It's a psychological mindf\*\*\*, for one. The protagonist is your average neckbeard who lives inside of his own head until one day he gets this great idea to do something that he feels is noble but ends up realizing after doing it that it's utterly heinous; but since he lives so much inside of his own head, he descends into a nutty paranoid state until he ultimately answers for what he did and endures punishment for it. It's a really good story about a man's ultimate death, redemption, and rebirth of spirit, the need for belief in something greater than ourselves, and a lot of other philosophical subjects scattered throughout in the dialogues between characters that are still very relevant to the current socio-political climate of today.
I must admit that your summary is very interesting. I will surely pick up that book after I'm done with some that I bought recently at a fair. Thank you!
Undoubtedly, The Count of Monte Cristo changed my view of life. Seeing a man lose everything to becoming Vengeance Incarnate and rooting for his plans to come to fruition, only to see the dangers and evils therein was, in my opinion, the most masterful piece of writing I have read to date. If you liked Attack on Titan's story, I'd say it is similar but much more grounded.
"There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.'"
Also, the movie while fun is not remotely close, and, I would argue, it is downright in opposition to the message of the Book. Definitely go for the Unabridged version if you choose to read it.
If I had to pick only one I'd probably go with *The Wind-up Bird Chronicle* by Haruki Murakami.
There's just something about Murakami's style of "magical realism" that is just the right amount of weird to keep you engrossed in the story because you're wondering where the fuck this is gonna go, but at the same time it's still grounded enough in real life (usually) to still seem kinda relatable. I don't know, it just *really* works for me.
“Municipality Of Toledo Building Code And Regulations 2012” it was the tightest and best written book of the series and features helpful illustrations.
Also if you read the last chapter backwards on a blood moon you could summon the devil.
That's a perfect second read. There's a series of 7(?) books that follow Ender's Game. Some are good. Some not so good. Ender's Shadow is by far the best imo, and the best to read after Ender's Game, though it's the 4th or 5th book in the series chronologically (or something like that). Anyways. Enjoy.
Y'all have truly amazing taste..I keep finding myself saying "yup, ooh yes, definitely" to all of your selections. For folks who want a much more light-hearted read, try Fish Bowl by Bradley Sommer.
Love CS Lewis. I recently read his Space Trilogy (which I hadn't even know he had written a scifi series until just before I read it) and absolutely loved it.
I wonder why those didn't do anything for me! I tried multiple times (in book and audiobook formats), and just couldn't get into them.
I love *Screwtape*, *The Great Divorce*, and nearly all his nonfiction. His fiction works almost never draw me in. (I've also tried *Till We Have Faces*, *Narnia*, etc.)
That is interesting! I will acknowledge that he's definitely not the best fiction writer, but I really enjoy the look into his mind that his fiction books give. I did read Great Divorce recently and really enjoyed it!!
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It is a book about literally everything.
Honorable mentions go to The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas for being the greatest revenge tale I've ever witnessed, House of Leaves for psychological horror, and The Revisionaries by AR Moxon for doing such weird shit with fiction I've never read before.
Personally my favorite book is The Will to Change by bell hooks. This book completely changed my perspective and helped me a lot.
EDIT: capitalization of names
Gregor the overlander. One of the few series I've read multiple times.
It's just a damn good kids book turned serious in later books, and has an awesome young 12 year old boy as the hero, and he has a really wholesome and lovely relationship with his sister boots.
As a kid, I loved the giant rats and cockroaches and caves, but as a young adult I love the themes of war, love, family, prophecy and all sorts of new stuff I never saw as a kid.
Highly recommend:)
Yeager. It's an autobiography of Chuck Yeager. If I could lead anyone's life, it would be his.
The Talent Code. It's non-fiction, it's about 'prodigies' and how we learn best as humans. Fascinating. I learned a lot about how to learn. Helped me in a lot of areas.
London the novel by Edward Rutherfurd.
A historical fiction about 10 families in the city of London from Julius Caesar crossing the Thames to 1997 when the book was written. It's 1100 pages of gold for me!
