Pit Recommended Reading List

[Nano]

I figure this will be nice to allow some of us to experience good books for and against our frame of reference. It should be in a similar format to this:

Postwar America 1945-1971; Howard Zinn; Liberal take on history after WW2.

( Title, Author, Subject ).

I'll be taking the posts in this thread, pulling out the books and such, and then deleting the posts so it will be in one list, I will credit whoever suggests a book though.

=) I'll add my 20 or so books later on.

Current list:

Nav Man:
Catch-22; Joseph Heller; WW-2

Sk33:
The Case For Israel; Alan Dershowitz; trial-like defense, taking apart 'common arguments' made against Israel in the int'l community
Amusing Ourselves to Death; Neil Postman; the degrading quality TV has on American society

Arthur Pendragon:
The Fire That Consumes; Edward Fudge; None given
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation; JOSEPH J. ELLIS; None given
A brief history of time; Stephen Hawking; None given

Zang/e!s:
A Brave New World; Aldous Huxley; Fiction, government takeover

Rolling Thunder:
What Evolution Is; Ernst Mayr; a spirited defense of Darwinian explanations of biology and an elegant primer on evolution for the general reader
The Character of Physical Law; Richard Feynman; The book is a really good non-specialist's introduction to some of the basic ideas and attitudes of modern physics

Ieyeasu
The Fountainhead; Ayn Rand; None given
Atlas Shrugged; Ayn Rand; None given
The New Testament; Various; None given
The Old Testament; Various; None given
The Communist Manifesto; Marx/Engels; None given
Animal Farm; Orwell; None given
1984; Orwell; None given
A History of the English Speaking Peoples--Winston Churchill
Guns, Germs, and Steel--Jeremy Diamond

Snakelrye:
Culture Jam; Kalle Lasn; None given
Everything You Know is Wrong; Russ Kick; None given
Killing Monsters; Gerard Jones, Lynn Ponton; None given
The Culture of Fear - Barry Glassner
The Scapegoat Generation - Mike A. Males


Mobius:

Nonfiction:
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid -- Douglas Hofstadter: AI and meta-thought
Tao Te Ching -- Lao Tzu, transl. Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English: Taoism
Tao of Jeet Kune Do -- Bruce Lee: martial arts & exercise
Autobiography of Malcolm X -- Alex Haley
Men of Mathematics -- E.T. Bell: the history book about math
Leap of Faith -- Queen Noor: American-born Jordan royalty's take on Middle East politics
The World's Religions -- Huston Smith
I'm Just Here for the Food -- Alton Brown: cooking

Fiction:
Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things -- Berke Breathed: best cartoons ever
Ender's Game -- Orson Scott Card
The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea
Cities of the Red Night trilogy -- William Burroughs
A Prayer for Owen Meany -- John Irving
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series -- Douglas Adams (find mp3s of the BBC radio show!)
Neuromancer--William Gibson; inspiration for Shadowrunner / cyberpunk

Classic short fiction:
Catcher in the Rye
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird

Screthate:

The Republic by Plato
Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche

Delta:
The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything

holden7:

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Zenmonkey:

Why People Believe Weird Things, Micheal Shermer, Pseudoscience

Vendetta:

American Empire : The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy
by Andrew J. Bacevich

xagent:

Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell
Virtues of Prosperity by Dinesh D'Souza
The Virtue of Selfishness and The Ayn Rand Reader by Ayn Rand
Power to Tax by James Buchanan
Free Trade Today by Jagdish Bhagwati
Mugged By the State - Randall Fitzgerald
The Bias Against Guns by John R. Lott, Jr.
The Poverty of Welfare by Michael Tanner

Whatsisname/Tracerbullet:

Night by Elie Wiessel - a story written by a halocaust survivor. Not as exaggerated as the usual high school class teaching of the nazi camps.

Zang:

Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein - Fascism that works (Don't watch the movie)

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein - satire of humans and our moral/proper/ethical/religious/education code.

The Metamorphis - Franza Kafka - (short story) the conceited activities of human beings. How we judge others based on outward appearances and how we imagine our betterment at the worsening of others.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip Dick - Questions what defines humanity, with comedy and a cool sci-fi story. Maybe more entertainment than philosophy.

Tracerbullet:

Arthur James Balfour - Theism and Humanism; critical analysis of naturalism (I haven't actually read this, but I have read "Foundations of Belief," the book before it. They're both about the same thing, but "Foundations" is out of print, so I have to recommend this instead.)

C.S. Lewis - The Four Loves; examination of the four types of human love, as described by the Greeks -- "storge" (affection), "philia" (friendship), "eros" (sexual/romantic love) and "agape" (selfless love/love of God). He argues that all the other loves depend on agape love to reach their full potential.

Grumpy:

Stephen Ambrose: To America
Victor Davis Hanson: Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power
Ted Gup: The Book of Honor

e!s:

"The Sheltering Sky" by Paul Bowles (Existential and psychological fiction set against the North African desert.)

Spoonie:

Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity; Judith Butler; Gay/Lesbian/Queer studies, feminism, identity theory, sexual politics.
The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity; Slavoj Zizek; Christianity and Marxism.
America; Jean Baudrillard; theoretically driven "travel writing" on America.
Torture Garden; Octave Mirabeau; French novel about sexual decadence and nihlism.
American Psycho; Bret Easton Ellis; novel, yuppies in the Reagan era, insanity and hypercapitalism
The Last Temptation; Nikos Kazantzakis; novel, emphasising Jesus Christ's humanity.
The Non-Existence of God; Nicholas Everitt; Philosophy of Religion
Interpretation and Overinterpretation; Umberto Eco; Literary theory, what counts as an "overinterpretation" of something?
Philosophical Investigations; Ludwig Wittgenstein; Philosophy of Language, mainly.
Science In Action; Bruno Latour; a sociological, realistic portrayal of how science is really done.
Madness; Roy Porter; History of Psychiatry
East and West; Chris Patten; memoir of the last governor of Hong Kong, brilliant insight into Chinese politics.
Civilisation and Its Discontents; Sigmund Freud; the highly influential psychoanalytic critique of modernity.
Against Method; Paul Feyerabend; an impossible mix of anarchism and philosophy of science.
History of Sexuality, 3 volumes; Michel Foucault; breathtaking.
The Golem; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch; how science is really done.
Evolution as a Religion; Mary Midgley; clear, rigourous, warning against the pitfalls of evolution
Orientalism; Edward Said; East/West, Us/Other.
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia; Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

The Morlock:

The Humanoids - Jack Williamson - Science fiction dealing with the issue of a powerfull nanny state. Thought provoking
Shockwave Rider - John Brunner - Science fiction A dystopia (not as bad as orwells) and it's overthrow. Entertaining
The Learning Tree - Gordon Parks
Hardwired -Walter jon Williams pub. 1986 more cyberpunk
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein, Robert A.
Lunar Penal Colony

Canadian Pyro:

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy; Greg Palast; Criticisms of, well, everything, but without the dumbed down popularized Michael Moore shit.
No Logo; Naomi Klein; Critique on popular culture.

Tracerbullet:

God? - William Lane Craig, William Sinnott-Armstrong; correspondence debate between two highly educated men, one Christian (Craig) and one Atheist (Sinnott-Armstrong). Highly informative (for both sides) without being dull or polemic. Consider it an Oxford edition of nearly every religious Pit thread ever created.

cgbeowulf

The Art of War - Sun-tzu

Enygma:

The Marx-Engels Reader, Edited by Robert C. Tucker; excellent compendium of Marx and Engels' works. Just reading the Communist Manifesto is insufficient.
On Liberty, J.S. Mill; pretty self explanatory
The First and Second Discourses, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Making Democracy Work, Robert Putnam; Putnam examines the nature of Democracies and why some succeed while others falter, positing that social capital is the primary explanatory factor.
Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam; Putnam continues with his theories regarding the value of social capital in a democratic state, while this time applying it to America and lamenting a perceived loss of social capital.
The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu

miasman1

The Coming White Minority - Dale Maharidge

Hobbes:

America, Russia, and the Cold War, Walter Lafeber
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
"The winds of War" by Herman Wouk

Snarkfish

Richard Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design

Kruzen:

Darwin's Black Box - Michael J. Behe - A Biochemical challenge to evolution.
A Divine Revelation Of Death & Hell - Heaven or hell? Over a period of forty days, God gave Mary K. Baxter visions of hell and commissioned her to tell all to choose life. Here is an account of the place and beings of hell contrasted with the glories of heaven (believe what you will)
Creator and the Cosmos - Hugh Ross - Scientific Breakdown Of Creation Theory for the universe. Not Earth focused, but the universe rather.
The Elegant Universe. - Brian Greene - Superstring theory.

g0rg0n:

On The Road - Jack Kerouac, a documentation of youthful discovery
Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs, stunning social comentary and satire
Junkie - William S. Burroughs, a paridigm shifting novel
Pecked to Death by Ducks - Tim Cahill, a journalistic recount of un published adventures, of note are the desert storm stories
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson, a great novel outlining the spread of information
How The Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill, a history of the transition from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages and how the Irish through thier isolation and temperment preserved the ancient civilized world when it was being detroyed everywhere else in europe.
The Fall Of The Dynasties - Edmond Taylor, a history of the downfalls of great civilizations.
The Leader As Martial Artist - Arnold Mindell PH.D., techniques and strategies for resolving conflict and creating community.
Sitting In The Fire - Arnold Mindell PH.D., large group transformation using conflict and diversity
The Power Of Myth - Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, a documentation of mythological influences on social structure.
The Advent Of The Algorithm - David Berlinski, how philosophical modal logic developed into the computer.
Batteling The Hosts Of Hell - Win Worley, diary of an exorcist

be0wulfe

George R. R. Martin
A Song of Ice & Fire Series
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast of Crows (forthcoming)

omfgw00tbbq

From Science - Advanced Technology Paths to Global Climate Stability: Energy for a Greenhouse Planet
http://fire.pppl.gov/science_adv_energy_103102.pdf
good summary of next gen technologies that are being researched to be used as alternative energy sources

Foreverlurk:

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler - Hitlers life during WWI, his stay in prison, the german political reality of the time
The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Good wisdom for anyone trying to combat things in life, whether they be physical wars, mental wars, social wars, cultural wars etc. Often quoted, rarely heeded.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein - A futuristic book which fleshes out a workable fascist state that makes sense. Intended to "discredit" fascism, but instead makes it seem preferrable to the soulless modern model of capitalism used in the US and various other dying countries.
The Holy Bible by various - Need I say more?
The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements by Dr. Kevin MacDonald - Explores jewish involvement in various genocidal political movements. everything from leninist bolshevism to bloody south african communism.

feebnam:

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan
Many Lives Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss - about a psychiatrist, who begins to believe in reincarnation through a patient of his. Who he is trying to help with some serious disorders through hypnosis and she starts recalling strange things. He was pretty much an athiest prior to this patient. It's a very eye opening read.

pudgygiant:

Everything by Robert Ludlum (not a title, literally everything)
Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

walkingcarpet:

Guns, Germs, and Steel; Jared Diamond; discusses geological, ecological, and sociological factors that shaped the course of human history and led to dominant civilizations such as the Europeans

Myself:

Sixteen Strategies of Zhuge Liang by Wang Xuan Ming
Mastering the Art of War by Zhuge Liang ( a brilliant chinese strategists views on the art of war, there are a few translations available that vary in skew ).
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi - a newish (17th century) art of war style book written by the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi.
Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chogyam Trungpa
The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Chogyam Trungpa
The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi by Ramana Maharshi
Wen-Tzu by Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
The Book of Lieh-Tzu by Lieh-Tzu
The Book of Chuang Tzu by Chuang-Tzu
The Art of War - Sun Tzu
Zhong zang jing - Hua Tuo - A medical journal written by the most famous chinese doctor of history, based around holistic healing mixed with herbal cures.
Mozi (Translations from the Asian Classics) by Di Mo, Burton Watson, Geoffrey Charles Evans
Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian
I Ching: The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth by Hua-Ching Ni
The Book of Songs by Arthur Waley (Translator), Joseph R. Allen (Editor)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Luo Guanzhong - Excellent historical representation of the three kingdoms era of chinese history...very fascinating reading.

The Case Against God By George H Smith
Postwar America 1945-1971; Howard Zinn; Liberal take on history after WW2.
The Prydain Chronicles ( 5 books ) -- Lloyd Alexander
Sword of Truth series - Terry goodkind
Hegira, Darwin's Radio, Darwin's Children, Anvil of Stars, Beyond Heaven's River, The Infinity Concerto, The Serpent Mage ( last two can be found together as "Songs of Earth and Power ), by Greg Bear. Assorted Science fiction


Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter A. Kaufmann
Beyond Good and Evil -- by Friedrich Nietzsche
Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession by Irvin D. Yalom
The Anti-Christ by H. L. Mencken (Introduction), Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human : A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Gay Science : With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs
by Walter Kaufmann (Translator), Friedrich Nietzsche (Author)
The Birth of Tragedy & The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche
On the Use and Abuse of History for Life by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Joyful Wisdom by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
The will to power: by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I think thats enough for now...

