[undfined]

	Originally Posted by Uncle Mort To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	The Dispossessed ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

I had to read this for a Philosophy and Society class when I was 21. I have never been the same. That was one of the last pieces of fiction I have read since.

Lately I've been hooked on anything Malcolm Gladwell has written and just finished The Social Animal by David Brooks, which I thought did a good job of explaining things that I wish I could share with my wife. A nice bridge of fiction and pop-science that I don't dismiss so quickly anymore.

The Catcher in the Rye has always topped my list - it's one book I've read more than twice.

I am particularly interested in the topic of morality right now and this thread is a great brainstorm of where to go next.

[Malkavia]

^^^

Malcolm Gladwell is fantastic. I think a lot of INTJs would enjoy most of his stuff.

I had to read "Blink" 3 different times in college.

[MULTIVERSE]

The Book of Disquiet by F. Pessoa: It's like reading my own thoughts and, since I'm addicted to my own thoughts, probably unsurprising.

[FloatOn]

	Originally Posted by MortalWombat To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Looking for Alaska by John Green.

Do you watch his youtube channel? I love the green brothers <3

[Blackgatta]

"History of Western Philosophy" by Russell (non-fiction)

For fiction, "The Master and Margartita" by Bulgakov is pretty damn good.

[mllebrie]

Oh my God. You guys have got to be kidding me, this is amazing.

	Originally Posted by TheSeer To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol - Diary of a Madman Dostoevsky - Demons Nabakov - Invitation to a beheading Hasek - The Good Soldier Svejk

Read excerpts of "Svejk" in a class my junior year. Didn't really know whether to laugh or cry, the illustrations were funny, and I have a thing for Austria-Hungary. Loved it, but would love to read the whole thing someday.

Another good satire is The Case of Comrade Tulayev, which bears the unnerving quality of making Stalinist show trials funny. I kid you not.

	Originally Posted by sircockburn To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Has to be To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I LOVE WALTER! I love the book about the cruise.

Originally Posted by Megalomania To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Although not a book that I like most for its entertainment value Paradise Lost by John Milton is absolutely unparalleled in poetic brilliance. I have never read anything so eloquent in my life or anything that even comes remotely close. To make it even more amazing he dictated the book to his daughters because he was blind. How someone can speak such poetry is beyond me. "Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky With hideous ruin and combustion down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms." If I had to pick a book that I think epitomizes good storytelling it would be The Lord of the Rings. Invented languages, cultures, peoples, entire histories, all inspired by Tolkien's love of language and myth. Although every fantasy author tries to copy him by doing the same none of their attempts come close to matching the realism of Middle Earth or Tolkien's prose. Dostoyevsky is good as well but I feel like I need to read Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov again before I comment on them too much.

Been meaning to read Paradise Lost for a long time. Read C&P my senior year of high school--twice--over the prior summer and at the end of the year, some sort of growing exercise. I'd like to try it again, I think my analytical skills have become much better since then.

	Originally Posted by Japonica To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley has to be one of the greatest insights into the shallow nature of human beings and whether or not it is actually innate. The book only looks like it is about the consequences of science from the surface. It's actually an in depth study about humanity.

Read it a few times, once in high school English, once in this crazy history class I took my junior year of college about changing interpretations of nature. (This is why I am now underemployed.) But reading it like that, through two different prisms, was really facsinating. Not one of my faves, but certainly important.

	Originally Posted by Tigey To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Villette by Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre by Charlottee Bronte Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Again, want to read Villette, and of course I've read Jane Eyre. Goodness, I love that book. Hot. Sigh....

	Originally Posted by Blackgatta To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	"History of Western Philosophy" by Russell (non-fiction) For fiction, "The Master and Margartita" by Bulgakov is pretty damn good.

Another I've been wanting to read. I actually have this little book full of reviews of "conservative and liberatarian literature" and it sounds fascinating.

So, most of these comments I made weren't for books I've actually read, just books I want to read. So sad. I need to just quit my job and become a scholar. Which I what I eventually want to be, anyway. What a life!

My favorite, that hasn't been mentioned yet: "Kristin Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Undset. The newest translation by Tiina Nunally, since the old translation used rather archaic language and made it difficult to read. It's big--about 1200 pages, and it took me all summer to read it between shifts--but so worth it. It's about a girl (named Kristin Lavransdatter, duh) and her life in medieval Norway. The plot fits well with the history of the region, and Kristin has a lot of deep thoughts, mostly regarding religion. More importantly, there are some rather "hot" passages in it, but they're not trashy. I've read it three times, and every time I do I find something new in it. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

[peter]

Not much of a reader but D.M. Thomas's The White Hotel impressed me a great deal.

[Unin]

Originally Posted by gerhardt To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I loved Hesse in my teens. SIDDHARTHA is stll my all-time favorite. All the other usual suspects like CATCH 22, ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTAINENCE,and ILLUSIONS by Richard Bach is philosophy on the fly. If you want to really meet a real INTJ read T.E. Lawrence's biography SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM. The cerebral intelligence officer forever changes the arts of war and in the process the shape of the Middle East.

I have a many great and favorite books, but ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTAINENCE is great for INTJ types because it shows, in novel format, how extreme intellectualization can devolve into madness (or did he simply reject the last vestiges of "normal" behavior?).

[Megalomania]

	Originally Posted by mllebrie To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Been meaning to read Paradise Lost for a long time. Read C&P my senior year of high school--twice--over the prior summer and at the end of the year, some sort of growing exercise. I'd like to try it again, I think my analytical skills have become much better since then.

Took me a little bit to get used to the writing style but it actually goes quite fast since it's written in verse. If you do read it I recommend an annotated version (I think there's one free online); there's way too many allusions for most people to pick up on. Unless you're a mythology scholar that is.

[Doppelbock]

Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson.

First chapter available here for free:
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[iMan]

Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins

[Faustus]

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)

Speaking of Joyce, The Dead was an amazing short story as well.

[Andre20]

	Originally Posted by Nonexistence To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

There are many books out there that I've yet to read, but so far this is the greatest book I've read. I'm now very interested in reading "The Brothers Karamazov", since it has been mentioned several times. Crime and Punishment was alright, I will for sure check this one out.

[Imagineering]

No. 44 the mysterious stranger best ending ever

[hamlet9]

Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Wuthering Heights
Great Expectations
War and Peace
Finnegans Wake

[Alakazam]

I really liked Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

[kaer]

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Man’s search for meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (1946)

Experiences in a WWII concentration camp — The case for a tragic optimism.



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The Tao of Abundance: Eight Ancient Principles
for Abundant Living by Laurence G. Bold (1999)

Loaded with Tao (道) philosophy applied in life, examining reasons behind
contradictions: eg. scarcity in economics vs. abundance in living

[schwartzie]

this is a lovely thread, and I just filled up my portable ereader from the home calibre library with suggestions from here. Because I'm not well read, I'll ditto someone's The Road, which is darkly beautiful and tender. mmm.

[IronSulfide]

Some new ones:

Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
The Place of Dead Roads - William S. Burroughs

[Nostalgia]

Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham (like most masterpieces, it has a very slow start, I didn't get hooked until almost half way through, took me 3 tries to get beyond that point, and it was well worth it.)

Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse (read it when I was around 16, turned me into a serious student of philosophy for the next 5 years.)

Wuthering heights - Emily Brontë (This is a tale of true love, that makes romeo and juliet looks like mickey mouse puppy love)

Ethan frome - Edith Wharton (a very short novel, that is beautifully written.)

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Angle Of Repose - Wallace Stegner (this is by far one of my favorite work of fiction ever, Wallace Stegner is just so masterful, so many breathtaking moments within the novel are indelibly imprinted on my memory. It does have a rather slow start.)

You can't go wrong with anything by Charles Dickens, Thomas hardy, and Any of the Brontë sisters.

long day's journey into night - Eugene O'Neill (just the best contemporary play ever written, my personal favorite play, that is not written by Shakespeare of course)

Last by not least...
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE!
READ IT! If you read it, you will have better understanding of human nature and gain much needed perspective on life, pretty much anything and everything that we will ever experience in our pathetic little lives, SHAKESPEARE wrote about it!


Storm of Steel - Ernst Junger (For those like myself, who believes in the warrior ethos.)

[Dancingqueen]

Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov-classic

[Thinker]

Noddy goes to Toyland ~ Enid Blyton

[deconspire]

Ender's Game-Orson Scott Card

[Grimace]

No votes for Infinite Jest? :d

Only like 300+ pages in, which, tbh is 1/3 approx, so a long way to go still. Still, a fairly astounding book. That isn't to say some parts aren't perhaps too much, or that Wallace isn't essentially carpet bombing your brain. But the brilliance is frightening; his depth of knowledge about, seemingly, everything, puts me back on my heels. That he wrote it in only 3 years, well, that's possibly more shocking than the book itself--he must have been in some kind of manic focused oblivion. To quote from the book: "His Opus was so Magnum he had to have it locked away."

---------- Post added 01-25-2012 at 07:34 PM ----------

Also, has anyone in here truly actually completely read Finnegans Wake?


I have not.

But I have heard horror stories, and I don't mean the story in the book.

[Selene]

I don't know if this counts as the best ever written book but I really like Catch 22. It's the only novel I've read thrice or more, from cover to cover. This followed by The Movable Feast and Nine Stories (For Esme with Love and Squalor).

The Rum Diary, Great Gatsby, The Descent of Man, Pulling Your Own Strings and Little Prince have influenced my perspectives about life and my beliefs in significant ways.

I don't read fiction very often now. Wuthering Heights and Anna Karenina for all consuming novels about romance. My latest attempt at modern fiction has been pretty disastrous so I'm sticking to the classics. Oh wait, maybe Rabbit Run. It's pretty good.

---------- Post added 01-26-2012 at 05:41 PM ----------

	Originally Posted by delfigre To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	The Unbearable Lightness of Being The description of each character's psychology and how things can evoke different things to different people is just lovely... apart from his digression on God and Shit =)

Agree. Fantastic read.