AG31
Literotica Guru
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I'd begun gathering lists into a spread sheet with the intention of posting "And the winners are!!!" but now I'll happily wait to see what you give us!
Ten Great Books
- Thread starter yowser
- Start date
I'd begun gathering lists into a spread sheet with the intention of posting "And the winners are!!!" but now I'll happily wait to see what you give us!
Comshaw
VAGITARIAN
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I have that book in my library and have read it more than a few times. Books I favor I have a habit of reading more than once. and some many times. I also had the opportunity many years ago to go to a reading by Ms. Le Guin. It was fabulous. I will second your comment on her writing. Not just the writing but on her ability to manufacture a world that pulls you in and makes you part of it. I can only wish to be that good.
Comshaw
Comshaw
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"Captains Courageous" Rudyard Kipling
This book was read to my class by our teacher in the 4th or 5th grade. I read it again a couple of times over the years and have it in my personal library. How it influenced me: it taught me you didn't have to be rich or powerful to have integrity, honor, courage and loyalty to your friends. The humor and courage of working men doing a dangerous job stuck with me through my life.
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" Dee Brown
When I discovered my native heritage I wanted to know more about the history of this country and the native population. I'd read all the history books written by white historians. But as is said, too the victor go's the right to put their spin on history. I wanted a different view and got it with this book. I'm not saying it's not slanted. It is, but to get at the truth I needed to look at both sides. Many of the things that transpired during the history of this nation were intentionally hidden, ignored. The Trail of Tears and the Sand Creek Massacre are two examples. Not until recently have those things been discussed. The deaths of native children at "reeducation" schools is another. As in my own life I need to see the truth, no matter how painful or distasteful it is. This book helped me see some of that truth.
"Sometimes A Great Notion" Ken Kesey
This book helped me understand my father. The alternate title used for the film was "Never Give an Inch". That philosophy encompassed my dad. He was a logger and as tough a man as I've ever seen. And he had no give to him. He was never wrong, even when he was. This book details some men that were just like him and it made me stop and consider how he got that way. Sometimes, when you're tough it locks out everything else. In the words of Johnny Cash, "A man's got to be a lot tougher than the timber he's cutting."
"Dune" Frank Herbert
I've been a Sci-fi fan since I was old enough to read. When I acquired a copy of this book in the mid 70's and read it I was astounded by the scope and breadth of the story. Way in the back head it lit a spark about doing some writing of my own. That wouldn't come to fruition for a number of years, but this was the one that set the fire.
"Mindbridge" Joe Haldeman
Joe is one of my favorite authors. As a Vietnam combat Vet he incorporated a lot of the feeling of war into his stories. His award-winning novel "The Forever War" won the Nebula, Locus and Hugo awards. A trifecta not done by many. "Mindbridge" is told from the POV of one of the troops who are sent by a new teleporter called the "Levant-Meyer Translation" to battle an interstellar enemy. The psychological aspects of a story are as gripping as the action parts. Joe's writing showed me that both were important to a good story.
"Fahrenheit 451" Ray Bradbury
For those who haven't read it Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns. It instilled in me a love of books. To this day I find it difficult to destroy a book, even a damaged or bad one. It just seems wrong some how, even when it's appropriate to do. It also instilled in me a distaste for any kind of editing by anyone of what we can read.
"Red Badge of Courage" Stephen Crane
How did this one influence me? It taught me that courage isn't the lack of fear, but the capacity to override fear, to do what you need to even though you are terrified. A simple yet difficult concept to master.
"Mother West Wind" stories by Thornton W. Burgess
These were read to my class in the first and second grades. We would lay our heads on our desks, close our eyes and the teacher would read to us from these books. It instilled in me the capacity to escape the world around me by immersing myself in a story.
"Dark Sea Running" George Morrell
I read this book long before I should have. It's a tale of Merchant Marines in WWII on a shi pin the North Atlantic. It's told from the view point of the crew, in rotating vignettes. It's a graphic view of life on a liberty ship during the war. A much different view they I had from the stories of glory TV showed. I think this was the book that put me on a path to seek the truth of things no matter how painful it got.
And lastly, in the late 1950's I read a biography of Jack London. I can't remember who wrote it but as an impressionable pre-teen it profoundly influenced my thinking.
I read a lot of Jack London's stories. I have an anthology of his stories in my library to this day. But when I read about how he came to the inspiration for those stories, that he lived any of the things he wrote about, it set the idea in my head that life can be an adventure.
So there ya' go. How they influenced me.
Comshaw
This book was read to my class by our teacher in the 4th or 5th grade. I read it again a couple of times over the years and have it in my personal library. How it influenced me: it taught me you didn't have to be rich or powerful to have integrity, honor, courage and loyalty to your friends. The humor and courage of working men doing a dangerous job stuck with me through my life.
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" Dee Brown
When I discovered my native heritage I wanted to know more about the history of this country and the native population. I'd read all the history books written by white historians. But as is said, too the victor go's the right to put their spin on history. I wanted a different view and got it with this book. I'm not saying it's not slanted. It is, but to get at the truth I needed to look at both sides. Many of the things that transpired during the history of this nation were intentionally hidden, ignored. The Trail of Tears and the Sand Creek Massacre are two examples. Not until recently have those things been discussed. The deaths of native children at "reeducation" schools is another. As in my own life I need to see the truth, no matter how painful or distasteful it is. This book helped me see some of that truth.
"Sometimes A Great Notion" Ken Kesey
This book helped me understand my father. The alternate title used for the film was "Never Give an Inch". That philosophy encompassed my dad. He was a logger and as tough a man as I've ever seen. And he had no give to him. He was never wrong, even when he was. This book details some men that were just like him and it made me stop and consider how he got that way. Sometimes, when you're tough it locks out everything else. In the words of Johnny Cash, "A man's got to be a lot tougher than the timber he's cutting."
