]

The Diceman - Luke Reinhart

[btownmeggy]

The best of South America's 20th century:

J.L. Borges: Fictions

Mario de Andrade: Macunaima

[Bertros Bertros]

Excellent work so far, some of those will definitely be making the list which I'll update tomorrow sometime. If your book(s) dont make it may be because I have already read them not just because they are bolllocks, so don't take it personal unless you get off on that sort of thing. Thannks though, these are just the ticket!

[gimpyThewonder]

Such a Long Journey ~ Rohinton Mistry
A most excellent book set in India in 1971. A really fantastic work

[Harijan]

If you pick a steinbeck book (which I highly recommend) I would get Grapes of Wrath as opposed to East of Eden, but to each his own. As far as looking for books that made a difference, GoW really captured the dust bowl exodus which formed the foundation for the American communist movement, of which, Steinbeck was a supporter.

Two others to consider:
1. Collapse - Jared Diamond - if you want to be frightened of the where 1st world civilization is headed, collapse lays out a convincing argument that we are at the peak of a great civilization, and every great civilization before us has collapsed within the course of one or two generation when they were where we are now. (non-fiction)

2. Guns, Germs, and Steel - It may not have had a culture impact, but it sure does make a great and readable argument about the impact of guns germs and steel on the entire world. (non-fiction)

(I lied)

3. Ishmael - Daniel Quinn - what Rachel Carson meant to say. Quinn's book actually had a much bigger contemporaneous impact than Silent Spring. (fiction with an agenda)

If you are really looking for fiction, "The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey. It is a very fast read and delightful. If you happen to be "going away" to the south west U.S. MWG can almost be used as a guidebook. MWG was the inspiration for Earth First (American environmental terrorist organization) and by heredity every other militant environmentalist group in America (there are more of them than you think).

[Harijan]

For books that really changed things I would also recommend
"The Prophet" - Khalil Ghibran.

It is actually a book of poetry, but its middle eastern poetry which can read much more like a story than prose (which "The Prophet" does). Only about 50 pages, but it was a huge book all the same, size does not matter.

[0ojakeo0]

bye

[static_ice]

if you ever do feel like sci-fi or fantasy, The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock are some of the best, although they are a 6 book series they are all (except the 6th) very short, and the reason I would still recommend them even if you don't feel like reading this genre is, they do break a lot of boundaries within it.

[CrazyAnglican]

American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis

If you are looking for avante gaurde satire of American materialism.

[magneticgoop]

2. Guns, Germs, and Steel - It may not have had a culture impact, but it sure does make a great and readable argument about the impact of guns germs and steel on the entire world. (non-fiction)

i saw a tree part series on pbs called guns germs and steel i think by the guy who wrote it. i thought it was really interesting a must watch

[unriggable]

The Watchmen by Alan Moore

It's a comic book, however it's just as deep as any other novel I've read.

[daddy1gringo]

If you're going to read Dickens, I think A Tale of Two Cities fits best in the august company you've named. Great expectations was enjoyable, but much more shallow by all accounts. You might want to consider Hugo's Les Miserables. Let me give a big thumbs up to Crime and Punishment. Very thought provoking; it was the first thing that came to mind before I saw it was already on your list.

[qeee1]

That's a mighty ambitious reading list you got there, Crime and Punishment, War and Peace and Don Quixote on their own could easily take that long, but while I'm here I suppose I may as well recommend:

Walden-Henry David Thoreau
The Trial-Franz Kafka

[kalishnikov]

Interview with A Vampire/The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice (no I'm not Goth)
Bram Stoker- Dracula (see above)
Definitely read 1984
Machiavelli- The Prince
A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah
The Long Walk/Gerald's Game- Steven King
The Regulators- Richard Bachman
On the Road Again/Dharma Bums- Jack Kerouac
Red Storm- Tom Clancey
Big Bad Wolf- James Patterson

No specific order, various genres.

[Bertros Bertros]

Just wanted to say thanks to you all for the thoughts. Yes qeee, its extremely ambitious and I have no intention of reading everything on the list over the next six months. What I eventually take will depend on what fits neatly in my bag, and what I read will also depend on what I pick up along the way, but its a start and should keep me going for a while when I get back too!

For all my high faluting intentions I'm thinking of reading "Such a long journey" first, I've read "A fine balance" which is also by Mistry and it was a great easy read, and we fly first to India so it would be approriate I guess... We'll see, I also have Heart of Darkness on the shelf and have been waiting to read it for some time andit will only take a few hours at most...

I'm going to do some shopping tomorrow, so thanks for tips, any more of course welcome

[heavycola]

American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis

If you are looking for avante gaurde satire of American materialism.

Just been talking about that book. I love it.

[Norse]

Can't beat a terry pratchett novel....

I suggest "The city watch" episodes....funny as anything.

[kwanton]

I was going to suggest The Kite Runner also...

Check out:

The Bluest Eye-Toni Morrison

The Art of War-Sun Tzu

Thus spake Zarathustra- Friedrich Wilhelm Neitzche

[OnlyAmbrose]

The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

My favorite among those already listed is definitely Catch-22. Hilarious.

[magneticgoop]

another note on kite runner: read it 1 or 2 chapters at a time it make the story much more thought provoking and dont set it down untill you read chapter 7