100 Books to Read Before You Die

[Sean K]

I'm thinking about creating a list of 100 books to read before I croak. And, I'm going to actually read them, not listen to them, or watch the movie.

Anyone got one of these lists?

On first google, I've found this list, but there's a number I have never heard of, nor sound that interesting, so I need to refine my own list.

Top 10 so far looks like:

1. 1984 (read)
2. LOTR (read)
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Animal Farm (read)
5. Great Gatsby
6. To Kill a Mocking Bird
7. Brave New World
8. Don Quixote
9. Great Expectations
10. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Any suggestions?

 

[wayneL]

Freakonomics changed the way I look at everything.

Couple of others

Fooled by Randomness
Black Swan
The Parasitic Mind
Tao Te Ching

Will think of others later

 

[basilio]

Good idea. I'm a bit interested in other areas apart from fiction (as good as that list is).

FWIW
1) The story of Longitude. by Dava Sobel. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time is a 1995 best-selling book by Dava Sobel about John Harrison, an 18th-century clockmaker who created the first clock ( chronometer) sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at sea.

2) The unfinished legacy. A brief History of Western Civilisation. Excellent historical overview of Europe

3) The Emperor of Lies . Recounts how the leader of a Jewish Ghetto in WW2 attempted to save his people by making them the most efficient German industrial production team in the Reich.

4) The Conditions of the Working Class in England .Friedrich Engels. Classic 1845 review of the desperate living conditions of English workers in the new Industrial England.

 

[Knobby22]

I'm thinking about creating a list of 100 books to read before I croak. And, I'm going to actually read them, not listen to them, or watch the movie.

Anyone got one of these lists?

On first google, I've found this list, but there's a number I have never heard of, nor sound that interesting, so I need to refine my own list.

Top 10 so far looks like:

1. 1984 (read)
2. LOTR (read)
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Animal Farm (read)
5. Great Gatsby
6. To Kill a Mocking Bird
7. Brave New World
8. Don Quixote
9. Great Expectations
10. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Any suggestions?

Good picks. Especially top 3.
Consider Phlebas by Ian M Banks is a classic.
I love Terry Pratchett books - except some of the earlier ones.
Jasper Fforde Shades of grey

 

[IFocus]

The Silk Roads and a New World History, Peter Frankopan

Sapiens

 

[Ferret]

For Australian flavour, A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey.

 

[basilio]

Good picks. Especially top 3.
Consider Phlebas by Ian M Banks is a classic.
I love Terry Pratchett books - except some of the earlier ones.
Jasper Fforde Shades of grey

Love Jasper Fforde! The Ayre Affair was wildly brilliant ! Mind bender.

 

[Sean K]

Freakonomics changed the way I look at everything.

Couple of others

Fooled by Randomness
Black Swan
The Parasitic Mind
Tao Te Ching

Will think of others later

 

[Sean K]

The Silk Roads and a New World History, Peter Frankopan

Sapiens

Been listening to Sapiens on audio book over and over going to sleep. Very good.

 

[Sean K]

Thinking of lumping this list into general themes to make it a little easier to focus.

Novels might be a top 40 while the other groups are top 10, or something like that.

1. Fiction novels
2. Philosophy, Religion, Meaning of Life
3. History and Science
4. Politics and War
5. Sport, Travel, Adventure
6. Finance
7. Biographies not linked to the above.

Any better major topics / groupings?

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

All you you you young younyoung people come sit with your Uncle Garpal on his sec secsecond reading page abc1 2 100 or so of offal.

The best Buick you will never read ...

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce ...

Its all you'll need to read ... For a taste toast is burning now ...



gg

 

[Sean K]

All you you you young younyoung people come sit with your Uncle Garpal on his sec secsecond reading page abc1 2 100 or so of offal.

The best Buick you will never read ...

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce ...

Its all you'll need to read ... For a taste toast is burning now ...



gg

Sounds like hard work...

Maybe need to be on mushrooms to get it.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Sounds like hard work...

Maybe need to be on mushrooms to get it.

View attachment 165950

I've never read it under the influence of mushrooms but it is better sober/clean. Although under all other common licit and illicit stimulants and sedatives I have found it to be still wordit (sic) .

sic : from the Latin "thus" , ... means so written intentionally, and is usually written in parentheses.

() : parentheses.

: : colon

gg

 

[dyna]

I tried to read " Ulysses " many years ago .
Was expecting difficulty , so got started slowly , watching every word until about 30 pages in , when It dawned on me that I had no idea what I'd been reading.
Another dead old white guy , Noble prize and all .
Not for me.

 

[wayneL]

Give me a dead old white guy against the current crop of Foucaultians any day.

(Interestingly also a dead old white guy haha)

 

[orr]

A few of current relevance ;

'God is Not Great and Why Religion Poisons Everything '.... Chris Hitchens.
Just saying the last four words of the title makes me feel good.

'The Origins of Totalitarianism'..... Arent .......(you'd know that one Wayno' ... gawf gawf)

'The Great War for Civilisation'... Fisk

More broardly;
'The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat'... Sacks
'Junky' ... Burroughs


Oh and Joe Heller may have penned something of interest but its name eludes me ....

 

[wayneL]

A few of current relevance ;

'God is Not Great and Why Religion Poisons Everything '.... Chris Hitchens.
Just saying the last four words of the title makes me feel good.

'The Origins of Totalitarianism'..... Arent .......(you'd know that one Wayno' ... gawf gawf)

'The Great War for Civilisation'... Fisk

More broardly;
'The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat'... Sacks
'Junky' ... Burroughs


Oh and Joe Heller may have penned something of interest but its name eludes me ....

No surprises there

 

[orr]

And Just for you Wayno'
'The Bell Jar' ... Plaith

And to get you back to reality;
'Chariots of the Gods' (not my recommend)... from who ever he was; You'd know though Wayno.

Was it Sack's work that pinged on the synapse's?

 

[wayneL]

And Just for you Wayno'
'The Bell Jar' ... Plaith

And to get you back to reality;
'Chariots of the Gods' (not my recommend)... from who ever he was; You'd know though Wayno.

Was it Sack's work that pinged on the synapse's?

I never know what the @#$& you're on about (and I suspect neither do you ), but I rather preferred Rene Noorbergen's "Secrets of the Lost Races", rather than von Daniken's tome.

Just a touch too biblical, even for me, but exceptionally interesting on every other level.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

if the old Russians are hard work, you could try:
Life and Fate (Russian: Жизнь и судьба) , a novel by Vasily Grossman.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O'Toole

and if you want to claim 7 books in one go / blow, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu or Remembrance of Lost Times by Marcel Proust