I’ll see your Tom Sawyer and raise you a Huck Finn.
robert h siddell jr
August 7, 2015 12:24 pm
The Gospels, Animal Farm, A Doctor at Calvary, 1984, The Vision, etc. .
Westcoaster
August 7, 2015 12:38 pm
“Family of secrets” by Russ Baker. Truthiness about the Bush crime family.
“Crossing the Rubicon” by the late Michael Ruppert. Truthiness about 9/11.
“Ufo’s and the National Security State” by Rich Dolan. You’ll discover what is the #1 most guarded secret of the U.S. Government.
‘Think and grow rich” by Napoleon Hill. An oldie but a goodie, but a must read for success.
“Classified Woman” by Sibel Edmonds. Amazing but true account of how the FBI was complicit in 9/11 and the so-called “War on terror”.
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter Thompson. Load up the red shark for a ‘Vegas romp and as my Samoan attorney advises, start drinking heavily.
kokoda
August 7, 2015 12:42 pm
A World at Arms
Plausible Denial
1984
Persnickety
August 7, 2015 12:45 pm
Various Heinlein books.
card802
August 7, 2015 12:50 pm
The Reapers are the Angels and Exit Kingdom by Alden Bell was pretty darn good for a zombie book.
I’m a King fan as far as his writing, not his politics as he hates everything not connected with liberal progressives.
The Stand.
The Gunslinger series
The Wind Through the Keyhole.
Also a Hugh Howey fan
Wool series
Sand
Halfway Home
Scott Sigler as well
Pandemic series
Reading the End is Neigh right now….then The End has Come which is followed by The End is Now. All sunshine, lollypops and doom porn for me I guess.
Administrator
August 7, 2015 12:56 pm
Non-fiction: Guns of August, Brave New World Revisited
Fiction: 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, Grapes of Wrath, Old Man and the Sea
Fluff: Hunger Games, It, Clancy novels
phoolish
August 7, 2015 1:02 pm
Loren Eiseley
The Immense Journey
The Unexpected Universe
The Star Thrower
… among Others.
hardscrabble farmer
August 7, 2015 1:03 pm
Huckleberry Finn- 19th Century
Great Gatsby- 20th Century
No Country For Old Men- 21st Century
The Camp of the Saints- Foreign
Tucci78
August 7, 2015 1:12 pm
I’d say _Unintended Consequences_ (1996) by John Ross.
Quoting from Wiki-bloody-pedia: “The story chronicles the history of the gun culture, gun rights, and gun control in the United States from the early 1900s through the late 1990s. Although clearly a work of fiction, the story is heavily laced with historical information, including real-life historical figures who play minor supporting roles. The novel also features unusually detailed and intricate facts, figures and explanations of many firearms-related topics. The cover has a picture of Lady Justice being assaulted by an ATF agent. The book was listed by The New York Times’ Sunday Book Review as one of the most sought after out-of-print books of 2013.”
Massive as it is, I could barely put it down until I’d finished reading it.
starfcker
August 7, 2015 1:20 pm
Little black sambo. I love the part where the tiger turns to butter
BUCKHED
August 7, 2015 1:28 pm
Fun With Dick And Jane…when I was a child
Huck Finn when I was in grade school
Atlas Shrugged…In high school
The Law..by Bastiat as a young man ( prior to college )
Candide by Voltaire when I was in college.
Books by Spooner,Hayek,Von Mises,Hazlitt and Rothbard ….as an adult
Finally …fiction…anything from Pat Conroy or John Irving
hardscrabble farmer
August 7, 2015 1:40 pm
Loving the lists-
Body of work- Richard Ford, Russell Banks, TC Boyle, Chuck Palahniuk, Cormac McCarthy
I thought Unintended Consequences was epic. Candide was a favorite growing up.
“All for the best in the best of possible worlds…”
Wip
August 7, 2015 1:52 pm
Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success: Napoleon Hill
Tucci78
August 7, 2015 2:00 pm
With regard to mundane (non speculative) fiction, I tend to go with Marvin Minsky:
“General fiction is pretty much about ways that people get into problems and screw their lives up. Science fiction is about everything else.”
I tend to rank John Ross’ novel _Unintended Consequences_ as speculative “what if?” fiction, laden with historical support for his contention that a government such as we presently suffer in Mordor-on-the-Potomac, if perceived to be alien and oppressive by “flyover country” (which is in the main a population HEAVILY armed and well-practiced in the use of firearms), will eventually kindle “blowback” in the form of widespread violent resistance that may well snowball to insuperable proportions as the average citizen perceives it to be both justified and effective.
There’s no guarantee that the central government will be able to rely upon either the militarized local and state police forces _or_ the federal military to overcome such resistance. Indeed, the serving officers and men of that military (not to mention the millions of former active-service veterans returned to civilian status) might be more likely to come forward as cadre and leadership for the insurgents than to obey a federal government they hate and despise as fervently as do the rest of the citizenry.
We may be a rabble, but we are – more now than ever before in our history – a rabble in arms.
Soetoro’s long skinny neck _does_ seem fit for the noose, doesn’t it?
TE
August 7, 2015 2:07 pm
I can’t answer the “best” question, it depends on my mood, my life, my world.
Historical romance would be Gone With the Wind
Historical fiction is an obscure book called The Mahound by Lance Turner (I believe). Loved that book but haven’t read it in over 30 years as I lent it out and it never came home. Someday I’ll get it again.
Fiction would be The Gunslinger novels and The Stand (hey Card!)
When Money Dies is probably my favorite financial book
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of my favorite self-help books.
And I know I’m leaving off so many.
See, this is why I have never seriously considered a tattoo, I rarely have “favorites” or collectible things. I flit from one interest, one thing, one author, one career, to the other, to keep my mind and soul satisfied and challenged.
Most people like things to stay the same (even though nothing in the universe is eternal) and actively avoid new things and thoughts. But not me. Give me variety or give me death.
TE
August 7, 2015 2:08 pm
See, dammit, forgot to mention “Confederacy of Dunces” by Toole, that is probably my most favorite book ever and this reminds me I couldn’t find it the last time I wanted to read it. Must find it.
How could I forget the book that changed the way I view the world?
The Fourth Turning
Rise Up
August 7, 2015 2:22 pm
Tough question. I like lots of different genres:
Esoteric (Gnostic gospels, Dead Sea Scrolls, John Lamb Lash’s “Not in His Image”)
Ancient civilizations (Atlantis, Mayan, Egyptian)
Science fiction (Arthur C Clarke, Ray Bradbury, many others)
Collapse/Disaster novels (One Second After, Lights Out, The Road, etc.)
UFO Encounters (Andreasson Affair I & II, Incident at Exeter, many more)
Science books on quantum physics/quantum mechanics/gravity-time/multi-parallel universes
Also I listen to lots of podcasts from Youtube on my commute to work – several hours a week,
politics/john b wells/steve quayle/jimmy church/jim willie/greg hunter/x22 report, etc.
Rise Up
August 7, 2015 2:56 pm
Administrator says: How could I forget the book that changed the way I view the world?
The Fourth Turning
———————————–
I agree that book is a revelation. It led me to your website, which was a gem discovered.
Anonymous
August 7, 2015 3:19 pm
The Fate Of Empires and Search For Survival by Sir John Glubb [It’s really a short essay, rather than a book – you can almost certainly find a copy to download on a search engine.]
Civil War Two by Thomas Chittum [again, google]
2083, A European Declaration of Independence>/i>, by Andrew Berwick
Racism, Guilt, Self-Hatred & Self-Deceit by Gedaliah Braun
hardscrabble farmer
August 7, 2015 3:29 pm
Are we including non-fiction?
Imperium by Francis Parker Yockey
Which Way Western Man? by William Gayley Simpson
Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
Revolt Against The Modern World by Julius Evola
bb
August 7, 2015 4:27 pm
1) *The New Testament written by God.
