Books - What are your favourite books? (not about drugs)

[mr. strawberry]

I know most of you probably won't care about this thread and thats fine. I like to read though and wanted to share some books that have had a big impact on me. If anyone else wants to share some titles then feel free. also, if you have read any of the books and want to give your input on something then go ahead.
chang tzu the inner chapters
the way of chang tzu
tao te ching
aldus huxly ISLAND (doors of perception is good too but this novel is GREAT!!!imo)
acid dreams
the stranger by albert camus translated (and this is important) by matthew ward
the little book of big questions
george orwel 1984
kirt vonnoget sirins of titan (most of his books are pretty good but this one is probably my favorite)
6 centurys of great peotry (or something similar)
and lastly...
philosophy stuff like Decartes...his dream argument (particulary his first one) is very powerful if youre into that kind of thing (am i real? what is real? is god good or evil? its actually what the movie the matrix was influenced by) you can easily find it on a search engine

[mr. strawberry]

just wanted to add to that list:
remember be here now
Ram Dass journey of awakening

[mr. strawberry]

heres one of those books for free. a perfect one for this forum.

http://nseo.com/remember/thebook/remember1.htm

[cfb1]

Descartes is a good read, in the Philosophy 102 way, but dated and really kind of inconsequential since many of his ideas read dated and are dated (mind-body dualism, for instance).

I'd suggest Jung's Dreams, on the subject, if non-fiction interests you, as well as some of his other works where he talks about the final experience, since it relates so heavily to psychedelic experiences.

For fiction on the subject of dreams, I've always found Orhan Pamuk's (2005? Nobel prize winner for fiction) writing to have a "lucid dream" feel, and some of the metaphors he makes (e.g. Snow, The Real Life) almost feel like a Dali painting; surreally stark.

If you like the Stranger, Notes From the Underground (Dostoevsky), Nausea, the Wall, and the Age of Reason trilogy (Sartre), are all thematically similar, but more densly written and philosophical in nature. Faulkner writes in some ways stylistically similar to both Pamuk and Camus.

Salman Rushdie (Satanic Verses, the Moors Last Sigh, Midnight's Children) has a sing-song way of writing, similar in ways to Garcia Marquez. Highly reccommended. Especially in the Satanic Verses, he explores the subjective nature of divinity (among other things) through fiction.

William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience writes starkly and simply with both a formal and youthful flair, in my opinion. Sample here:

In the age of gold,
Free from winter's cold,
Youth and maiden bright,
To the holy light,
Naked in the sunny beams delight.


Once a youthful pair,
Filled with softest care,
Met in garden bright
Where the holy light
Had just removed the curtains of the night.



from "A Little Girl Lost"



Let's see....



among other things.
T.S. Eliot...the traditional Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Wasteland. But I love his descriptive powet in Prufrock, especially of the cat walking down an alley and the city blanketed by night (etherized upon a table).

------------

In terms of drug-influenced writing, I've never been fond of it much. In my opinion, the greatest writing is spawned from a creative mind with full control of it's faculties. However, Kerouac, Kesey, are both good. On The Road was one of the worst books I'd ever read (not that it has no merit, it does, I just don't like it), but Desolation Angels is amazing and epic in scope.

[cfb1]

In terms of influential books upon me, I'd have to say, in no particular order:

Snow: Orhan Pamuk
The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ernest Hemmingway
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the Wasteland: T.S. Elliot
Songs of Experience: Blake
Crime and Punishment: Dostoevsky
Genesis, the Old Testament, in general
Indian literature (Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana)
Sartre, philosophy and the Age of Reason Trilogy, Nausea
Augustine, Confessions
Rushdie, Midnight's Children, Satanic Verses
Derrida

[BackToBasics]

For those that like to read, what are some of swiyour favourite books (drug related or not)?

There's probably hundreds that Budgie's read and liked over the years, but here's ten that made an everlasting impression on him...

In no particular order :

1. The teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda
2. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
3. Diary of a Drug Fiend - Aleister Crowley
4. Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
5. The Living Planet - David Attenborough
6. The Occult - Colin Wilson
7. Mr Nice - Howard Marks
8. PIHKAL/TIHKAL - Alexander & Ann Shulgin
9. Discover Astral Projection - J H Brennan
10. The Hobbit - J R Tolkien

Budgie likes to read a lot of factual books, but he also occasionally reads funny stuff and novels, etc.

[Heretic.Ape.]

All time favorite: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.

[tayo]

Psychedelic Experience - Timothy Leary
The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell - Aldous Huxley
Mind: Perception and Thought - Paul Schilder
Tihkal and Phikal - Shulgin
Anything Edgar Allen Poe writes
Fight Club
forgetting some... I'll make edits when they come to me.

[BackToBasics]

Edgar Allen Poe's books are excellent. The name escapes Budgie, but he particularly remembers one about a house with a strange ticking noise that eventually drives the occupant mad. Budgie's memories of the book are quite hazy, but he remembers it was an excellent read.

BTW, MickleMouse, if this topic is in the wrong place, sorry, but Budgie's question did involve non-drug literature as well so thought this would be the place for it...

[Micklemouse]

Originally Posted by BackToBasics

BTW, MickleMouse, if this topic is in the wrong place, sorry, but Budgie's question did involve non-drug literature as well so thought this would be the place for it...

S'alright! I'm sure there are a couple of threads that it could be merged with somewhere though - watch this space!

[tayo]

that would be The Telltale Heart

[Nagognog2]

Hard to have a favorite. For 20th century literature:

"For Whom the Bell Tolls." Ernest Hemingway

[csharpprogrammer]

SWIM has not read many books in his life, but he loves the Harry Potter collection. He has already preordered the seventh book. SWIM can't wait!