"Dune" Frank Herbert
I've been a Sci-fi fan since I was old enough to read. When I acquired a copy of this book in the mid 70's and read it I was astounded by the scope and breadth of the story. Way in the back head it lit a spark about doing some writing of my own. That wouldn't come to fruition for a number of years, but this was the one that set the fire.
"Mindbridge" Joe Haldeman
Joe is one of my favorite authors. As a Vietnam combat Vet he incorporated a lot of the feeling of war into his stories. His award-winning novel "The Forever War" won the Nebula, Locus and Hugo awards. A trifecta not done by many. "Mindbridge" is told from the POV of one of the troops who are sent by a new teleporter called the "Levant-Meyer Translation" to battle an interstellar enemy. The psychological aspects of a story are as gripping as the action parts. Joe's writing showed me that both were important to a good story.
"Fahrenheit 451" Ray Bradbury
For those who haven't read it Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns. It instilled in me a love of books. To this day I find it difficult to destroy a book, even a damaged or bad one. It just seems wrong some how, even when it's appropriate to do. It also instilled in me a distaste for any kind of editing by anyone of what we can read.
"Red Badge of Courage" Stephen Crane
How did this one influence me? It taught me that courage isn't the lack of fear, but the capacity to override fear, to do what you need to even though you are terrified. A simple yet difficult concept to master.
"Mother West Wind" stories by Thornton W. Burgess
These were read to my class in the first and second grades. We would lay our heads on our desks, close our eyes and the teacher would read to us from these books. It instilled in me the capacity to escape the world around me by immersing myself in a story.
"Dark Sea Running" George Morrell
I read this book long before I should have. It's a tale of Merchant Marines in WWII on a shi pin the North Atlantic. It's told from the view point of the crew, in rotating vignettes. It's a graphic view of life on a liberty ship during the war. A much different view they I had from the stories of glory TV showed. I think this was the book that put me on a path to seek the truth of things no matter how painful it got.
And lastly, in the late 1950's I read a biography of Jack London. I can't remember who wrote it but as an impressionable pre-teen it profoundly influenced my thinking.
I read a lot of Jack London's stories. I have an anthology of his stories in my library to this day. But when I read about how he came to the inspiration for those stories, that he lived any of the things he wrote about, it set the idea in my head that life can be an adventure.
So there ya' go. How they influenced me.
Comshaw
Comshaw
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Naw dude it is a matter of an either/or thing. To my way of reckoning it's a case of Hall Monitor Syndrome. What do I mean? Well let me 'splain.
Have you ever encountered a hall monitor? Way back in junior high school (that's what it was called for us old farts) we had em'. They were given the power to report kids that were breaking the rules in the halls of the school. They had few checks on that power. It's human nature when someone acquires such power they tend not to want to lose it. Consequently, they tend to interpret the rules very strictly. Sometimes they enforce the rules much more strictly than they were ever intended to be. They do so for a number of reasons: 1) so as not to anger the powers that be and lose their position of power or 2) to show those who are being monitored who is boss or 3) they view it as a black and white thing. To them the line between breaking the rules or complying with them is a black and white line. Finally 4) Because they can. All of those happen because the mod gets to interpret the rules through their own biased lens and they choose to do so very conservatively and serverly.
Now anyone with a little flexibility in their thinking would look at the rule and then the post in question and realize it didn't violate the INTENT of the site rule. The intent of the rule is to protect the site and the owners from any legal action because they allowed child pornography on the site. There isn't, in any way shape or form, that the post in question can be construed to be child porn. Therefore it reverts to an over-exuberant mod using their own servere interpretation and black and white judgment to enforce what they believe to be a violation of the rules for no other reason than the ones I gave above. So yeah, it is an either/or black or white thing.
Comshaw
AH_Mod
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Enough.
There's a listing at the head of each forum section that tells you who is moderating there. No other moderator has access to any tools outside the forum sections they've been assigned. They're no different than any other poster outside their assigned forum sections. I didn't edit the post in question, and I'm the only moderator assigned to this section, so that means an admin edited that post, as was clearly indicated in the edit.
Now drop it and let the thread continue on. If you still have a problem, take it up with administration, and let everyone else enjoy the topic at hand.
Thank you to everyone who attempted to ignore the madness and drag this thread back on topic.
There's a listing at the head of each forum section that tells you who is moderating there. No other moderator has access to any tools outside the forum sections they've been assigned. They're no different than any other poster outside their assigned forum sections. I didn't edit the post in question, and I'm the only moderator assigned to this section, so that means an admin edited that post, as was clearly indicated in the edit.
Now drop it and let the thread continue on. If you still have a problem, take it up with administration, and let everyone else enjoy the topic at hand.
Thank you to everyone who attempted to ignore the madness and drag this thread back on topic.
soflabbwlvr
Literotica Guru
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My most recent was 1997. My list was prepared rather hurriedly, so it may not be 100% accurate. With a little more thought I might have a post 2000 entry.
SimonDoom
Kink Lord
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I'm glad you mentioned this one. As a kid I read Burgess's "The Burgess Bird Book for Children" and it started me on a lifelong fascination with birds, animals, insects, and wildlife in general. That book without question was the starting point of a lifelong passion. I never actually read "Mother West Wind," however, although I think my parents still have it somewhere.
AwkwardlySet
On-Duty Critic
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned "The Little Prince" yet. It's a classic and a book people often name as influential for them.
I read it back in high school and I wasn't that impressed but it was also partly the fault of my teacher. She showered the work with so much praise that the book couldn't possibly live up to it, and I guess my impression suffered because of it.
I read it back in high school and I wasn't that impressed but it was also partly the fault of my teacher. She showered the work with so much praise that the book couldn't possibly live up to it, and I guess my impression suffered because of it.
yowser
xpressive
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What started the idea of this thread was my coming across Oppenheimer's ten influential books. There may be a couple of you who may be interested in which he picked. He was a physicist, after all, but his top ten are still remarkable for both range and content (and that he read them in their original languages: French, German, Greek, Italian and Sanskrit.)
Les Fleurs du mal - Baudelaire
Bhagavad Gita
Gesammelte mathematische Werke - Riemann
Theaetetus - Plato
L'Education sentimentale - Flaubert
Divina Commedia - Dante
Three Hundred Poems - Bhartrihari -
The Waste Land - TS Eliot
Faraday's notebooks
Hamlet - Shakespeare
Les Fleurs du mal - Baudelaire
Bhagavad Gita
Gesammelte mathematische Werke - Riemann
Theaetetus - Plato
L'Education sentimentale - Flaubert
Divina Commedia - Dante
Three Hundred Poems - Bhartrihari -
The Waste Land - TS Eliot
Faraday's notebooks
Hamlet - Shakespeare
SimonDoom
Kink Lord
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This is why I was never, ever going to make it as a theoretical physicist. He read the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit and I read James and The Giant Peach.
AlexBailey
Kinky Tomgirl
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I had a similar feeling about The Little Prince. It was too hyped for me to enjoy it as much as I could have if someone had just handed me the book.
I had a similar feeling with my introduction to the Prophet too.
GuiltyCowboy
Virgin
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A short while ago I decided it was about time I understood how the world actually worked. This was the impetus for my reading a vast number of non-fiction books. I’m a sucker for the c.200 page book written by a world expert (the final two are kind of chunky though). I'm a far calmer, less worried person today because of these books. So I'd say they changed my life.
Ill Fares The Land - Tony Judt
- The late, great historian movingly and charmingly celebrates social democracy over neoliberalism, and universalism over identity politics.
Poverty, By America - Matthew Desmond
- One of the essential books of this generation. Explains why ‘…but how can we afford it?’ is the most dishonest and sinful question that exists in America.
Democracy Rules - Jan-Werner Müller
- How democracy actually works, why it’s worth it, and what the corrupt/authoritarians do to undermine it.
A Brief History of Equality - Thomas Piketty
- Has the receipts, as the kids say. Empirical analysis of the growth of equality, and its benefits, over the last 250 years.
Not the End of The World - Hannah Ritchie
- The reality of climate change, what’s important, what’s not, and the reasons for optimism.
The Value of Everything - Marianna Mazzucato
- One of the world’s top economists explores exactly who is productive: who creates value and who extracts it.
The Shortest History of Migration - Ian Goldin
- Again, the world’s leading expert on their subject. Explains how humans move from one place to another. An antidote to irrational fear and anger.
Tribal - Michael Morris
- Essentially a tour through evolutionary psychology. You’ll likely be immune to bullshit after reading, especially of the political kind.
Dark Money - Jane Mayer
- You simply cannot understand the modern world without reading this. Every American should have it explained to them each morning. Kids should be taught it before they learn to read.
The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber/David Wengrow
- Relaxez-vous…humans figured it all out thousands of years ago.
Honorable mentions:
The Unaccountability Machine - Dan Davies
- An ex-Bank of England economist on a surprisingly funny tour of systems theory, management consultancy, and why you can't ever reach anyone with any responsibility.
Döppelganger - Naomi Klein
- Apart from anything else, a deeply amusing evisceration of the Bannon/alt-right obsession with blaming the wrong thing.
Ill Fares The Land - Tony Judt
- The late, great historian movingly and charmingly celebrates social democracy over neoliberalism, and universalism over identity politics.
Poverty, By America - Matthew Desmond
- One of the essential books of this generation. Explains why ‘…but how can we afford it?’ is the most dishonest and sinful question that exists in America.
Democracy Rules - Jan-Werner Müller
- How democracy actually works, why it’s worth it, and what the corrupt/authoritarians do to undermine it.
A Brief History of Equality - Thomas Piketty
- Has the receipts, as the kids say. Empirical analysis of the growth of equality, and its benefits, over the last 250 years.
Not the End of The World - Hannah Ritchie
- The reality of climate change, what’s important, what’s not, and the reasons for optimism.
The Value of Everything - Marianna Mazzucato
- One of the world’s top economists explores exactly who is productive: who creates value and who extracts it.
The Shortest History of Migration - Ian Goldin
- Again, the world’s leading expert on their subject. Explains how humans move from one place to another. An antidote to irrational fear and anger.
Tribal - Michael Morris
- Essentially a tour through evolutionary psychology. You’ll likely be immune to bullshit after reading, especially of the political kind.
Dark Money - Jane Mayer
- You simply cannot understand the modern world without reading this. Every American should have it explained to them each morning. Kids should be taught it before they learn to read.
The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber/David Wengrow
- Relaxez-vous…humans figured it all out thousands of years ago.
Honorable mentions:
The Unaccountability Machine - Dan Davies
- An ex-Bank of England economist on a surprisingly funny tour of systems theory, management consultancy, and why you can't ever reach anyone with any responsibility.
Döppelganger - Naomi Klein
- Apart from anything else, a deeply amusing evisceration of the Bannon/alt-right obsession with blaming the wrong thing.
kitmarlowe
Kit Marlowe
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- 93
God it's so hard to pick just ten. I read about 150 books a year and I've been doing that for...what, 30 years? But I'm going to try to narrow it down to ten that really impacted me, with a mixture of books I read when I was younger and books I've read recently. This is the first ten that came to mind, in no deal order.
* The Tombs of Atuan
* Pale Fire
* The Story Of O
* The Safekeep
* The Castle Of Otranto
* Trout Fishing In America
* Life, A User's Manual
* Atonement
* The Bell Jar
* The Wasp Factory
Edit: just scrolled back and saw the drama in this thread and so have replaced a Nabokov book I mentioned with a different, equally influential Nabokov book so I don't end up in trouble.