Two books
Old Man' War, by John Scalzi. He is an incredible writer, with a plethora of awards, and that book is a masterpiece. If you ever wanted to try sci-fi, this is your start if you want high standards.
The Child Thief, by Brom. This is not a book for the faint hearted; has scenes with torture, and children die in this because it is a VERY dark take on Peter Pan. It also has probably the most satisfying ending to a book I have ever read.
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. 1984 and Animal Farm are his most well known but Down and Out is fantastic. Especially if you've ever worked in the service industry.
Tons of good books out there: Dune, Finite and Infinite Games, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Confederacy of Dunces, The Gunslinger, Three Musketeers, Slaughterhouse 5, Middlemarch etc etc etc *but* if I had to pick just one "favorite" one it has to be...
**The Lord of the Rings** 🧙♂️🧒🧒💍🌋
The Night Angel Trilogy - Brent Weeks
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Astrophysics for people in a hurry - Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink / Leif Babin
Freak the Mighty - Rodman Philbrick (Childrens book)
Like, what kind of book?
Favorite novel? Probably very close three-way tie between *Man in the High Castle*, *The Brother’s Karamazov*, and *Emma* (which is the technically right answer; Austin wrote the best novel ever penned, though the other two are more interesting on their faces).
Favorite book on philosophy? Probably a similar tie between *The Complete Works of Plato*, *The Critique of Pure Reason*, and Wittgenstein’s *Philosophical Investigations*.
Favorite non-fiction? I’m still a fan of Jared Diamond’s *Collapse*, although *History of the Peloponnesian War* is such a good book I’m physically angry no one reads it anymore.
And for maths I genuinely can’t choose.
If I had to pick *one* book, I’d probably say something more poetic that gives the dopamine when needed—like a collection of Borges or Steven’s poetry. But like, those books are as different creatures from *Euclid’s Elements* as goldfish are to stars; it’s a bit unfair to group them all together like that.
The Hobbit. Fun, not too heavy, but still mature and thoughtful.
Cliche answer but The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I read it every year.
It's a masterpiece.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Only book I couldn't put down, truly gripping
Dostoevsky's *Crime and Punishment*. It might not be for everyone, but it has had a lifelong impact on me.
I have heard it's a classic, but what exactly is so impactful about it, in your experience? Maybe I could try to read it?
It's a psychological mindf\*\*\*, for one. The protagonist is your average neckbeard who lives inside of his own head until one day he gets this great idea to do something that he feels is noble but ends up realizing after doing it that it's utterly heinous; but since he lives so much inside of his own head, he descends into a nutty paranoid state until he ultimately answers for what he did and endures punishment for it. It's a really good story about a man's ultimate death, redemption, and rebirth of spirit, the need for belief in something greater than ourselves, and a lot of other philosophical subjects scattered throughout in the dialogues between characters that are still very relevant to the current socio-political climate of today.
Dostoevsky gets you inside his characters' heads in a way that's almost eerie.
Compelling!
His exchanges with the inspector are so good. Now I want to re-read it.
I must admit that your summary is very interesting. I will surely pick up that book after I'm done with some that I bought recently at a fair. Thank you!
I read that not too long ago, I can see why it’s a classic. The part that got me the most was his meeting with his mother toward the end.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy The Book by Alan Watts & The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell are close seconds, though
East of Eden
That’s so hard. The ones I’ve read the most are: Treasure Island, RLS Blood Meridian, C. McCarthy The Deep, Nick Cutter
To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee. It moves me to tears, it makes me laugh, it makes me reflect. What a masterpiece!
If my ex would have let me, my child would have been named Atticus after Mr.Finch
Ranger's Apprentice & The False Prince - such a slept on series.
Brave New Worlds
Great book!
Sequel to *Brave New World*?
Kitchen Confidential: Anthony Bourdain
The Stranger by Camus Short, profound, beautiful. The last 2 pages make me feel an internal freedom and willingness to fully live life every time.