[Fox101]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

Hard to have a favorite. For 20th century literature:

"For Whom the Bell Tolls." Ernest Hemingway

god Ernest Hemingway is great but his books get dull at times.

for my favorite im going to have to say Ender's Game. I love to read it a fantasize.

[Ackman]

SWIM thinks that SWIM's favourite book would be;
The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft - Dreams of Terror and Death, which contains good selection of short stories based on Cthulhu Mythos.

[Heretic.Ape.]

Excuse me if this has already been covered elsewhere, but just try doing a search of "books", lol.
The question is this: what are books that you think have either influenced the way you think or view the world, or that you would recommend everyone read for the sake of "expanding" their minds or that sort of thing.
For example, I would recommend that everyone read Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, even if it's "groundbraking" aspects may be dated by this point; a book called The Sociologically Examined Life by Michael Schwalbe because everyone should get an opportunity to take a look at the fact that their entire reality is predominantly socially constructed for the sake of a smooth running society; perhaps Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson for basically the same reason but with a little more humor and strangeness; if you are an American, or maybe even if not because the same basic principles apply in pretty much every developed nation at this point, I would probably recommend Profit Over People by Noam Chomsky for the sake of realizing how our current power system works (although it might be a good idea to read the anti Chomsky reader or a similar treaties to counter balance and make your own decision as to the validity of his notions, but I find most of his detractors lacking); and I'm sure there are others that I can't think of off the top of my head because I'm drunk.
But I'm interested in what you think--what do you think pretty much everyone could benefit from reading? I'm not talking about drugs, although you can certainly include books about drugs, otherwise I would have put this in drug culture, but I'm talking more broadly here.

[lulz]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, God's Debris by Scott Adams, and Permutation City by Greg Egan all expanded my mind in different ways. Good reads for people who are into casual philosophy.

[rxbandit]

Originally Posted by lulz

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, God's Debris by Scott Adams, and Permutation City by Greg Egan all expanded my mind in different ways. Good reads for people who are into casual philosophy.

Zen and the Art of motorcycle maintenance is one of the best books I have read. I also think cat's cradle by kurt vonnegut gives one an interesting perspective on life. Also Farenheit 451 and the illustrated man by ray bradbury give great insight into human life. Sophie's world is a great intro to philosophy and all around a good read. Man's search for meaning by victor frankel provides a nice perspective on life which is good to endure the hard times for the good. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is also a very enlightening book.

all of the above i highly recommend

[eltimmy]

novels by: samuel beckett, joyce, gg marquez ... umm, leo tolstoy, and some other folks.

if you're like me (and heretic ape might be a little like me - more like son of sam) then you'll appreciate the greatness that is jorge luis borges.

These ambiguities, redundances, and deficiences recall those attributed by Dr. Franz Kuhn to a certain Chinese encyclopedia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, © those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble flies from a distance.
-- Jorge Luis Borges "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins"

This felicitous supposition declared that there is only one Individual, and that this indivisible Individual is every one of the separate beings in the universe, and that these beings are the instruments and masks of divinity itself.
-- "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"

Fuck yea.

nonfiction: without broaching academic philosophy too much, or interesting cultural studies or anything obscene like that, some basic 'neurophilosophy' is essential for the enlightened modern citizen! douglas hofstadter "I Am A Strange Loop"

worth reading something about neuroplasticity too, and maybe the evolutionary basis of 'moral' behavior. franz de waal "primates and philosophers"

nutrition? "the omnivore's dilemma"

[Bajeda]

This book will give you a better perspective of the Arab world and its struggle to balance traditional values against the encroachment of Western influences than any other can, as it paints a portrait of life in a single alley in Cairo during World War II in authentic yet universal terms.







Not completely sure what to say on this one. Besides being a great read - scratch that, a fantastic read - I really connected with the philosophical underpinnings of the book.





If you haven't been introduced to existentialism yet (I first read this quite a while ago, just after reading Madame Bovary), or even simply haven't read Camus yet, this book can be a revelation. The philosophical issues raised in this book are still wonderful to ponder, even after reading it numerous times.





The first book to ever make me cry. Compassion is a wonderful thing.






If you need an introduction to the region so often in the headlines today, this is a pretty darned good one to start with. Actually I would recommend this above any others as a broad overview of the modern history of the region. If you have any desire to learn about the Middle-East and are willing to put the reading time in I highly recommend this.


Thats about all for now folks.

[BackToBasics]

'Black Elk speaks' is worth reading if you are into that sort of thing.

'It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is one spirit.'

Other good books that Budgie has read are 'Journey of Souls' by Michael Newton, 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections' by Carl Gustav Jung and Malcolm X.

[D.U.M.B]

The bible?

[kfc v lot]

I`d say Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas changed swim's life in the sense that it made swim want to experiment with harder drugs.

[Euphoric]

SWIM would definitely recommend a book called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It was one of SWIM's first philosophy/anthropology books, and the most thought-provoking so far. There were quite a few moments whilst reading it that SWIM actually had to put the book down and think about what was just read. Fascinating stuff, to SWIM anyway. Definitely changed SWIM's view of the world. This book is actually the first of a trilogy, all of which SWIM has read and enjoyed. Ishmael is a gorilla, who explains to a man a different way of looking at the world. If anyone else here has or does read this book, SWIM would like to hear your thoughts.

[BackToBasics]

^^^ Sounds like Budgies kind of book! Will give it a read...