* The Tombs of Atuan
* Pale Fire
* The Story Of O
* The Safekeep
* The Castle Of Otranto
* Trout Fishing In America
* Life, A User's Manual
* Atonement
* The Bell Jar
* The Wasp Factory
Edit: just scrolled back and saw the drama in this thread and so have replaced a Nabokov book I mentioned with a different, equally influential Nabokov book so I don't end up in trouble.
Last edited:
Voboy
Sometime Wordwright
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- Posts
- 5,789
Hard to pick ten... this is roughly in order, but not strictly.
- LOTR (JRR Tolkien)
- Dune (Frank Herbert)
- Pyramids (Sir Terry Pratchett)
- Sea of Tranquility (Emily St John Mandel)
- Young Men and Fire (Norman Maclean)
- Filth (Irvine Welsh)
- East Of Chosin (Roy Appleman)
- The Yiddish Policeman's Union (Michael Chabon)
- The Ravine (Wendy Lower)
- The Big Necessity (Rose George)
Your comment led me upstairs to my shrinking book collection (it's time, at 71, to downsize) and pull out my copy of 'The Burgess Bird Book for Children.' It's one of the books my aunt read to my then ten-year-old self and my six-year-old brother as we traveled around the US in a camper for two and a half months in the summer of 1964. She gave it to me when she downsized after retirement and moved into a fifth-wheel trailer. Its effect on me was the same as on you.
CyranoJ
Ustuzou
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- Mar 5, 2015
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Since I despise seeing busybodies, censorious assholes and falsely pseudo-moral peacockers win, I will just come out and say that Nabokov's Lolita is deservedly regarded as a great novel, and anyone who tries to invoke "the rules of the site" to forbid saying so can fucking kick rocks.
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CyranoJ
Ustuzou
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For real, this book changed my whole perspective on human history and prehistory in ways that are hard to measure. My entries are not in any particular order, but this has to really top my top ten in recent years. I've literally bought copies of it to gift to people.
kitmarlowe
Kit Marlowe
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Yeah frankly it's ridiculous that I should even have to slightly worry about saying I like a legitimate modern classic with some of the greatest prose ever written
GuiltyCowboy
Virgin
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Ha
Ha, yes, it’s a good one, isn’t it. I’d joke to people that it’s about the latest discoveries in farming techniques in the Neolithic period. I find myself going back to it surprisingly often. It’s very easy to feel swamped by today’s world; it’s especially freeing to put it all in context.
yowser
xpressive
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The offerings have leveled off, so here are the three hundred plus 'Top Ten' influential lists from AH authors. The range is astonishing, and due to length I've broken into two sections, alphabetically by title A-L and M-Z.
I expected more overlap, but there are some expected favorites, notably Lord of the Rings listed by 9 authors. Dune gets multiple mentions as well as specific titles from Austen, Dostoevsky and Orwell. Everything that appears on more than one list is bolded with an asterisk (and if more than 2, a number indicating number of lists.
I've been generous (sorry rule-abiders, we always seem to lose out on these sorts of things) including 'extras' and errors have likely crept in during compilation.
But any of you in need of a Spring Break/Equinox inspirational reading list, here are books held to be important by your fellow writers.
1984 -Orwell*
An Acceptable Time and A Severed Wasp -Madeleine L'Engle
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle-Vladimir -Nabokov
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -Mark Twain
Against the Day -Thomas Pynchon
Age of Bronze -Comic Book version of the Iliad
The Alexander Trilogy -Mary Renault
All About Love - bell hooks
All things Great and Small-James Herriot
Amadis of Gaul -Anonymous
American Gods - Niel Gaiman
The Anti-V-Neitzsche
The Art of War -Sun Tzu
The Assassin Trilogy - Robin Hob
An autobiography, or, The story of my experiments with truth -M..K. Gandhi
Animal Farm -George Orwell*4
Anna Karenina -Tolstoy*
Anthony Adverse -Hervey Allen
Anti-Oedipus - Deleuze and Guattari
Atlas Shrugged-Rand
Atonement-
Autumn Term - Antonia Forest
Ball Four -Jim Bouton
Baroque Trilogy-Neal Stephenson
The Basketball Diaries - Jim Carroll
Battle Cry of Freedom- McPherson*
Belgariad and Malloreon -David & Leigh Eddings
The Bell Jar- Plath*
Best of Baking
The Big Necessity -Rose George-
Bitter Brew - William Knoedelseder
Black's Law Dictionary-
Bloody Jack (series) -L.A. Meyer
Boarding school stories
The Bonesetter’s Daughter -Amy Tan
The Book of Nod -Sam Chupp and Andrew Greenberg
The Book of the Law - Crowley-
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
A Brief History of Equality - Thomas Piketty
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Bridge to terabithia-Katherine Paterson
Bulfinch's Mythology -
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -Dee Brown
Caesar's Women -Colleen McCullough
Calculus -Swokowski
Calvin and Hobbes -Bill Watterson
Cancer Ward - Solzhenitsyn
Captains Courageous -Rudyard Kipling
