Thread: Good books?

Walk into your local community college. Pick up an intro-level philosophy textbook, preferably used. I can guarantee that it will go over dozens of philosophers, each with their own set of interesting beliefs.

thank you, but still, i would prefer recommendations. I wouldnt have posted if I was open to any philosophy book.

I have an essay you might find appealing, here you are:

Philosophy for Laymen, by Bertrand Russell

If you like religion/philosophy, I'd suggest Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse. It's a shorter read, but definitely thought-provoking.

I think Jacob Needleman's "The Heart of Philosophy" might fit your description. - It's a light survey of the history of Philosophy, recounted from the point of view of a Professor at San Francisco State and his attempts to teach philosophy in local high schools.

It is definitely an easy read but introduces some pretty deep and penetrating questions with no easy answers. Enough to get you thinking and excited about the subject but without being overwhelming.

I would also suggest Heidegger's Poetry, Language, Thought - but that is downright maddening at times. Anyhow, there is no substitute for looking at the source texts of the great philosophers.

Dan Millman's Way of the peaceful warrior is a great book.

Fiction=
Atlas Shrugged. Although comparable in length to the New Testament, it is highly worth the read and literally 'wrote the book on objectivism.' If you do read it, perhaps we could talk about it some time. It is fantastic.

The Catcher in the Rye provides interesting philosophy on human characteristics.
Otherwise, the book/movie "Stephen King's:Riding the Bullet" it's the best movie in the world, but I haven't read the book yet :\

The Catcher in the Rye provides interesting philosophy on human characteristics.
Otherwise, the book/movie "Stephen King's:Riding the Bullet" it's the best movie in the world, but I haven't read the book yet :\

I liked "The Stranger". A short read, but a very nice introduction to Camus' works.

Also, The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Always.

Try some Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell or The Medusa and the Snail, short philosophical musings on biology. Also, Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, whimsical, first-person short stories about the origins of the universe.

Originally Posted by spockman

Fiction=
Atlas Shrugged. Although comparable in length to the New Testament, it is highly worth the read and literally 'wrote the book on objectivism.' If you do read it, perhaps we could talk about it some time. It is fantastic.

Disclaimer: opposite of fantastic. Some readers will be inclined to hurl book across the room. Some hair loss may occur.

Originally Posted by JackALope2323

I liked "The Stranger". A short read, but a very nice introduction to Camus' works.

I'll second that one for sure. My current roommate makes me somewhat anxious I'll end up like The Stranger >_>

great replies (finally) i will definitely be taking a look at some of these!
thanks

Originally Posted by spockman

Fiction=
Atlas Shrugged. Although comparable in length to the New Testament, it is highly worth the read and literally 'wrote the book on objectivism.' If you do read it, perhaps we could talk about it some time. It is fantastic.

I would add The Fountainhead and some of Ayn Rand's nonfiction works on Objectivism as well.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

Try some Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell or The Medusa and the Snail, short philosophical musings on biology. Also, Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, whimsical, first-person short stories about the origins of the universe.



Disclaimer: opposite of fantastic. Some readers will be inclined to hurl book across the room. Some hair loss may occur.



I'll second that one for sure. My current roommate makes me somewhat anxious I'll end up like The Stranger >_>

So... is this a criticism of the book or of the ending/length?

Originally Posted by spockman

So... is this a criticism of the book or of the ending/length?

The obtuse prose and sociopathic worldview, primarily.

I haven't heard the greatest things about it either. I never read it though, and it's certainly infamous if nothing else, so maybe it's worth checking out for that reason alone.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

The obtuse prose and sociopathic worldview, primarily.

I thought this was a thread on book suggestions, not "is this book fantastic or not."

I love it largely because of it's 'anti-social' themes. Ayn Rand wasn't anti-social. She believed in society.

Spoiler for Giving Away Themes:

But 'Atlas Shrugged' spoke of the sovereignty of earned rights rather than given ones. She thought that you can be born into the world and take all the experiences and goals and... well... anything from it and as long as one earns whatever one takes, one should never have to apologize.

Do I agree with it? Not really. But I enjoy the idea that people can be great. I think most of us harbor a respect for men like Napolean and Cesar, even if we despise them. Empirical stories, economic or political or military, will always hold some appeal.

Spoiler for Atlas Shrugged:

Unless you are accusing Anconia of sociopathy more than Rand's god's of corporate America.

As far as the type of prose, that isn't a fault of Ayn Rand but of American literature in general. Most American classics 'suffer' from this if it is truly a flaw.

At any rate, it certainly presents an atypical view of morality and so it should be an interesting read for someone searching for a fiction book on philosophy. Whatever their opinions.

Jiddu Krishnamurti- Think on these things
Søren Kierkegaard -Sickness unto Death
friedrich nietzsche- The Gay Science
Ludwig Wittgenstein- Philosophical investigations
Jean-paul Sartre- no exit (fiction)
the Stranger by albert camus was really good
i got halfway through Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead but i had to put it down. i really hate her as a person also its unrelated but i think she should die:
"[The Native Americans] didn't have any rights to the land and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using.... What was it they were fighting for, if they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a primitive existence, their "right" to keep part of the earth untouched, unused and not even as property, just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal, or maybe a few caves above it. Any white person who brought the element of civilization had the right to take over this continent." * Source: "Q and A session following her Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, March 6, 1974"

I am an absolute undying fan of books. My shelf in my room holds more than 200 novels, and I have read all of them, more than once. My whole database of books is like, above 400 or something. Among all of them, the absolute best one is :

A prisoner of birth - Jeffery Archer

Then there comes some other books.
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Drown
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling
The Dark Tower - Stephen King (The series)
Misery - Stephen King
Bag of Bones - Stephen King
Twilight Saga - Stephenie Meyer
Lord of the Rings (Series) - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

They are must reads. Believe me.

For non-fiction, I recommend "Socrates Meets Jesus" by Peter Kreeft. It's compact, entertaining , and thought provoking.

Amazon.com: Socrates Meets Jesus: History's Greatest Questioner Confronts the…

conversations with god by neal donald walsh (might have spelled the last name wrong)

I second Ayn Rand, especially The Fountainhead, and Camus. They're my favorite "philosophers" to read, though many don't consider them philosophers in their own right...

Someone mentioned Camus' The Stranger, which is good, but I preferred The Myth of Sisyphus and other essays (one book). It's non-fiction, but "light", easy to read, yet thought-provoking. His journals are also really fun to read.

Similar light-ish non-fiction is Nietzche's Good and Evil.

And maybe my all-time favorite is a little-known book called Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony DeMello, a Catholic priest heavily influenced by Hinduism and generally shunned by the Church.

Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics