Home Library and Top 100 Essential Texts

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

I like Cosmic Trigger.

Also, a favourite novel Malpertuis by Jean Ray.
Very Gothic and dreamy.

a reply to: aliensanonymous

Oh man, the Vedic Epics reminded me to include an in general "Norse Sagas" and this book:
"The Norse Myths" by Kevin Crossley-Holland

I really enjoyed that one in particular. It's not a complete myth collection, but an awesome retelling of some of the best. It was assigned in a Scandinavian Lit. course I took in college and I've read the stories countless times since.

a reply to: Tulpa

Good point. Cosmic Trigger is a complete mind#!

ETA another potential candidate:
Aurelia and Sylvie Gerald de Nerval

A 19th century French madman's magnum opus. Unnerving at best. A classic work(s) by a tragic artist.

I'm so pleased (but not a bit surprised) at the phenomenal selections so far!

ATS, while quite a few of these texts (including the Q'uran and the Bhagavad Gita, lots of Vonnegut, Orwell, and Huxley) reside on my shelves, quite a few don't.

I'm so glad I asked for suggestions and you delivered!



Let's also rep the ladies and add
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Wolfe
and
A Vindication of the Rights of Women Mary Wollstonecraft

Also
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison

a reply to: zosimov

Wolfe! Really, what a fun thread! Thanks!

How about a somewhat obscure serial by none other than Charles Dickens:
Bleak House

Exciting, scandalous and boring by modern standards, it captures day to day life in Victorian England like a reality show. It was wildly popular in its time, but turned into one of Dickens least known works in modern times.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao
If there was only going to be one Dickens, my vote would go to Dombey and Son.
The title is rather poignant, because Son dies in an early chapter. In his grief, the father neglects his daughter until the end of the book.

Stargate Conspiracy by Lyn Picknett and Clive Prince is something I have read three or four times now. Large scale mind bending. I know a few people on here have referred to it in the past but I think it should be more widely known.

I've just got hold of copy of John Marks The Search for the Manchurian Candidate. About the CIA and their mind control shenanigans. I'm only about fifty pages in but its recommended if you see it.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I've heard of it but never have read it. Sounds completely soul wrenching...

Since The Brothers Karamozov has been mentioned, I have nothing to further the "Whydidireadthisiwannadie" category. I'm sure there a few that compare, but I haven't had the pleasure of reading them.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

I'm having so much fun too! I do love Dickens for his atmosphere and characterization (also his pathos). His work is unlike any other.

(..lol about the effect Dostoevskii's writing had on you-- he really was a soul wrenching author)

a reply to: Tulpa

These really sound great. Thank you.

originally posted by: zosimov

...

In this thread I hope to, with your help and guidance, establish a guide of 100 texts which contain some of the greatest value or wisdom compiled by man.

So, friends, do you have any titles to suggest for our list? Which text/texts have contributed the most to mankind? Which are essential to complete a comprehensive home library?

Here are a few that I would have to add to my own personal list:

1. The Epic of Gilgemesh
2. The Holy Bible
3. Divine Comedy
4. Rumi
5. Poetry of Ranier Maria Rilke
6. I Ching
7. Moby Dick
8. The Complete Works of John Milton
9. The United States Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights
10. Rights of Man
11. On the Origin of Species
12. The Brothers Karamozov
13. Dialogues of Plato
14. Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges
15. Hippocratic Corpus
16. Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

17. Hunger : Knut Hamsun
18. Essays : Michel de Montaigne
19. Gulag Archipelago : Alexander Solzhenitsyn
20. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich : Solzhenitsyn
21. The Canterbury Tales : Geoffrey Chaucer
22. The Complete Works : William Shakespeare
23. Cosmic Trigger I, II, III : Robert Anton Wilson

There are probably a bunch I've left off! Those are the ones that come to mind. Leaves of Grass, Joyce, more poetry and humor. Good story telling like Ishiguro.

I'd better stop too! Day is getting short for me!

a reply to: zosimov


Green Eggs and Ham.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

All great, crucial works!
Hunger was an excellent read. As was the Gulag.
You're right that a bit more humor is in order! Any suggestions on more wickedly funny works (other than Moby Dick )?

I nominate perhaps Pynchon's Gravity Rainbow or Mann's Magic Mountain or Dr Faustusand maybe some Bradbury..?
Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis introduces one of the most memorable, dislikable yet sympathetic unreliable characters one ever will read.
Too many greats, too little time (and too few slots in a top 100 lol).

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

You know, I do believe Dr Seuss was a wordsmith.

He really might fit a slot in our list! You won't hear me arguing

a reply to: zosimov


Sentimental value for me as that was the first book I learned to read when I was 4.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Also the book which helped me make my kids try food they didn't like

But really Suess was the man (though a weird man at that).

a reply to: zosimov


For you:

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Still laughing here after the second time watching.



Thanks Aug. PS I think it goes to the BARD!!!!

a reply to: zosimov

Have you read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy?

Now that sounds intriguing. Always looking for a good read.

As far as books that I found unsettling, "The Kite Runner" by Khalid Hosseini and "The Handmaiden's Tale" by Margaret Atwood to be the most top of mind. I was a young 20-something when I read Atwood's book. It disturbed me enough to refuse to read it a second time, or even see the current TV series.

On a lighter note, I've read portions of Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" to both of my children's elementary school classes during Reading for Life week. It's actually one of my favorite whimsical books.

originally posted by: zosimov
Thanks Aug.

PS I think it goes to the BARD!!!!

Of course, he's the Bard, he's the boss.