Books to read before I die?

[Muse]

Originally posted by: ultra laser
The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer

I believe that Schopenhauer himself said at the beginning of the book that it's necessary to read it twice to understand it. I dig that idea.

 

[Mo0o]

Be careful with Origin of Species. Darwin may have originated the idea but he was far from correct. There's a lot of random crap in there that is totally wrong. If you're interested in evolution stuff, Gould is a good author to check out.

More nonfiction that I really enjoyed reading:

Our Posthuman Future - Fukuyama
Freakonomics - Levitt
Tipping Point - Gladwell
Moneyball - Lewis
Blind side - Lewis

 

[Woosta]

Originally posted by: Colt45
war and peace

yeah, def - i have that.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Woosta

Originally posted by: Colt45
war and peace

yeah, def - i have that.

Anna Karenin too.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
I would put the Brothers Karamazov at the top of the list. It's not considered perhaps the greatest literary work of all time for nothing.

I've tried reading that book a few times (it's beside the bed right now), but I just can't get into it. I just don't like the writing style. I guess I normally like reading non-fiction.

Edit: As for my fiction recommendations (some of which aren't books, I suppose)-

The Divine Comedy - Dante
Hamlet - Shakespeare
Othello - Shakespeare
We - Zamyatin
Oedipus Trilogy - Sophocles
2001, 2010, 2061, (you can really skip 3001) - Arthur C Clarke
The Illiad and The Odyssey - Homer
Red, Green, and Blue Mars - Robinson

I assume I'm going to get flamed here, but that's the list.

 

[Muse]

Ha! Eleven years later, yes I'm necroing this awesome thread.

Have you read these yet?

Want to add to the list?

I have bought quite a few books recently, some I think worthy additions to this (if they aren't on there already):

Cadillac Desert (The American West and it's Disappearing Water)

Inner Engineering - Sadhguru

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Tuchman, Barbara W.

The Druid of Harley Street: The Spiritual Psychology of E. Graham Howe

Helter Skelter (I just watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which you just won't understand unless you read this book). Of course, the movie Helter Skelter is based on the book, which is a page turner.

 

[Muse]

Bump for a super great thread.

People always say 1984, but I think Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is more realistic.

In a 1949 letter, thanking Orwell for sending him a copy of “1984,” he wrote that he really didn’t think all that torture and jackbooting was necessary to subdue a population, and that he believed his own book offered a better solution.

Which Dystopian Novel Got It Right: Orwell’s ‘1984’ or Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’? (Published 2017)

Which dystopian novel got it right: Orwell’s ‘1984’ or Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’?

www.nytimes.com

 

[shortylickens]

All the dystopian/fake utopian books are good. You dont have to agree with them, but they make you think.

Brave New World is a decent novel. The TV series with Han Solo is shit. They don't delve into ANY of the philosophies but they do have lots of orgy scenes. Lame effort to cash in on a known IP and sex & violence.

 

[Muse]

Can I get recommendations for how to read Shogun?

Is it always divided into two books?

A quick search indicates that it has been published with illustrations and I have the impression that the Kindle version would lack any illustrations, which suggests to me that a printed version might be best.

I see several printed editions including paperback and hardcover.

Please, can I get some informed suggestions?

 

[dasherHampton]

The Razor's Edge is surely my favorite novel of all time. I've read it at least 5 or 6 times.

Of course SM is a great writer, and I love his other stuff like "Moon and Sixpence" and "Cakes and Ale" (His short stories and essays are great s well). But The Razor's Edge stands out to me as his masterpiece. I've never been more engrossed and involved in a book.

The Natural is sort of an under the radar good read. I also really enjoyed "Children of Men" (quite different than the movie).

Quick shallow entertaining reads? I'd nominate Jurassic Park and Hunt for Red October.

 

[pmv]

Books to read after you die

The Necronomicon

 

[Chaotic42]

A wonderful non-fiction book that I think anyone even remotely interested in space, rockets, or chemistry should read is "Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants". It has one of the best lines from any book ever, about the amazing Chlorine Trifluoride:

It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water—with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals—steel, copper, aluminum, etc.—because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride that protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.

 

[Muse]

The Razor's Edge is surely my favorite novel of all time. I've read it at least 5 or 6 times.

Of course SM is a great writer, and I love his other stuff like "Moon and Sixpence" and "Cakes and Ale" (His short stories and essays are great s well). But The Razor's Edge stands out to me as his masterpiece. I've never been more engrossed and involved in a book.

The Natural is sort of an under the radar good read. I also really enjoyed "Children of Men" (quite different than the movie).

Quick shallow entertaining reads? I'd nominate Jurassic Park and Hunt for Red October.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. - W. Somerset Maugham

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

A wonderful non-fiction book that I think anyone even remotely interested in space, rockets, or chemistry should read is "Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants". It has one of the best lines from any book ever, about the amazing Chlorine Trifluoride:

It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water—with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals—steel, copper, aluminum, etc.—because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride that protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.

If you enjoy this style of writing, I recommend checking out Derek Lowe's 'things I won't work with' blog series he was doing a few years ago (he has many of these)

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-dioxygen-difluoride

And he's just getting warmed up, if that's the right phrase to use for something that detonates things at -180C (that's -300 Fahrenheit, if you only have a kitchen thermometer). The great majority of Streng's reactions have surely never been run again. The paper goes on to react FOOF with everything else you wouldn't react it with: ammonia ("vigorous", this at 100K), water ice (explosion, natch), chlorine ("violent explosion", so he added it more slowly the second time), red phosphorus (not good), bromine fluoride, chlorine trifluoride (say what?), perchloryl fluoride (!), tetrafluorohydrazine (how on Earth. . .), and on, and on. If the paper weren't laid out in complete grammatical sentences and published in JACS, you'd swear it was the work of a violent lunatic. I ran out of vulgar expletives after the second page. A. G. Streng, folks, absolutely takes the corrosive exploding cake, and I have to tip my asbestos-lined titanium hat to him.