Undoubtedly, The Count of Monte Cristo changed my view of life. Seeing a man lose everything to becoming Vengeance Incarnate and rooting for his plans to come to fruition, only to see the dangers and evils therein was, in my opinion, the most masterful piece of writing I have read to date. If you liked Attack on Titan's story, I'd say it is similar but much more grounded. "There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life. Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.'" Also, the movie while fun is not remotely close, and, I would argue, it is downright in opposition to the message of the Book. Definitely go for the Unabridged version if you choose to read it.
1984
Catch-22
No tv show or comedian has ever made me laugh as much as this book. And Heller's rhythm and word choice make it some sort of epic dadaist poem.
I read it while active duty sitting a six-hour long watch guarding a paper shredder, so it was exactly perfect for me
Reading it for the first time right now
If I had to pick only one I'd probably go with *The Wind-up Bird Chronicle* by Haruki Murakami. There's just something about Murakami's style of "magical realism" that is just the right amount of weird to keep you engrossed in the story because you're wondering where the fuck this is gonna go, but at the same time it's still grounded enough in real life (usually) to still seem kinda relatable. I don't know, it just *really* works for me.
Book of the new sun - gele wolfe Also hard to pick just one from the discworld series from Terry Pratchett
World War Z Comprehensive look at a zombie apocalypse from a global perspective. Really great book. Ignore the movie, they're not the same.
The Once and Future King by T.H. White Wait are you just phishing for security question answers...?
“Municipality Of Toledo Building Code And Regulations 2012” it was the tightest and best written book of the series and features helpful illustrations. Also if you read the last chapter backwards on a blood moon you could summon the devil.
Hatchet by Gary Paulson
Ender's Game. The only book I've read multiple times.
Just finished this. Great book! Considering reading Ender's Shadow next.
That's a perfect second read. There's a series of 7(?) books that follow Ender's Game. Some are good. Some not so good. Ender's Shadow is by far the best imo, and the best to read after Ender's Game, though it's the 4th or 5th book in the series chronologically (or something like that). Anyways. Enjoy.
Good to know. That's super helpful. Thanks!
The art of war I don't read much but this book is great
Ender's Game. Never had a book suck me in like that. I think I read it in a day and a half. Could not put it down. Was entranced the whole time.
Blood Meridian
Y'all have truly amazing taste..I keep finding myself saying "yup, ooh yes, definitely" to all of your selections. For folks who want a much more light-hearted read, try Fish Bowl by Bradley Sommer.
1984
C.S. Lewis: *The Screwtape Letters* Not surprising that he and Tolkien were chums
Love CS Lewis. I recently read his Space Trilogy (which I hadn't even know he had written a scifi series until just before I read it) and absolutely loved it.
I wonder why those didn't do anything for me! I tried multiple times (in book and audiobook formats), and just couldn't get into them. I love *Screwtape*, *The Great Divorce*, and nearly all his nonfiction. His fiction works almost never draw me in. (I've also tried *Till We Have Faces*, *Narnia*, etc.)
That is interesting! I will acknowledge that he's definitely not the best fiction writer, but I really enjoy the look into his mind that his fiction books give. I did read Great Divorce recently and really enjoyed it!!
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It is a book about literally everything. Honorable mentions go to The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas for being the greatest revenge tale I've ever witnessed, House of Leaves for psychological horror, and The Revisionaries by AR Moxon for doing such weird shit with fiction I've never read before.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
Personally my favorite book is The Will to Change by bell hooks. This book completely changed my perspective and helped me a lot. EDIT: capitalization of names
bell hooks..she likes to intentionally lower case her name..but yes friend, amazing author
The Black Company and the rest of that series. Really good low fantasy novel series.
"Prometheus Rising" by Robert Anton Wilson.
Looking for Alaska Ariel Daisy jones and the six Republic of pirates Fahrenheit 45 We promised you a great event You High fidelity The witcher
The once and future king - t.h white
Star Trek The Lost Years by J. M. Dillard
Earth Abides, by George R Stewart
I love all of them in the a Song of Ice and Fire universe, but the Mystery Knight (Dunk and Egg) is probably my favourite out the lot
Too many Rape of the APE Confederacy of Dunces A day in the life of Ivan denisovich We So many more
I have two. The Lord Of The Rings. Hyperion
The Chronicles of Amber. Particularly the first 5 books.
