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one work of fiction EVERYONE should read?

There is already "The Book Thread" I think. I am currently reading "1984" amoung other stuff..
 
Dr. Evil said:
My contribution is "Cryptonomicon." Especially if you're confused about BitCoin.
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Stephenson is pretty hit or miss for people-- either you love his style/content, or you get 10 pages and wonder WTF is going on.

Much as I loved Cryptonomicon, I'd have to put Anathem over it. Far more... everything... in terms of ideas and sheer scope of imagination. Anathem is on par with books like 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, and Tolkien's Middle Earth series: books whose authors didn't settle for merely telling stuff, but selling it with invented vocabulary and history.

scimmione said:
For Us, The Living - Robert Heinline
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Man, I love Heinlein's works and have read everything he's written multiple times... but that's the worst suggestion of all :laughing

I'll give you this much though, For Us, The Living is damn thought provoking.
 
kevin 714 said:
I sort of thought in my op the idea was this was a lot more than just entertainment.
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ok that's understandable. The iliad and odessy will teach about old mythology, and can be entertaining to the right person. One could derive some life lessons from them as well. Would I characterize them as necessary reading for adults? I'm not convinced, personally.

Loads of fictional works are just facades for a greater truth: a statement on the current political climate, a metaphor for human behavior, etc etc. Heck even a 'dreaded' Stephen King work will have a granule of applicable truth for the reader to take home, if they are looking for something out of it. for example: let your dead pets stay dead, and everyone will be better off. :teeth

I guess when I wrote 'entertaining', I did not mean 'void of any relevance'. it was more of 'when I put it down for the night, do I want to pick it back up the next day, or must I force myself to grind out the rest?'
 
Bowling4Bikes said:
ok that's understandable. The iliad and odessy will teach about old mythology, and can be entertaining to the right person. One could derive some life lessons from them as well. Would I characterize them as necessary reading for adults? I'm not convinced, personally.

Loads of fictional works are just facades for a greater truth: a statement on the current political climate, a metaphor for human behavior, etc etc. Heck even a 'dreaded' Stephen King work will have a granule of applicable truth for the reader to take home, if they are looking for something out of it. for example: let your dead pets stay dead, and everyone will be better off. :teeth

I guess when I wrote 'entertaining', I did not mean 'void of any relevance'. it was more of 'when I put it down for the night, do I want to pick it back up the next day, or must I force myself to grind out the rest?'
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For great fiction, I focus more on the writing style itself versus the message. Will it teach the reader to become a better writer? Will they become immersed in the moment while getting the gist of it? That's why some science fiction is so incredible; It totally transports you.

My mentally disabled son devours books. Reads EVERYTHING...and gets it. He read the Illiad and the Odyssey and can hold intelligent conversations about them.
However, I am fairly certain I cliff noted those two...and the Tale of Two Cities as well. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".....mind wandering...hmmmm, burger. Books like those can't be great if you can't get into them., which kills the desire to learn.
Of course, I think that I have already established my ignorance here so what do I know?:laughing
 
horsepower said:
For great fiction, I focus more on the writing style itself versus the message. Will it teach the reader to become a better writer? Will they become immersed in the moment while getting the gist of it? That's why some science fiction is so incredible; It totally transports you.

My mentally disabled son devours books. Reads EVERYTHING...and gets it. He read the Illiad and the Odyssey and can hold intelligent conversations about them.
However, I am fairly certain I cliff noted those two...and the Tale of Two Cities as well. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times".....mind wandering...hmmmm, burger. Books like those can't be great if you can't get into them., which kills the desire to learn.
Of course, I think that I have already established my ignorance here so what do I know?:laughing
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Some have said that when you understand and can speak fluent Lou...

Your ruined..:laughing
 
scimmione said:
Says the guy with over 17,500 posts...:laughing
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HAHAH i'm still trying to wrap around the fact i have over 17k posts. The irony.



elbacalao said:
Man what a horrible way to view novels. I'm glad I dont think that way.
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What? You've never read a book people said was awesome and was a bestseller, only to find out that after you've read it, it's dogshit and over hyped? In the meanwhile you could have learned about neurobiology, science and a bunch of other stuff? As I said, the older i get the more my free time is valuable to me. Obviously not all fictions are time vampires, it's just that...every one of them is a potential time vampire.

Not that i haven't read fiction and enjoyed it, but I'd rather be in the garage building a motorcycle after reading Tony Foale's Motorcycle chassis dynamics rather than meditating on how to torque bolts after reading Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance.
 
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Arent all non fiction potential vampires too?

Anyway I get what you mean when it comes ro practical versus metaphysical knowledge. I would preface tho, the thread was never really about pop fiction (most of such admittedly sucks) but about important cultural works , " in the poster's opinion".
 
kevin 714 said:
Arent all non fiction potential vampires too?

Anyway I get what you mean when it comes ro practical versus metaphysical knowledge. I would preface tho, the thread was never really about pop fiction (most of such admittedly sucks) but about important cultural works , " in the poster's opinion".
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Sure, but in my experience i've gotten way more applied knowledge reading non fiction. Suffice to say that the odds of the non-fiction books I read generally are very much less likely to be time vampires than fictions books.

And I get what you mean in the OP. Pretty much every book in high school was awesome and life changing. It's just nowadays i'd rather read philosophy/science/psych ect. as source material, than the fiction that it spawns. I admit that there is a huge swath of great novels I'm missing out on, but that's the trade off with the time I have.


In any case, to add to the list,

The Stranger by Albert Camus was a good one.
 
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saying books are a time suck is only half the explanation.

i stopped reading fiction books too but i'll watch tv, movies, browse and be on barf all day long.

the problem is fiction books have too much time commitment and are boring compared to the alternatives. in other words fiction books provide a very low jolts per second.
 
Karbon said:
Sure, but in my experience i've gotten way more applied knowledge reading non fiction. Suffice to say that the odds of the non-fiction books I read generally are very much less likely to be time vampires than fictions books.

And I get what you mean in the OP. Pretty much every book in high school was awesome and life changing. It's just nowadays i'd rather read philosophy/science/psych ect. as source material, than the fiction that it spawns. I admit that there is a huge swath of great novels I'm missing out on, but that's the trade off with the time I have.


In any case, to add to the list,

The Stranger by Albert Camus was a good one.
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And I totally get that. In fact I agree and for the most part would rather study philosophy.

Good selection btw
 
Karbon said:
What? You've never read a book people said was awesome and was a bestseller, only to find out that after you've read it, it's dogshit and over hyped? In the meanwhile you could have learned about neurobiology, science and a bunch of other stuff? As I said, the older i get the more my free time is valuable to me. Obviously not all fictions are time vampires, it's just that...every one of them is a potential time vampire.

Not that i haven't read fiction and enjoyed it, but I'd rather be in the garage building a motorcycle after reading Tony Foale's Motorcycle chassis dynamics rather than meditating on how to torque bolts after reading Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance.
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I've never started a book, found that I didnt like it, and then continued reading it, no. That would be a waste of time. I would include Non Fiction in that as well. Badly written is still badly written whether educational or not. I can count on one hand how many times I've began a book only to find it less then interesting enough to finish though. Ironically, the last time it happened was with one of my favorite Authors, Jack Kerouac. On The Road, The Dharma Bums, and Tristesa are important books to me. The Subterranean's, however.... I cannot get ten pages into without closing it. I've attempted to read it twice.
 
If it is a mandatory read for everyone, then it should be accessible and thought provoking. Where the sidewalk ends is a good pick. Also a lot of philip k dick's books like Ubik or three stigmata of palmer eldritch.
 
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