2)The Screw Tape Letters written by C L Lewis .
3)Idols for Destruction ( forgot his name )
The joy of sex …didn’t read it but did look the pictures.
Iska Waran
August 7, 2015 4:36 pm
I don’t know about the “best” book, but the one I enjoyed the most was “A Confederacy of Dunces”.
DRUD
August 7, 2015 5:27 pm
Surprised by how many said The Stand/The Gunslinger Series. Definetely at the top of my list as well. A Tale of Two Cities is right there. All Kurt Vonnegut’s stuff…Bluebeard….Mother Night…Gallopagos…sirens of Titan are among my favorites but you will never go wrong…great short stories as well. Brave New World, The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath are all great choices. Recently been reading a lot of Modesty Blaise…terrific…called the female James Bond but really much deeper and richer stories and Much better characters. For gunslinger fans I would call her the female Roland Deschain.
JC
August 7, 2015 9:10 pm
Earth Abides is one of my favorites. It perfectly sums up the reality the everything goes on after we have come and gone…..
Gryffyn
August 7, 2015 9:25 pm
Lots of my favorites are already listed, so I will just add three others:
A Canticle For Liebowicz by Walter A. Miller. This is a darkly-humored post-apacalypse vision of the the gradual recovery of civilization.
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. A classic sic-fi first published in 1933.
Why The Allies Won by Richard Overy. The author dove into the soviet archives and other sources to come up with an impeccable analysis of why Hitler lost WW11. Guess what. Russia defeated the main German army.
EL Coyote
August 7, 2015 9:39 pm
bb says: The joy of sex …didn’t read it but did look the pictures.
How about the Kama Sutra, bb did you read that one?
EL Coyote
August 7, 2015 9:50 pm
I could kick myself in the ass, it’s so big, I had jury duty back in May and I couldn’t get out of it. The boss pays 5 days so I wouldn’t lose any money if it only lasted a week, which it did. But going to the Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Court is such a treat. It’s relatively new, clean and spacious. I had to be there every day at the crack of 10, we got a 1 or 2 hour break after being 45 minutes in the courtroom. We got to go home early a couple of days. I enjoyed sitting in the jurors’ lounge where they had puzzles, movies on the teevee, and books! I picked up a book I thought I’d read a long time ago, it turns out I never read it. At the end of my jury duty I wanted to ask the lady if I could keep it but she had closed the window so I went to put it back on the shelf when I noticed a sign that said the books were free since they were just donated books. I took Tommy Thompson’s Blood and Money home to finish reading. I can ship it to you, to Admin’s PO Box, along with Confederacy of Dunces if you want.
backwardsevolution
August 8, 2015 12:29 am
Dombey and Son, Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens); The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy); Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte); Candide (Voltaire); Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky); The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy): “What if my whole life has been wrong?” Love that question!
So many good books left to read. Great post!
forester
August 8, 2015 12:48 am
Well, i would start with Fourth Turning, as well as most of the the Ayn Rands books like Atlas Shrugged and the Fountain Head, along with lesser known works like Why Businessman Need Philosophy and Return of the Primitive.
Rounding out the list of political stuff would be “1984”, and The Fearful Master – a second look at the United nations” by G.E Griffen 1964
Being a forester by trade, I became deeply suspicious of the modern environmental movement and why they opposed even good forest practices – well come to find out it is a combination of good old-fashioned corruption (crony-capitalism) and a weird religious dogma loosely based on pagan beliefs. This list is larger:
Big Green Circus – Inside the Environmental Movement C. G. Murphy Jr. Phd 1984
Playing God in Yellowstone – The destruction of America’s first national Park – Alston Chase 1986
Grand Theft and Petit Larceny – Property Rights in America Mark L. Pollot 1993
Undue Influence – wealthy Foundations, grant-driven environmental groups, and zealous bureaucracies that control your future – Ron Arnold 1999
Saviors of the Earth – the politics and religion of the environmental movement Michael Coffman Phd 1994
The Great Salmon Hoax – an eyewitness account of the collapse of science and law and the triumph of politics in salmon recovery – James L. Buchal 1998
Natural Process – Mark Van de Pole
Sand County Almanac – Aldo Leopold 1949
Being a history buff as well, I like the Journals of Lewis and Clark and other historical journals – preferably without commentary.