[NAV man]

Catch-22, Joseph Heller, WW-2

I'm serious, that's where I get my inspiration from.

[sk33]

The Case For Israel; Alan Dershowitz; trial-like defense, taking apart 'common arguments' made against Israel in the int'l community
Amusing Ourselves to Death; Neil Postman; the degrading quality TV has on American society

btw: nice idea, Nano.

[arthur pendragon]

The Fire That Consumes -- Edward Fudge
Founding Brothers :The Revolutionary Generation -- JOSEPH J. ELLIS
A brief history of time -- Stephen Hawking

[Zangmonkey]

A Brave New World - Audeus Huxley : Fiction, government takeover

[deltabourne]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books


haha just kidding, nobody should be forced to read that hunk of crap

[Rolling_Thunder9]

What Evolution Is, Ernst Mayr, a spirited defense of Darwinian explanations of biology and an elegant primer on evolution for the general reader

The Character of Physical Law, Richard Feynman, The book is a really good non-specialist's introduction to some of the basic ideas and attitudes of modern physics


Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer, debunks nonsensical psuedoscientific claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing

[electric!sheep]

Originally Posted by Zangmonkey

A Brave New World - Aldous Huxley : Fiction, government takeover

Fixed. Ditto on this. It's less about government takeover than it is about the dictatorship of hedonism. Perversely, the inhabitants of this state are perfectly free, since anything they could possibly want will be granted. When you consider our growing knowledge of brain chemistry, and the tendency to medicalize all forms of mental discomfort, it seems that the world of Soma is not so far away at all. If happiness is the final standard of what is good, then nothing could be better.

[ieyeasu]

Hmm...Great thread.

The Fountainhead---Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged--Ayn Rand
The New Testament--Various
The Old Testament--Various
The Communist Manifesto--Marx/Engels
Animal Farm--Orwell
1984--Orwell

My list of books you should read to know what others think. More later, for this list and another.

[SnakeIRye]

Culture Jam--Kalle Lasn
Everything You Know is Wrong--Russ Kick
Killing Monsters--Gerard Jones, Lynn Ponton

[Nano]

Any book with "none given" at the end lacks a description, if anyone wants to give one, let me know.

[Grumpy]

Stephen Ambrose: To America
Victor Davis Hanson: Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power
Ted Gup: The Book of Honor

[peniswart]

Arthur James Balfour - Theism and Humanism; critical analysis of naturalism (I haven't actually read this, but I have read "Foundations of Belief," the book before it. They're both about the same thing, but "Foundations" is out of print, so I have to recommend this instead.)

C.S. Lewis - The Four Loves; examination of the four types of human love, as described by the Greeks -- "storge" (affection), "philia" (friendship), "eros" (sexual/romantic love) and "agape" (selfless love/love of God). He argues that all the other loves depend on agape love to reach their full potential.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally Posted by tracerbullet

Arthur James Balfour - Theism and Humanism; critical analysis of naturalism (I haven't actually read this, but I have read "Foundations of Belief," the book before it. They're both about the same thing, but "Foundations" is out of print, so I have to recommend this instead.)

C.S. Lewis - The Four Loves; examination of the four types of human love, as described by the Greeks -- "storge" (affection), "philia" (friendship), "eros" (sexual/romantic love) and "agape" (selfless love/love of God). He argues that all the other loves depend on agape love to reach their full potential.

You should ass "The Screwtape letters" to that C.S. Lewis selection

[Zangmonkey]

Originally Posted by electric!sheep

Fixed. Ditto on this. It's less about government takeover than it is about the dictatorship of hedonism. Perversely, the inhabitants of this state are perfectly free, since anything they could possibly want will be granted. When you consider our growing knowledge of brain chemistry, and the tendency to medicalize all forms of mental discomfort, it seems that the world of Soma is not so far away at all. If happiness is the final standard of what is good, then nothing could be better.

I think this is an infinitely better example of futuristic dictatorship than 1984.

EDIT: And while we're at it
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip Dick - Questions what defines humanity, with comedy and a cool sci-fi story. Maybe more entertainment than philosophy.