As we travel through life, there are certain books that mold and
remold us, and though we may not have read the books for a long time,
we remain, nonetheless their work. No book ever crosses the path of
our destiny without leaving some mark upon it forever.
Sometimes books influence our beliefs or imbue us with so
much knowledge that our intellect is forever shaped. More important
to me are those books that provide a mystic transport to another
reality. Equally important are those books that give pure druglike
pleasure and relaxation, allowing us to escape reality in times of
stress. Whether they are profoundly philosophical or provide an
endless adventure, books provide us with a means and system to leave
the prison of our aloneness and enter alternate worlds of infinite
possibility.
What does a person's favorite books tell us about that person?
Codes: F=fiction, N=nonfiction, R2="read the book twice
over my lifetime", R3="read the book three times during my life",
A=autobiography, Y="I read this when I was young; it would be
interesting to determine
if I would find it as valuable today as when I first read it."
Below are my favorite books, in order of preference:
Cliff Pickover
-
Passage, Connie Willis (F)
-
Shibumi, Trevanian (F)
-
Job, Robert Heinlein (F, R3)
-
He Who Shrank, Henry Hasse (F, R3)
-
The Story of Mankind, Hendrik Willem van Loon (N, R3)
-
I. Asimov, Isaac Asimov (A)
-
The Mist, Stephen King (F, R2)
-
Number of the Beast, Robert Heinlein (F, R2)
-
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein (F, R2, Y)
-
Time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein (F,Y)
-
The Magus, John Fowles (F)
-
Revelation, W. A. Harbinson (F)
-
Birdy, William Wharton (F)
-
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig (F/N,Y)
-
Image of the Beast, