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one work of fiction EVERYONE should read?

War and Peace
 
Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut

Also, I agree that Hesse is a must read. Steppenwolf is my personal favorite (but Siddhartha is good too). I want to echo the Moby Dick rec too.

If we're including poetry, I think The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake is tops.
 
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The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russel. It's a great story, and a great cautionary tale about unintended consequences.

Runner up: the Mars Trilogy, by KSR. Great story, and we need to get to Mars pronto!
 
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. A sci-fi novel about how it's not our overwhelming oppressiveness that is killing us, rather it's our greed and wastefulness. A scathing critique of capitalism, prescription drugs, mass media and degradation of intimacy and decency. It's why the world sucks.

What's really trippy is that it was written in the 1930s and it has things like 3D movies and helicopters and Prozac and all sorts of modern tech. Eerily prophetic.
 
“and we’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere … and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 
littlebeast said:
“and we’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere … and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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I almost went with that, but had to go with Will S. because after "Guide" the rest of the books, while entertaining, just didn't reach the level of the original. But Will S. just kept hitting them out of the park. And I haven't read anything that surpasses his insight and presentation of the human condition. Oscar Wilde comes damn close though.
 
Bassem said:
I can't seem to get more than 150 pages in and then put the book down. I'm on my 5th try now.
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I have the same problem with Jean-Paul Sartre, but he is very quotable.

And fuck Tolstoy up his stupid fucking ass. :twofinger
 
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