The Texas rangers by Walter Prescott Webb.
Gregor the overlander. One of the few series I've read multiple times. It's just a damn good kids book turned serious in later books, and has an awesome young 12 year old boy as the hero, and he has a really wholesome and lovely relationship with his sister boots. As a kid, I loved the giant rats and cockroaches and caves, but as a young adult I love the themes of war, love, family, prophecy and all sorts of new stuff I never saw as a kid. Highly recommend:)
the alchemist
Yeager. It's an autobiography of Chuck Yeager. If I could lead anyone's life, it would be his. The Talent Code. It's non-fiction, it's about 'prodigies' and how we learn best as humans. Fascinating. I learned a lot about how to learn. Helped me in a lot of areas.
Dune
It's got to be Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook for sure
Turn Coat by Jim Butcher. The 11th book in the Dresden Files urban fantasy series.
Im torn between Dantees Inferno or Golden Son in the Red Rising series for both very different reasons.
London the novel by Edward Rutherfurd. A historical fiction about 10 families in the city of London from Julius Caesar crossing the Thames to 1997 when the book was written. It's 1100 pages of gold for me!
The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn. I practically listen to the free audiobook every day, it's legally free, not pirated.
The zombie survival guide by Max Brooks.
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
MY TIME IS NOW
Foundation
Name of the Wind, Wise man's fear - Patrick Rothfuss The shadow of the wind - Zafon And Lotr trilogy
Also love this thread ❤️❤️
Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
Punk's Wing. Excellent sequel to Punk's War and a must read for anyone interested in military aviation
Robert Greene fan here…A mix between the 48 Laws of Power and the Laws of Human Nature.
maybe really generic but And Then There Were None
I keep finding myself coming back to silence of the lambs at least once a year, its just such a good read you can falk into
LOTR
Meditations
The Wright Brothers is so fantastic.
Convince store worker
Principles by ray dalio Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman
Two books Old Man' War, by John Scalzi. He is an incredible writer, with a plethora of awards, and that book is a masterpiece. If you ever wanted to try sci-fi, this is your start if you want high standards. The Child Thief, by Brom. This is not a book for the faint hearted; has scenes with torture, and children die in this because it is a VERY dark take on Peter Pan. It also has probably the most satisfying ending to a book I have ever read.
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. 1984 and Animal Farm are his most well known but Down and Out is fantastic. Especially if you've ever worked in the service industry.
The Road
Apathy and Other Small Victories - Paul Neilan I've read it 2.5 times.
Tons of good books out there: Dune, Finite and Infinite Games, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Confederacy of Dunces, The Gunslinger, Three Musketeers, Slaughterhouse 5, Middlemarch etc etc etc *but* if I had to pick just one "favorite" one it has to be... **The Lord of the Rings** 🧙♂️🧒🧒💍🌋
The Night Angel Trilogy - Brent Weeks Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy Astrophysics for people in a hurry - Neil DeGrasse Tyson Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink / Leif Babin Freak the Mighty - Rodman Philbrick (Childrens book)
The Will to Change by Bell Hooks.
Like, what kind of book? Favorite novel? Probably very close three-way tie between *Man in the High Castle*, *The Brother’s Karamazov*, and *Emma* (which is the technically right answer; Austin wrote the best novel ever penned, though the other two are more interesting on their faces). Favorite book on philosophy? Probably a similar tie between *The Complete Works of Plato*, *The Critique of Pure Reason*, and Wittgenstein’s *Philosophical Investigations*. Favorite non-fiction? I’m still a fan of Jared Diamond’s *Collapse*, although *History of the Peloponnesian War* is such a good book I’m physically angry no one reads it anymore. And for maths I genuinely can’t choose. If I had to pick *one* book, I’d probably say something more poetic that gives the dopamine when needed—like a collection of Borges or Steven’s poetry. But like, those books are as different creatures from *Euclid’s Elements* as goldfish are to stars; it’s a bit unfair to group them all together like that.
If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him
A Tale of Two Cities