Finally, I love satire and am a big P.J. O’Rourke and Hunter S. Thompson fan.
IndenturedServant
August 8, 2015 3:45 am
All books are great! I’ve got books in all my cars and every room in the house.
Greatest? Old Man and the Sea and The Story of Ferdinand and The Boy Scout Handbook circa 1976
Robert Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, A Brief History of Time, Sources of the River
One thing I think tend to forget is that so many good things are being written only to the internet every day and not finding it’s way into books. I love the internet for its ability to serve up virtually anything I could ever think to ask in mere seconds. but, what would happen to that if an EMP attack becomes reality? It either gets smoked or becomes near impossible to access. I still prefer books.
0351
August 8, 2015 7:15 am
Once an Eagle – Anton Myrer.
The Last Centurion – John Ringo
On Killing – David Grossman
Montefrío
August 8, 2015 8:15 am
Fiction
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter Miller, Jr. (Not alone for this one. My all-time favorite,have read it at least twice a year since 1961)
Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole (pleased to see I’m not alone!)
Joseph and His Brothers – Thomas Mann
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
The Snopes Trilogy – William Faulkner
Mr Johnson – Joyce Cary
No Country for Old Men – Cormac McCarthy (not alone with this one either!)
Non-fiction
Wholeness and the Implicate Order – David Bohm
The Zen Teachings of Huang Po
The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain translated by Red Pine (William Porter)
Process and Reality – Alfred North Whitehead
Lots of Hilaire Belloc
There are so many more I’d like to add! Think I’ll draw up a list of my top 100. Avid reader, ballpark figure some 7500 books over the course of many years. HSF and I have similar tastes, it appears, and the work of Julius Evola should be a must for anyone here.
Stucky
August 8, 2015 8:18 am
“The author dove into the soviet archives and other sources to come up with an impeccable analysis of why Hitler lost WW11.” ———– Gryffyn
WW11?? Fuck Me Dead!! I’m spending so much time on TBP I missed NINE fucking world wars!!!
Such a hard question to answer when one has read so MANY books. Thousands. I often think the CURRENT book I’m reading is the best one ever. Really.
But, I’ll play. I will only pick five books. Not necessarily the “best” — whatever that qualification might be — but ones that greatly influenced me when I read them (in all cases, I was young);
—1) Mere Christianity
—2 & 3) Animal Farm and 1984
—4) How to make friends and influence people (seriously)
—5) Johnny Got His Gun
Lysander
August 8, 2015 10:22 am
‘Lucifer’s Hammer’ by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is the best post-apocalypse book I’ve ever read.
Pretty much anything by Larry Niven, His ‘Known Space’ series is excellent.
Political works like ‘Atlas Shrugged”, Animal Farm, 1984, etc.
Montefrío
August 8, 2015 1:52 pm
Aside from many old favorites, I’m discovering quite a few I haven’t read but will. Thanks and keep ’em comin’!
Gryffyn
August 8, 2015 4:26 pm
Stucky,
Jeezus weezus dude, sorry I pressed the wrong key! Didn’t know you have morphed into one of those typo scolds. I tried to back you up on the giraffe-killing wild cats, and this is what you come up with?
EL Coyote
August 9, 2015 1:18 am
Gryf, guilt-tripping a big dog doesn’t work, that is their purview.
Gryffyn
August 9, 2015 6:01 pm
El Coyote,
Thanks for the sage advise. I guess when you venture onto the big dog’s porch you can expect him to try to piss on you.
I have a real big dog, part Aussie cattle dog, part wolf and part big dog. He loves meeting people, kids especially, and other dogs. He totally ignores other dogs that bark at him. He sets a good example, which I do not always follow.
Maggie
August 9, 2015 6:12 pm
Loved hearing my Grandpa reading and telling stories from Pilgrim’s Progress as a child… he could recite long passages of it in his quiet, lyrical voice. I have never officially “read” it though, but this question has sent me into storage to get the copy of the book I inherited from him.
Best read to think about, analyze and ponder into infinity? Ulysses by James Joyce.
Funniest? Erma Bombeck “The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank”
American Classic? Huckleberry Finn was, of course, the more heroic of the two boys and the book was the better of the two, in my opinion.
Best modern series? Well, duh? Harry Potter.
bruce
August 9, 2015 8:03 pm
There are so many but several that stick out…………………..
How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes – Will Cuppy
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody – Will Cuppy
I just never tire of reading Cuppy’s stuff and laughing.
Empire of the Summer Moon -S.C. Gwynne
A book I’ve read recently and the best book I’ve read in quite a while. One of the most excellent history books ever. Read this even if the history of the USA’s western expansion and the Comanche Indians are not of particular interest to you. Warning…….this one is hard to put down even if you are familiar with the subject.
I’ll see your Tom Sawyer and raise you a Huck Finn.
The Gospels, Animal Farm, A Doctor at Calvary, 1984, The Vision, etc. .
“Family of secrets” by Russ Baker. Truthiness about the Bush crime family.
“Crossing the Rubicon” by the late Michael Ruppert. Truthiness about 9/11.
“Ufo’s and the National Security State” by Rich Dolan. You’ll discover what is the #1 most guarded secret of the U.S. Government.
‘Think and grow rich” by Napoleon Hill. An oldie but a goodie, but a must read for success.
“Classified Woman” by Sibel Edmonds. Amazing but true account of how the FBI was complicit in 9/11 and the so-called “War on terror”.
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter Thompson. Load up the red shark for a ‘Vegas romp and as my Samoan attorney advises, start drinking heavily.
A World at Arms
Plausible Denial
1984
Various Heinlein books.
The Reapers are the Angels and Exit Kingdom by Alden Bell was pretty darn good for a zombie book.
I’m a King fan as far as his writing, not his politics as he hates everything not connected with liberal progressives.
The Stand.
The Gunslinger series
The Wind Through the Keyhole.
Also a Hugh Howey fan
Wool series
Sand
Halfway Home
Scott Sigler as well
Pandemic series
Reading the End is Neigh right now….then The End has Come which is followed by The End is Now. All sunshine, lollypops and doom porn for me I guess.
Non-fiction: Guns of August, Brave New World Revisited
Fiction: 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, Grapes of Wrath, Old Man and the Sea
Fluff: Hunger Games, It, Clancy novels
Loren Eiseley
The Immense Journey
The Unexpected Universe
The Star Thrower
… among Others.
Huckleberry Finn- 19th Century
Great Gatsby- 20th Century
No Country For Old Men- 21st Century
The Camp of the Saints- Foreign
I’d say _Unintended Consequences_ (1996) by John Ross.
Quoting from Wiki-bloody-pedia: “The story chronicles the history of the gun culture, gun rights, and gun control in the United States from the early 1900s through the late 1990s. Although clearly a work of fiction, the story is heavily laced with historical information, including real-life historical figures who play minor supporting roles. The novel also features unusually detailed and intricate facts, figures and explanations of many firearms-related topics. The cover has a picture of Lady Justice being assaulted by an ATF agent. The book was listed by The New York Times’ Sunday Book Review as one of the most sought after out-of-print books of 2013.”
Massive as it is, I could barely put it down until I’d finished reading it.
Little black sambo. I love the part where the tiger turns to butter
Fun With Dick And Jane…when I was a child
Huck Finn when I was in grade school
Atlas Shrugged…In high school
The Law..by Bastiat as a young man ( prior to college )
Candide by Voltaire when I was in college.
Books by Spooner,Hayek,Von Mises,Hazlitt and Rothbard ….as an adult
Finally …fiction…anything from Pat Conroy or John Irving
Loving the lists-
Body of work- Richard Ford, Russell Banks, TC Boyle, Chuck Palahniuk, Cormac McCarthy
I thought Unintended Consequences was epic. Candide was a favorite growing up.
“All for the best in the best of possible worlds…”
Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success: Napoleon Hill
With regard to mundane (non speculative) fiction, I tend to go with Marvin Minsky:
“General fiction is pretty much about ways that people get into problems and screw their lives up. Science fiction is about everything else.”
I tend to rank John Ross’ novel _Unintended Consequences_ as speculative “what if?” fiction, laden with historical support for his contention that a government such as we presently suffer in Mordor-on-the-Potomac, if perceived to be alien and oppressive by “flyover country” (which is in the main a population HEAVILY armed and well-practiced in the use of firearms), will eventually kindle “blowback” in the form of widespread violent resistance that may well snowball to insuperable proportions as the average citizen perceives it to be both justified and effective.
There’s no guarantee that the central government will be able to rely upon either the militarized local and state police forces _or_ the federal military to overcome such resistance. Indeed, the serving officers and men of that military (not to mention the millions of former active-service veterans returned to civilian status) might be more likely to come forward as cadre and leadership for the insurgents than to obey a federal government they hate and despise as fervently as do the rest of the citizenry.
We may be a rabble, but we are – more now than ever before in our history – a rabble in arms.
Soetoro’s long skinny neck _does_ seem fit for the noose, doesn’t it?
I can’t answer the “best” question, it depends on my mood, my life, my world.
Historical romance would be Gone With the Wind
Historical fiction is an obscure book called The Mahound by Lance Turner (I believe). Loved that book but haven’t read it in over 30 years as I lent it out and it never came home. Someday I’ll get it again.
Fiction would be The Gunslinger novels and The Stand (hey Card!)
When Money Dies is probably my favorite financial book
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of my favorite self-help books.
And I know I’m leaving off so many.
See, this is why I have never seriously considered a tattoo, I rarely have “favorites” or collectible things. I flit from one interest, one thing, one author, one career, to the other, to keep my mind and soul satisfied and challenged.
Most people like things to stay the same (even though nothing in the universe is eternal) and actively avoid new things and thoughts. But not me. Give me variety or give me death.
See, dammit, forgot to mention “Confederacy of Dunces” by Toole, that is probably my most favorite book ever and this reminds me I couldn’t find it the last time I wanted to read it. Must find it.
How could I forget the book that changed the way I view the world?
The Fourth Turning
Tough question. I like lots of different genres:
Esoteric (Gnostic gospels, Dead Sea Scrolls, John Lamb Lash’s “Not in His Image”)
Ancient civilizations (Atlantis, Mayan, Egyptian)
Science fiction (Arthur C Clarke, Ray Bradbury, many others)
Collapse/Disaster novels (One Second After, Lights Out, The Road, etc.)
UFO Encounters (Andreasson Affair I & II, Incident at Exeter, many more)
Science books on quantum physics/quantum mechanics/gravity-time/multi-parallel universes
Also I listen to lots of podcasts from Youtube on my commute to work – several hours a week,
politics/john b wells/steve quayle/jimmy church/jim willie/greg hunter/x22 report, etc.
Administrator says: How could I forget the book that changed the way I view the world?
The Fourth Turning
———————————–
I agree that book is a revelation. It led me to your website, which was a gem discovered.
The Fate Of Empires and Search For Survival by Sir John Glubb [It’s really a short essay, rather than a book – you can almost certainly find a copy to download on a search engine.]
Civil War Two by Thomas Chittum [again, google]
2083, A European Declaration of Independence>/i>, by Andrew Berwick
Racism, Guilt, Self-Hatred & Self-Deceit by Gedaliah Braun
Are we including non-fiction?
Imperium by Francis Parker Yockey
Which Way Western Man? by William Gayley Simpson
Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
Revolt Against The Modern World by Julius Evola
1) *The New Testament written by God.
2)The Screw Tape Letters written by C L Lewis .
3)Idols for Destruction ( forgot his name )
The joy of sex …didn’t read it but did look the pictures.
I don’t know about the “best” book, but the one I enjoyed the most was “A Confederacy of Dunces”.
Surprised by how many said The Stand/The Gunslinger Series. Definetely at the top of my list as well. A Tale of Two Cities is right there. All Kurt Vonnegut’s stuff…Bluebeard….Mother Night…Gallopagos…sirens of Titan are among my favorites but you will never go wrong…great short stories as well. Brave New World, The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath are all great choices. Recently been reading a lot of Modesty Blaise…terrific…called the female James Bond but really much deeper and richer stories and Much better characters. For gunslinger fans I would call her the female Roland Deschain.
Earth Abides is one of my favorites. It perfectly sums up the reality the everything goes on after we have come and gone…..
Lots of my favorites are already listed, so I will just add three others:
A Canticle For Liebowicz by Walter A. Miller. This is a darkly-humored post-apacalypse vision of the the gradual recovery of civilization.
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. A classic sic-fi first published in 1933.
Why The Allies Won by Richard Overy. The author dove into the soviet archives and other sources to come up with an impeccable analysis of why Hitler lost WW11. Guess what. Russia defeated the main German army.
bb says: The joy of sex …didn’t read it but did look the pictures.
How about the Kama Sutra, bb did you read that one?
I could kick myself in the ass, it’s so big, I had jury duty back in May and I couldn’t get out of it. The boss pays 5 days so I wouldn’t lose any money if it only lasted a week, which it did. But going to the Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Court is such a treat. It’s relatively new, clean and spacious. I had to be there every day at the crack of 10, we got a 1 or 2 hour break after being 45 minutes in the courtroom. We got to go home early a couple of days. I enjoyed sitting in the jurors’ lounge where they had puzzles, movies on the teevee, and books! I picked up a book I thought I’d read a long time ago, it turns out I never read it. At the end of my jury duty I wanted to ask the lady if I could keep it but she had closed the window so I went to put it back on the shelf when I noticed a sign that said the books were free since they were just donated books. I took Tommy Thompson’s Blood and Money home to finish reading. I can ship it to you, to Admin’s PO Box, along with Confederacy of Dunces if you want.
Dombey and Son, Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens); The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy); Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte); Candide (Voltaire); Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky); The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy): “What if my whole life has been wrong?” Love that question!
So many good books left to read. Great post!
Well, i would start with Fourth Turning, as well as most of the the Ayn Rands books like Atlas Shrugged and the Fountain Head, along with lesser known works like Why Businessman Need Philosophy and Return of the Primitive.
Rounding out the list of political stuff would be “1984”, and The Fearful Master – a second look at the United nations” by G.E Griffen 1964
Being a forester by trade, I became deeply suspicious of the modern environmental movement and why they opposed even good forest practices – well come to find out it is a combination of good old-fashioned corruption (crony-capitalism) and a weird religious dogma loosely based on pagan beliefs. This list is larger:
Big Green Circus – Inside the Environmental Movement C. G. Murphy Jr. Phd 1984
Playing God in Yellowstone – The destruction of America’s first national Park – Alston Chase 1986
Grand Theft and Petit Larceny – Property Rights in America Mark L. Pollot 1993
Undue Influence – wealthy Foundations, grant-driven environmental groups, and zealous bureaucracies that control your future – Ron Arnold 1999
Saviors of the Earth – the politics and religion of the environmental movement Michael Coffman Phd 1994
The Great Salmon Hoax – an eyewitness account of the collapse of science and law and the triumph of politics in salmon recovery – James L. Buchal 1998
Natural Process – Mark Van de Pole
Sand County Almanac – Aldo Leopold 1949
Being a history buff as well, I like the Journals of Lewis and Clark and other historical journals – preferably without commentary.
Finally, I love satire and am a big P.J. O’Rourke and Hunter S. Thompson fan.
All books are great! I’ve got books in all my cars and every room in the house.
