What books would you suggest? (vanity)

all of YOU freepers out there ^

[occam's chainsaw]

Most of the reading I have done over the years has been of science fiction/fantasy books read simply for enjoyment. Now that I am a little older, I am becoming more interested in finding books which are educational as well as enjoyable. I have not read very much classical literature (the small Arkansas public school I attended had little to offer in Literature) and would consider reading some as long as it wasn't too tedious.

I was hoping that some of you more experienced & educated (self educated included of course) readers could offer some suggestions for me. Biographies, classics, historical novels, fiction/non fiction, are all open to consideration. I did read Rand's "The Fountainhead" years ago and enjoyed it very much. Please give me your suggested titles along with a brief description and/or reason you are suggesting each. I know I still have a lot to learn and I appreciate any help I can get.

[Res Nullius]

You owe it to yourself to consider the late Patrick O'Brian's 'Sea Series'. Twenty historically accurate novels address the adventures of an 18th century British naval captain, and his friend, the ships doctor. I believe the first in the series is called 'Captain and Commander' which is followed by nineteen others. All are available in 'trade-back' for about $15 each and many may be found in the library. Many have wondered why O'Brian never won the Pulitzer for his work.

[Doctor Doom]

About anything by Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and "Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. Oh, and "The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson." And Marcus Aurelius. And "The Illuminatus Trilogy" by R.A. Wilson. And...(Stope me before I make you do book reports...)

[Delta-Boudreaux]

Some of my personal recommendations are:

Dallas Willard, "The Divine Consipiracy"

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Chuck Swindol, Grace Awakening

[RobFromGa]

These are all Modern Classics.

My top recommendation: "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett is awesome historical story about a man who wanted to build cathedrals in the middle ages, great book.

My second recommendation: "Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe (forget about the movie, the book is great and should be made into a new movie).

My third recommendation: "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

My fourth recommendation: "The Gold Coast" by Nelson DeMille and anything else by him as well).

And, number five, even if you have seen the movie: "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo.

[leprechaun9]

"AMERICANS NO MORE" and subtitled "The Death of Citizenship" by Georgie Anne Geyer.

[Oxylus]

Please give me your suggested titles along with a brief description

Now is a good time to read The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx and see the movie (or vice versa). She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994.
A guy in the Northeast gets knocked around in life, finally meets a woman, has a daughter, loses woman in a car crash, and moves to Newfoundland for a fresh start. It kinda works out in the end. I saw it Dec 27, and it was okay.

Link to: The Shipping News

[Doctor Doom]

Clausewitz, "On War."

Nietzsche. (All of them.)

Machiavelli, "The Prince."

David Boaz, "Libertarian Reader."

Hayek, "The Road to Serfdom."

Anything by Von Mises or Milton Friedman

[KC Burke]

Conservatism:

The Politics of Prudence, Russell Kirk The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk Ideas Have Consequences, Richard Weaver

When you have those out of the way, I'll give your a list of twenty more.

[Ken H]

Try "Lord of the Rings."

I think its out of print, so you may have to do some searching. They even made an animated movie version of it several years ago.

[john in orinda]

The most important book not required in American schools -

THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by Friederich Hayek

It is the most concise, easy to understand treatise on why a free market economy and republican government is inherently superior to socialism and communism.
Regards,

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Don't give up on the Sci-Fi just yet. There's one I'll bet you haven't read.
Although it is not really science fiction, "The Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapledon from 1930 features vistas of hundreds of millions of years and the rise and fall of civilizations and entire races.
Definitely worth a read.

[AlGone2001]

The Holy Bible, by God

[ikanakattara]

Anything by:
- Flannery O'Connor
- Walker Percy
- John Kennedy O'Toole (esp. Confederacy of Dunces)
- Walter Miller (esp. Canticle for Leibowitz)
- Mark Helprin (esp. A Winter's Tale)
- Graham Greene

[Taylor42]

Anything by Winston Churchill.

[Young Werther]

1. "The Red and the Black"

2. "The Count of Monte Cristo"

3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

4."The Sorrows of Young Werther"

5. "Huckleberry Finn".

6. "Travels with Charley."

7. "The Sun Also Rises".

8. "Gone with the Wind."

9. Any Shakespear plays.

10. Any Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams plays.

[Jefferson Adams]

"Unintended Consequences" by John Ross.

And my compliments once again on your screen name < g >

[The Iron Duke]

A selection of Shakespeare's major plays and either Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen would be a good place to start for the British literature. Both authors show how little human nature has changed across the centuries. For beauty of the British language I'd start with the King James Bible and then I'd look for an old, and I do mean at least 50 year old, anthology of English poetry with a good deal of biographical detail on the poets. As a general rule, poetry written before about 1940 is worth reading but poetry after 1950 or so tends to be impenetrable.

Among American authors, Twain, Poe and Henry James are favorites. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was an acquired taste and I found James Fenimore Cooper to have created good plots deeply buried in thickets of bad prose. One 19th century American who may surprise readers is Ulysses Grant. His memoirs are top notch, but then again Twain was his editor. For influences like the transcendentalists, among them Emerson and Thoreau, I recommend a few excerpts from an old college textbook to get a flavor of what all the fuss was about instead of reading the entire works, but that is personal taste.

[eaglebeak]

I second this nomination! And *The Things They Carried* is a collection of stories, but the title story is by far and away the best.

Classics:

*MOBY DICK* by Herman Mehlville Anything by Charles Dickens Anything by Mark Twain *Jane Eyre* by Charlotte Bronte *As I Lay Dying* by William Faulkner *Uncle Tom's Cabin* by Harriet Beecher Stowe

I could go on and on, but that should get you started. :)

[SemperFidelis]

Bureaucracy and Liberalism, by Ludwig von Mises.(Two separate books)

[ThePoetsRaven]

Anything by James A. Michener...they're novels but historically accurate