The Case for the Empire -Jonathan V. Last
The Castle Of Otranto-Horace -Walpole
Cat's Cradle -Kurt Vonnegut
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Catcher In The Rye -JD Salinger
Chaos -Gleick
Chaos and Order* -Donaldson
China Mountain Zhang - Maureen F McHugh
The City We Became - N.K. Jemisin
Clan of the Cave Bear-Jean M. Auel*
A Clash of Kings -Martin
Cleopatra: A Life - Stacey Schiff
Coldness and Cruelty - Deleuze
Collected stories -Tobias Wolff
Collected stories - Flannery O'Connor
Companions on the Road -Lee
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes Anthology -
The Complete Philosopher-
The Concept of Culture -Geertz
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face -Edna Buchanan
Count Belisarius -Robert Graves
The Cruel Sea -Nicholas Monserrat-
Crime and Punishment.-Dostoevsky*3
Cthulhu mythos stories - Lovecraft
Dark Money - Jane Mayer
Dark Sea Running -George Morrell
Dave Barry-
The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber and David Wengrow*
The Deptford Trilogy -Robertson Davies
Death Comes as the End -Agatha Christie
Democracy Rules - Jan Werner Müller
Deuteronomy-
The Devil Comes Courting, Wedgeford Trials series -Milan
Diamond Age -Neal Stephenson
The Divine Comedy- Dante
Le Don -Mauss
Dostoevsky-
The Dragonriders of Pern -Anne McCaffrey
Drizz't -R. A. Salvatore
Duncton Wood - William Horwood
Dune -Frank Herbert*6
Dying We Live, The Final Messages and Records of the Resistance, Ed Witzer, Kuhn, Schneider -
Dynamics of Faith - Paul Tillich
East Of Chosin -Roy Appleman
The Earthsea trilogy and The Left Hand of Darkness -Ursula K. Le Guin
Either/Or -Søren Kierkegaard
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee
Ender's Game -Orson Scott Card*3
Eroticism - Bataille
The Exorcist -William Peter Blatty
Expanded Universe -Robert Heinlein
Fahrenheit 451 -Ray Bradbury
Far-Seer -Robert J. Sawyer
Fate is the Hunter -Earnest K. Gann
Fatherland- Harris
Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
Femdom for Nice Girls: - Lucy Fairbourne
Ficciones -Jorge Luis Borges
Filth -Irvine Welsh
Finite & Infinite Games - Carse
Finnegans Wake -Joyce
Fire and Other Essays and -
Flatland -Abbot
Flowers for Algernon -Daniel Keyes
Fly Girl - Ann Hood
Forever Amber -Kathleen Winsor
Foundation's Edge* -Asimov
Fountainhead -Rand
From Dawn to Decadence - Jacques Barzun
Fuck Like a Goddess - Alexandra Roxo
Garfield collections
The German Ideology - Marx and Engels
Gideon The Ninth-Miur
Giles Goat Boy -Barth
The God Delusion -Dawkins
The Godmother - Masoch
God's Chinese Son - Jonathan Spence
Godel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid -Hofstadter*
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna -M. (Mahendranath Gupta)
Great Expectations - Dickens
Guinness Book of Answers
The Guns of August -Barbara Tuchman-
Harold and the Purple Crayon -Crockett Johnson
Harry Potter -Rowlings
A History of Private Life, Vol- Paul Veyne
History of Sexuality Volume 1 - Foucault
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -Douglas Adams*
The Hobbit -Tolkien*
Homicide a Year on the Killing Streets - Simon
The house of the spirits -Isabel Allende
The House of Usher - E. A. Poe
How Far the Light Reaches - Sabrina Imbler
How To Learn French In 7 Easy Lessons-
Huckleberry Finn -Mark Twain*
Hunger Games -Suzanne Collins
The Hunt for Red October- Clancy
Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Infinite Jest -David Foster Wallace
The Infinite Plan -Allende
Is There Life On Other Planets - Isaac Asimov
IT-Stephen King
Ivanhoe - Walter Scott
James and the Giant Peach. -Roald Dahl
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Jitterbug Perfume -Tom Robbins
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Journey to the Center of the Earth -Jules Verne
Jules Verne-
Just Kids - Patti Smith
Kim -Rudyard Kipling
King James Bible
The King Must Die -Mary Renault
The Knight in Rusty Armor -Robert Fisher-
Kushiel's Legacy-
The Language of the Night - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Last Kingdon - Cornwell
The Laugh of the Medusa - Cixious
The Left Hand of Darkness - Le Guin
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid-Bill Bryson
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe -CS Lewis
The Lost Squadron -Dick Grace
Leave the Gun Take the Cannoli - Mark Seal
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Life, A User's Manual -Georges Perec
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Locked Tomb series -Muir
Lolita-Nabokov
Lord of the Flies.-William Golding
Lord of the Rings -Tolkien*9
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Love in the time of Cholera -Marquez
Lusts of the Borgias -Marcus van Heller
I expected more overlap, but there are some expected favorites, notably Lord of the Rings listed by 9 authors. Dune gets multiple mentions as well as specific titles from Austen, Dostoevsky and Orwell. Everything that appears on more than one list is bolded with an asterisk (and if more than 2, a number indicating number of lists.
I've been generous (sorry rule-abiders, we always seem to lose out on these sorts of things) including 'extras' and errors have likely crept in during compilation.
But any of you in need of a Spring Break/Equinox inspirational reading list, here are books held to be important by your fellow writers.
