Books Everybody Should Read

[gandalf (imported)]

Trusting Lit. professors to give correct information about writers is like trusting politicians to tell the truth about society, not a wise idea. On page 6 of the Foreword of the 2nd ed. of LOTR, Tolkien wrote "these chapters ... were written and sent out as a serial to my son, Christopher, then in South Africa with the RAF," so you should have gotten that information by reading Tolkien. Tolkien is a tough read; he never really had a sense of audience and so his stories flounder around at the beginning until he finds his voice a bit later, and that puts many readers off. All of the arch nonsense about the invention of golf at the beginning of the Hobbit is a waste, and the story doesn't begin until Gandalf enters. Much of the beginning of LOTR is tedious until Frodo gets out of the shire and the story picks up, but the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman in the Two Towers is splendid.

Herbert is a different matter altogether. It is really very easy to read Dune, what is difficult is to reread it because after you have read the damn thing, picked up all the homoerotic references to Paul and Feyd and gone to the comic opera finale with the overthrow of the Padishah Emperor, nothing much has happened to you. I, at least, can reread Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation again and again or reread the Earth Sea series by LeGuin or Card's Ender's Game and still be moved by it. I have even been tempted to reread The Worm Ouroboros, and discovered that I was right; it was a tedious pastiche by a remarkably unimaginative writer, but I have never been tempted to pick up Dune a second time and never even opened Son of Dune or Stock Options of Dune or whatever.

I have not read the Dune series after the first one. Enjoyed the movie immensly. Talk of favorite authors (in a way). I like Alan

Dean Foster's Flinx series. I have all of them. I also have all of Ann McCaffry's series dealing with life on P.E.R.N. All about dragons and their riders. On P.E.P.N. you can have the sex life you like...many of the males are gay. THW the planet got its name from the explorer note Parallel Earth Resources Neglible. Have to like SciFi.

I have a young friend ( A. H.S. junior) who uses things from LOTR in many of his talks. He Loves the series.

[gareth19 (imported)]

This isn't really a criticism of post #39, because this is, like most topics, one about which different opinions can be defended.

I didn't think of it as criticism but as discussion. In point of fact, I rather admire Gauss, if only for his assertion that "arithmetic is the business of accountants." He is one of a number of important figures in human intellectual development, but frankly I have never found mathematical writing very compelling. My chief response to lists is that they are too personal and tell us more about the compiler's interests.

I am very fond of Lewis's Experiment in Criticism because he asserts that the idea of "good' and "bad" books is essentially false, but that there is a difference between good and bad reading. Good reading is to attend fully to the complex interplay of language and ideas and ways in which the author exploits those resources to construct a reality for the reader. In such a system, fiction is not necessarily privileged over non-fiction and one can and should enjoy well written non-fiction.

BTW the phrase is "De gustibus non disputandum." Gerundives are always thematic; the present active participles are athematic and end in -entem in the accusative.

[Francis (imported)]

I think the best approach is to just make a lot of books available, keep an eye on where your kid is going with them and keep feeding him/her/it with books that will keep them interested.

You can find good books really cheap. I buy most of the book I read at Opportunity shops e.g Salvation Army Stores, St Vincent de Paul and other charitable organisations where all kinds of good books are available at less that $5 each in most cases. (my average price is $2.00). Flea Markets and garage sales are another good source You will be getting a bargain and can provide a wide selection. When done with them you can just donate back the ones that your kid didn't like. Also encourage them to go with you to pick out what he likes and keep any eyes out for anything inappropriate e.g. Karma Sutra.

BTW my favourite author of all time is JRR Tolkein and his Lord of the Rings series including the supporting Silmarillion and other background stories that lend more substance to the trilogy Thye are definitely not dry and boring

On the Subject of required reading may I recomend the writings of Robert Fisk (Do a Google and you will see many many articles). He writes about the Middle East and as far as I am concerned provides a clear and realistic view of what is happening there and what has gone before that has caused most of the problems. It is like seeing the clouds and mist and I can tell you that the view is very different from what the powers that be would have us believe.

[eefje46 (imported)]

Most of the book above are what i call classic's. There are many free books on project gutenberg. www.gutenberg.org . But i think most people here will like The Jannissary tree from Jason Goodwin. He studied Byzantinic history on Cambride. And this is his first novell around the eunuch detective Yashim. I is called a litterary thriller.

Grtz Eef

[SquirmEWorm (imported)]

"Hogg" by Samual Delany

"The Gas" by Charles Pratt

Books mostly suck. They're poor substitutes for real life. Generally, the only kind of books worth reading are: memoirs, how-to & porn.

The classics are a total waste-of-time con. Better to masturbate or go for a walk in the woods or anything real, hot-blooded, human and connected.

[IbPervert (imported)]

In light of recent events in Washington DC at the Holocaust Museum everyone should read "The Diary of Anne Frank" She would have been 80 years old this week if she had lived.

[A-1 (imported)]

If one has to read the bible then one should also read other books of scripture like....

The Koran

Anton Levey's Satanic Bible

etc....

just to balance out.

That makse about as much sense as watching the FOX News channel 'just to balance out'

...If anything will make you 'unbalanced' Fox News and Levay's rantings will do it...

[transward (imported)]

That makse about as much sense as watching the FOX News channel 'just to balance out'

...If anything will make you 'unbalanced' Fox News and Levay's rantings will do it...

Given it's influence in the world today, only a fool would be unfamiliar with the Koran, though, seeing some of the comments about Islam here, a number of EA members fall in that category. But I agree with your comments about LeVey. His writings do have a fair amount of the charlatan. I am not sure that occultism is influential enough in modern society to put any of its writings on a must read list, but if you are looking in that direction, Blavatsky or Crowley are a little more reputable. Perhaps the best in that field, though not easy to get through are the writings of the followers of Gurdjieff, who greatly influenced Frank LLoyd Wright.

Transward