A lifetime of must reads
 

Lately i've really rediscovered a love for reading. Unfortunately, my literary knowledge is adequate at best.

What books would you guys consider must/great reads that have to be done in a lifetime.

Please include anything and everything: Fiction, non fiction, biography, philosophy, science, history, etc etc.

Let me know what i'm missing.

Also, if this thread has already happened (seems like the type that would around here) then my bad and please remove.

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

Cat In The Hat

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

Diceman - Rhinehart
Under the Skin - Faber

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu. Read various translations and contemplate about 1,000 times or so.

The Prince; by Niccolo Machiavelli

The Art of War; by Sun Tzu

All I Ever Really Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarden; by Robert Fulgham

Enjoy

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

the corrections - johnathan franzen
midnight's children - salman rushdie
something by anton chekhov
something by alice munro

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

Gödel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

Not saying you want to read everything on the list, but googling for Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon" could be helpful. (It's a list of great books.)

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

[ QUOTE ]
Gödel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

[/ QUOTE ]

I almost bought this book. Wasn't quite sold on it. What did you like best about it?

Also, I am in the middle of reading a book by Carl Sagan called Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. It walks you throgh time from the beginning of the universe to the present brushing over a very wide range of topics (biology, mathematics, sociology, psychology) to give a better understanding of why the world is the way it is today.

So far its a solid book. Carl Sagan is not an expert on all of these topics but it says he did a ton of research and he definitely gives his interpretation of things from a somewhat unique perspective.

Re: A lifetime of must reads
 

"Gödel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter"

He didn't ask for books that take a lifetime to read.

Seriously,

I am Charlotte Simmons Tom Wolfe
Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt
Germs, Guns, and Steel Jarrod Diamond
The God Delusion Richard Dawkins