1984 -Orwell*
An Acceptable Time and A Severed Wasp -Madeleine L'Engle
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle-Vladimir -Nabokov
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -Mark Twain
Against the Day -Thomas Pynchon
Age of Bronze -Comic Book version of the Iliad
The Alexander Trilogy -Mary Renault
All About Love - bell hooks
All things Great and Small-James Herriot
Amadis of Gaul -Anonymous
American Gods - Niel Gaiman
The Anti-V-Neitzsche
The Art of War -Sun Tzu
The Assassin Trilogy - Robin Hob
An autobiography, or, The story of my experiments with truth -M..K. Gandhi
Animal Farm -George Orwell*4
Anna Karenina -Tolstoy*
Anthony Adverse -Hervey Allen
Anti-Oedipus - Deleuze and Guattari
Atlas Shrugged-Rand
Atonement-
Autumn Term - Antonia Forest
Ball Four -Jim Bouton
Baroque Trilogy-Neal Stephenson
The Basketball Diaries - Jim Carroll
Battle Cry of Freedom- McPherson*
Belgariad and Malloreon -David & Leigh Eddings
The Bell Jar- Plath*
Best of Baking
The Big Necessity -Rose George-
Bitter Brew - William Knoedelseder
Black's Law Dictionary-
Bloody Jack (series) -L.A. Meyer
Boarding school stories
The Bonesetter’s Daughter -Amy Tan
The Book of Nod -Sam Chupp and Andrew Greenberg
The Book of the Law - Crowley-
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
A Brief History of Equality - Thomas Piketty
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Bridge to terabithia-Katherine Paterson
Bulfinch's Mythology -
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -Dee Brown
Caesar's Women -Colleen McCullough
Calculus -Swokowski
Calvin and Hobbes -Bill Watterson
Cancer Ward - Solzhenitsyn
Captains Courageous -Rudyard Kipling
The Case for the Empire -Jonathan V. Last
The Castle Of Otranto-Horace -Walpole
Cat's Cradle -Kurt Vonnegut
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Catcher In The Rye -JD Salinger
Chaos -Gleick
Chaos and Order* -Donaldson
China Mountain Zhang - Maureen F McHugh
The City We Became - N.K. Jemisin
Clan of the Cave Bear-Jean M. Auel*
A Clash of Kings -Martin
Cleopatra: A Life - Stacey Schiff
Coldness and Cruelty - Deleuze
Collected stories -Tobias Wolff
Collected stories - Flannery O'Connor
Companions on the Road -Lee
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes Anthology -
The Complete Philosopher-
The Concept of Culture -Geertz
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face -Edna Buchanan
Count Belisarius -Robert Graves
The Cruel Sea -Nicholas Monserrat-
Crime and Punishment.-Dostoevsky*3
Cthulhu mythos stories - Lovecraft
Dark Money - Jane Mayer
Dark Sea Running -George Morrell
Dave Barry-
The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber and David Wengrow*
The Deptford Trilogy -Robertson Davies
Death Comes as the End -Agatha Christie
Democracy Rules - Jan Werner Müller
Deuteronomy-
The Devil Comes Courting, Wedgeford Trials series -Milan
Diamond Age -Neal Stephenson
The Divine Comedy- Dante
Le Don -Mauss
Dostoevsky-
The Dragonriders of Pern -Anne McCaffrey
Drizz't -R. A. Salvatore
Duncton Wood - William Horwood
Dune -Frank Herbert*6
Dying We Live, The Final Messages and Records of the Resistance, Ed Witzer, Kuhn, Schneider -
Dynamics of Faith - Paul Tillich
East Of Chosin -Roy Appleman
The Earthsea trilogy and The Left Hand of Darkness -Ursula K. Le Guin
Either/Or -Søren Kierkegaard
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - Siddhartha Mukherjee
Ender's Game -Orson Scott Card*3
Eroticism - Bataille
The Exorcist -William Peter Blatty
Expanded Universe -Robert Heinlein
Fahrenheit 451 -Ray Bradbury
Far-Seer -Robert J. Sawyer
Fate is the Hunter -Earnest K. Gann
Fatherland- Harris
Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
Femdom for Nice Girls: - Lucy Fairbourne
Ficciones -Jorge Luis Borges
Filth -Irvine Welsh
Finite & Infinite Games - Carse
Finnegans Wake -Joyce
Fire and Other Essays and -
Flatland -Abbot
Flowers for Algernon -Daniel Keyes
Fly Girl - Ann Hood
Forever Amber -Kathleen Winsor
Foundation's Edge* -Asimov
Fountainhead -Rand
From Dawn to Decadence - Jacques Barzun
Fuck Like a Goddess - Alexandra Roxo
Garfield collections
The German Ideology - Marx and Engels
Gideon The Ninth-Miur
Giles Goat Boy -Barth
The God Delusion -Dawkins
The Godmother - Masoch
God's Chinese Son - Jonathan Spence
Godel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid -Hofstadter*
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna -M. (Mahendranath Gupta)
Great Expectations - Dickens
Guinness Book of Answers
The Guns of August -Barbara Tuchman-
Harold and the Purple Crayon -Crockett Johnson
Harry Potter -Rowlings
A History of Private Life, Vol- Paul Veyne
History of Sexuality Volume 1 - Foucault
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -Douglas Adams*
The Hobbit -Tolkien*
Homicide a Year on the Killing Streets - Simon
The house of the spirits -Isabel Allende
The House of Usher - E. A. Poe
How Far the Light Reaches - Sabrina Imbler
How To Learn French In 7 Easy Lessons-
Huckleberry Finn -Mark Twain*
Hunger Games -Suzanne Collins
The Hunt for Red October- Clancy
Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Infinite Jest -David Foster Wallace
The Infinite Plan -Allende
Is There Life On Other Planets - Isaac Asimov
IT-Stephen King
Ivanhoe - Walter Scott
James and the Giant Peach. -Roald Dahl
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Jitterbug Perfume -Tom Robbins
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Journey to the Center of the Earth -Jules Verne
Jules Verne-
Just Kids - Patti Smith
Kim -Rudyard Kipling
King James Bible
The King Must Die -Mary Renault
The Knight in Rusty Armor -Robert Fisher-
Kushiel's Legacy-
The Language of the Night - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Last Kingdon - Cornwell
The Laugh of the Medusa - Cixious
The Left Hand of Darkness - Le Guin
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid-Bill Bryson
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe -CS Lewis
The Lost Squadron -Dick Grace
Leave the Gun Take the Cannoli - Mark Seal
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Life, A User's Manual -Georges Perec
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Locked Tomb series -Muir
Lolita-Nabokov
Lord of the Flies.-William Golding
Lord of the Rings -Tolkien*9
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Love in the time of Cholera -Marquez
Lusts of the Borgias -Marcus van Heller
Last edited:
yowser
xpressive
- Joined
- May 5, 2014
- Posts
- 3,954
M-Z
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales -Oliver Sacks
Markings - Dag Hammarskjold
Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics -Les Daniels
Master and Commander - O'Brian
Master and Magdalene
The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
The Mating Season -P.G. Wodehouse
Metamorphoses- Ovid
Middlemarch -George Eliot*
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Mindbridge -Joe Haldeman
Mission Earth-L Ron Hubbard
Mistborn -Brandon Sanderson*
Moby Dick -Melville
Mort -Terry Pratchett
Mother West Wind stories - Thornton W. Burgess
The Name of the Rose -Eco
Neuromancer -William Gibson
The New Testament -
Norwegian Wood -Haruki Murakami
Not the End of The World - Hannah Ritchie
Notes from a Dead House- Dostoevsky
Number of the Beast / Stranger in a Strange Land and others - Robert Heinlein
The Odyssey- Homer
The once and future King - T H White
The Origin of Species -Darwin
The Origin of the Work of Art - Heidegger
The Origins of Language -Merritt Ruhlen
The Outpost -Jake Tapper
Old Man and the Sea- Hemingway
On Authority -Milgram
On the Road -Jack Kerouac
One Hundred Years of Solitude -Marquez
Open Book - Jessica Simpson
Outlander series -Diana Gabaldon
Oz Clarke's Wine Guide-
Pale Fire -Nabokov
Paradise Lost -John Milton
La Pensée Sauvage -Lévi
The Percival legend in all its various forms-
The Perfect Storm -Sebastien Junger
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
The Plague -Albert Camus
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.-James Joyce
Poverty, By America - Matthew Desmond
The Prophet -Khalil Gibran
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant -US Grant
Pride and Prejudice -Jane Austen*
Proof -Dick Francis
Pyramids -Sir Terry Pratchett
The Ravine -Wendy Lower
Ready Player One- Cline
The Reality Dysfunction -Hamilton*
Red Badge of Courage -Stephen Crane
The Red Mask of Death- E. A. Poe
Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts - Matt Bell
Ringworld-Larry Niven
The Rise of Endymion -Simmons*
The Road - Cormack McCarthy *
Rosewater - Tade Thompson
Science of Diskworld - Stewart, Cohen & Pratchett
Screwtape Letters - Lewis
Sea of Tranquility -Emily St John Mandel
A Season on the Brink -John Feinstein
The Safekeep -Yael van der Wouden
The Satanic Witch -Anton Levay
Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Selfish Gene - Dawkins
The Seven Daughters of Eve -Brian Sykes
Sharks and Little Fish -Wolfgang Ott
The Shortest History of Migration - Ian Goldin
The Silence of the Lambs -Thomas Harris
The Silmarillion -Tolkien
Sirens -Eric Lustbader
Skinny Legs And All -Tom Robbins
Slaughterhouse 5- Kurt Vonnegut
SM 101 -Wiseman
The Smart Girls Guide to Polyamory - Dedeker Watson
Sometimes A Great Notion -Ken Kesey
Space Opera -Valente
Speaker for the Dead -Card*
The Stand -Stephen King*
Star Wars: Lost Stars - Claudia Gray
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Steppenwolf -Hesse
Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
The Story of Civilization-Will and Ariel Durant
The Story Of O- Pauline Reage *
Story of the Eye -Georges Bataille
Stranger in a Strange Land -Robert Heinlein
Swallows and Amazons -Arthur Ransome
Swan Song -Robert McCammon
Sword at Sunset -Rosemary Sutcliffe
Tailchaser's Song - Tad Williams
Testament of Devotion - Thomas R. Kelley
These Old Shades -Georgette Heyer
This Is How You Lose the Time War - Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar
Thus Spoke Zarathustra -Nietzsche
Time Enough for Love -Robert Heinlein
Time for the Stars -Robert Heinlein
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*3
Tom Jones.-Henry Fielding
The Tombs of Atuan -Le Guin
Totemisme Au'jourdhui -Lévi
Treasure Island -Robert Louis Stevenson
Tribal - Michael Morris
Tropic of Cancer -Henry Miller
Trout Fishing In America -Brautigan
Ulysses -Joyce
Under the Red Sea Sun-
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman- and all others by PD James
“The underwear catalogues that...”
The Universal History of Numbers - Georges Ifrah
Untrue - Wednesday Martin
The Value of Everything - Marianna Mazzucato
Varieties of Religious Experience -W. James
Various collections of The Far Side -Gary Larson
Venus in Furs - Masoch
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna
The Walking Drum -Louis L'Amour
The Wasp Factory -Iain Banks
What Took You So Long? -Sheldon Kopp
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Wheels and The Moneychangers - Arthur Hailey
White Fang -Jack London
The Wild Oats Project - Robin Rinaldi
The Wind in the Willows -Kenneth Grahame
Wind Sand and Stars -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Winnie the Pooh - A A Milne *
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K le Guin*
The World as Will and Representation- Schopenhauer
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Writings of HP Lovecraft-
Wuthering Heights- Bronte
Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Pyramids- Terry Pratchett
The Yiddish Policeman's Union -Michael Chabon
Young Men and Fire -Norman Maclean
Your Friend, Rebecca - Linda Hoy
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -Robert M. Pirsig
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales -Oliver Sacks
Markings - Dag Hammarskjold
Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics -Les Daniels
Master and Commander - O'Brian
Master and Magdalene
The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
The Mating Season -P.G. Wodehouse
Metamorphoses- Ovid
Middlemarch -George Eliot*
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Mindbridge -Joe Haldeman
Mission Earth-L Ron Hubbard
Mistborn -Brandon Sanderson*
Moby Dick -Melville
Mort -Terry Pratchett
Mother West Wind stories - Thornton W. Burgess
The Name of the Rose -Eco
Neuromancer -William Gibson
The New Testament -
Norwegian Wood -Haruki Murakami
Not the End of The World - Hannah Ritchie
Notes from a Dead House- Dostoevsky
Number of the Beast / Stranger in a Strange Land and others - Robert Heinlein
The Odyssey- Homer
The once and future King - T H White
The Origin of Species -Darwin