Greatest? Old Man and the Sea and The Story of Ferdinand and The Boy Scout Handbook circa 1976
Robert Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, A Brief History of Time, Sources of the River
One thing I think tend to forget is that so many good things are being written only to the internet every day and not finding it’s way into books. I love the internet for its ability to serve up virtually anything I could ever think to ask in mere seconds. but, what would happen to that if an EMP attack becomes reality? It either gets smoked or becomes near impossible to access. I still prefer books.
Once an Eagle – Anton Myrer.
The Last Centurion – John Ringo
On Killing – David Grossman
Fiction
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter Miller, Jr. (Not alone for this one. My all-time favorite,have read it at least twice a year since 1961)
Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole (pleased to see I’m not alone!)
Joseph and His Brothers – Thomas Mann
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
The Snopes Trilogy – William Faulkner
Mr Johnson – Joyce Cary
No Country for Old Men – Cormac McCarthy (not alone with this one either!)
Non-fiction
Wholeness and the Implicate Order – David Bohm
The Zen Teachings of Huang Po
The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain translated by Red Pine (William Porter)
Process and Reality – Alfred North Whitehead
Lots of Hilaire Belloc
There are so many more I’d like to add! Think I’ll draw up a list of my top 100. Avid reader, ballpark figure some 7500 books over the course of many years. HSF and I have similar tastes, it appears, and the work of Julius Evola should be a must for anyone here.
“The author dove into the soviet archives and other sources to come up with an impeccable analysis of why Hitler lost WW11.” ———– Gryffyn
WW11?? Fuck Me Dead!! I’m spending so much time on TBP I missed NINE fucking world wars!!!
Such a hard question to answer when one has read so MANY books. Thousands. I often think the CURRENT book I’m reading is the best one ever. Really.
But, I’ll play. I will only pick five books. Not necessarily the “best” — whatever that qualification might be — but ones that greatly influenced me when I read them (in all cases, I was young);
—1) Mere Christianity
—2 & 3) Animal Farm and 1984
—4) How to make friends and influence people (seriously)
—5) Johnny Got His Gun
‘Lucifer’s Hammer’ by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is the best post-apocalypse book I’ve ever read.
Pretty much anything by Larry Niven, His ‘Known Space’ series is excellent.
Political works like ‘Atlas Shrugged”, Animal Farm, 1984, etc.
Aside from many old favorites, I’m discovering quite a few I haven’t read but will. Thanks and keep ’em comin’!
Stucky,
Jeezus weezus dude, sorry I pressed the wrong key! Didn’t know you have morphed into one of those typo scolds. I tried to back you up on the giraffe-killing wild cats, and this is what you come up with?
Gryf, guilt-tripping a big dog doesn’t work, that is their purview.
El Coyote,
Thanks for the sage advise. I guess when you venture onto the big dog’s porch you can expect him to try to piss on you.
I have a real big dog, part Aussie cattle dog, part wolf and part big dog. He loves meeting people, kids especially, and other dogs. He totally ignores other dogs that bark at him. He sets a good example, which I do not always follow.
Loved hearing my Grandpa reading and telling stories from Pilgrim’s Progress as a child… he could recite long passages of it in his quiet, lyrical voice. I have never officially “read” it though, but this question has sent me into storage to get the copy of the book I inherited from him.
Best read to think about, analyze and ponder into infinity? Ulysses by James Joyce.
Funniest? Erma Bombeck “The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank”
American Classic? Huckleberry Finn was, of course, the more heroic of the two boys and the book was the better of the two, in my opinion.
Best modern series? Well, duh? Harry Potter.
There are so many but several that stick out…………………..
How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes – Will Cuppy
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody – Will Cuppy
I just never tire of reading Cuppy’s stuff and laughing.
Empire of the Summer Moon -S.C. Gwynne
A book I’ve read recently and the best book I’ve read in quite a while. One of the most excellent history books ever. Read this even if the history of the USA’s western expansion and the Comanche Indians are not of particular interest to you. Warning…….this one is hard to put down even if you are familiar with the subject.