Yu Hua - Brothers
1984, so that people mentioning it online will stop sounding like complete fucking idiots.
Or perhaps The Jungle; it sparked public outcry and major overhauls the last time it became popular, maybe it can work its magic again.
Hah. I’d be happy to hear that everyone read at least one book in their lifetime.
Grapes of Wrath is a good one that’s relevant now as when it was made.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Just the intermissions would get everyone’s blood boiling.
One of my favorite books and unfortunately lots of the story still is relevant today.
Flowers for Algernon
This book is so beautiful and sad. Everyone should read it
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels. Short, yet clearly elaborates on the shift from earlier utopian views of socialism of figures like Robert Owen to the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels. One of the best explanations of Marxism itself, other than the essay Principles of Communism. It was taken from the larger and more comprehensive Anti-Dühring as it was believed to be an excellent work for propaganda purposes (and this judgment proved correct, as the booklet spread like wildfire).
Honorable mentions go to Capital, Volume I by Karl Marx, Imperialism, the Current Highest Stage of Capitalism by Lenin, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, and Neocolonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah. This series of books expands on capitalism during its beginning, intermediate, and imperialist phases, and imperialism itself in its beginning, intermediate, and final phases as they relate to colonialism and neocolonialism.
Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence - David Benatar
I found reading this to be quite validating of my own life experiences and observations
This book is very well written but I disagreed completely with the premise. I believe is true that we don’t choose to be born. We’re forced into existence kicking and screaming but that’s the nature of being. We are born we grow up we procreate and then we die. Some of us don’t procreate by choice but I feel the desire to have offspring is innate to being alive. Some people and beings have a stronger desiree than others, and there’s nothing wrong on following through and cires related to the suffering we impar into our offspring is not reason not to do it. Just like children’s role is not to take care of their parents when they’re old. All things considered, this is quite a philosophical debate.
The Master and Margarita
Probably won’t get as much out of it as someone who lived in the Soviet union, but it’s an interesting dissection of the absurdity of authority.
Yup, awesome book.
My summer reading list (not that I get to read both every year):
- The Songs of Distant Earth, by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
The first is about what we never prepared for, but could try to thrive through. (Mike Oldfield made a cool concept album about this. One of the songs is called “Only time will tell”)
The second is a murder mystery set in a medieval monastery. But wait! Is it actually a multilayered examination of our notions about information? Oh hell yeah.
Umberto Eco has beautiful prose, I wish I knew enough Italian to read it in the original text
Capital and ideology by Thomas Piketty. An eye opener on wealth distribution throughout history and the arguments that held societies together to allow wealth disparity.
Paris in the Terror by Loomis
Describing public events and the private machinations behind them (through the participant’s journals and letters), revealing how the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions.
Illusions by Richard Bach, subtitled The Tale of the Reluctant Messiah. A beautiful book about the universe and spirituality. The author wrote it on the premise of “what if I had my own, personal, Jesus… Or Buddha or Messiah that was hanging out with me and explaining the universe”. So this guy is a Messiah that one day just quits to fly airplanes.
It’s funny, it’s inspiring, it’s a little sad, but hopeful. It’s also very short, you can easily read it in an afternoon.
Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah. The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in awhile and watch your answers change.
I love the movie theater analogy.
Brothers Karamazov
Doctor Zhivago
To Kill A Mockingbird
Narnia series
Sundown Towns
Feels pretty cliche to say them, but
1984, the handmaid’s tale and brave new world
Should probably be on anyone’s list that hasn’t managed to get to them yet
Dont forget the graphic novel version of 1984. Awesome und a downer.
Oh I’ve never actually read that one, thanks for the rec, I’ve not read 1984 in a good decade or so now, so that seems a good way refresh my mind