The Origin of the Work of Art - Heidegger
The Origins of Language -Merritt Ruhlen
The Outpost -Jake Tapper
Old Man and the Sea- Hemingway
On Authority -Milgram
On the Road -Jack Kerouac
One Hundred Years of Solitude -Marquez
Open Book - Jessica Simpson
Outlander series -Diana Gabaldon
Oz Clarke's Wine Guide-
Pale Fire -Nabokov
Paradise Lost -John Milton
La Pensée Sauvage -Lévi
The Percival legend in all its various forms-
The Perfect Storm -Sebastien Junger
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
The Plague -Albert Camus
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.-James Joyce
Poverty, By America - Matthew Desmond
The Prophet -Khalil Gibran
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant -US Grant
Pride and Prejudice -Jane Austen*
Proof -Dick Francis
Pyramids -Sir Terry Pratchett
The Ravine -Wendy Lower
Ready Player One- Cline
The Reality Dysfunction -Hamilton*
Red Badge of Courage -Stephen Crane
The Red Mask of Death- E. A. Poe
Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts - Matt Bell
Ringworld-Larry Niven
The Rise of Endymion -Simmons*
The Road - Cormack McCarthy *
Rosewater - Tade Thompson
Science of Diskworld - Stewart, Cohen & Pratchett
Screwtape Letters - Lewis
Sea of Tranquility -Emily St John Mandel
A Season on the Brink -John Feinstein
The Safekeep -Yael van der Wouden
The Satanic Witch -Anton Levay
Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Selfish Gene - Dawkins
The Seven Daughters of Eve -Brian Sykes
Sharks and Little Fish -Wolfgang Ott
The Shortest History of Migration - Ian Goldin
The Silence of the Lambs -Thomas Harris
The Silmarillion -Tolkien
Sirens -Eric Lustbader
Skinny Legs And All -Tom Robbins
Slaughterhouse 5- Kurt Vonnegut
SM 101 -Wiseman
The Smart Girls Guide to Polyamory - Dedeker Watson
Sometimes A Great Notion -Ken Kesey
Space Opera -Valente
Speaker for the Dead -Card*
The Stand -Stephen King*
Star Wars: Lost Stars - Claudia Gray
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Steppenwolf -Hesse
Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
The Story of Civilization-Will and Ariel Durant
The Story Of O- Pauline Reage *
Story of the Eye -Georges Bataille
Stranger in a Strange Land -Robert Heinlein
Swallows and Amazons -Arthur Ransome
Swan Song -Robert McCammon
Sword at Sunset -Rosemary Sutcliffe
Tailchaser's Song - Tad Williams
Testament of Devotion - Thomas R. Kelley
These Old Shades -Georgette Heyer
This Is How You Lose the Time War - Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar
Thus Spoke Zarathustra -Nietzsche
Time Enough for Love -Robert Heinlein
Time for the Stars -Robert Heinlein
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*3
Tom Jones.-Henry Fielding
The Tombs of Atuan -Le Guin
Totemisme Au'jourdhui -Lévi
Treasure Island -Robert Louis Stevenson
Tribal - Michael Morris
Tropic of Cancer -Henry Miller
Trout Fishing In America -Brautigan
Ulysses -Joyce
Under the Red Sea Sun-
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman- and all others by PD James
“The underwear catalogues that...”
The Universal History of Numbers - Georges Ifrah
Untrue - Wednesday Martin
The Value of Everything - Marianna Mazzucato
Varieties of Religious Experience -W. James
Various collections of The Far Side -Gary Larson
Venus in Furs - Masoch
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna
The Walking Drum -Louis L'Amour
The Wasp Factory -Iain Banks
What Took You So Long? -Sheldon Kopp
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Wheels and The Moneychangers - Arthur Hailey
White Fang -Jack London
The Wild Oats Project - Robin Rinaldi
The Wind in the Willows -Kenneth Grahame
Wind Sand and Stars -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Winnie the Pooh - A A Milne *
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K le Guin*
The World as Will and Representation- Schopenhauer
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Writings of HP Lovecraft-
Wuthering Heights- Bronte
Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Pyramids- Terry Pratchett
The Yiddish Policeman's Union -Michael Chabon
Young Men and Fire -Norman Maclean
Your Friend, Rebecca - Linda Hoy
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -Robert M. Pirsig
Last edited:
AG31
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2021
- Posts
- 3,272
Thanks so much for doing this!
lovecraft68
Bad Doggie
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2009
- Posts
- 45,430
My 10 great books from the horror genre-no order other than #1
1-The Exorcist-Blatty
2-They Thirst Robert McCammon
3-Pet Sematary-King
4-The Keep F. Paul Wilson
5-Shadowland_Peter Straub
6 Phantoms-Dean Koontz
7-Wolfen- Whitley Streiber
8-Legend if Hell House Richard Matheson.
9-The Devil's Kiss-William Johnstone (a bit infamous for the amount of nasty sex including a couple of quick but detailed taboo encounters)
10-Off Season-Jack Ketchum-might not be as shocking to a modern audience desensitized by torture porn movies, but when it came out this book set the bar for brutality. Has a scene in it that my mind has to turn away from anytime-like now-I mention the book.
Honorable mention as its not a novel, but Rats in the Walls was the first HPL story I read back when I was maybe 12 or so and it gave me nightmares and....I was hooked.
1-The Exorcist-Blatty
2-They Thirst Robert McCammon
3-Pet Sematary-King
4-The Keep F. Paul Wilson
5-Shadowland_Peter Straub
6 Phantoms-Dean Koontz
7-Wolfen- Whitley Streiber
8-Legend if Hell House Richard Matheson.
9-The Devil's Kiss-William Johnstone (a bit infamous for the amount of nasty sex including a couple of quick but detailed taboo encounters)
10-Off Season-Jack Ketchum-might not be as shocking to a modern audience desensitized by torture porn movies, but when it came out this book set the bar for brutality. Has a scene in it that my mind has to turn away from anytime-like now-I mention the book.
Honorable mention as its not a novel, but Rats in the Walls was the first HPL story I read back when I was maybe 12 or so and it gave me nightmares and....I was hooked.
AG31
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2021
- Posts
- 3,272
suggestion for edit. I think The Story of O showed up 3 times.
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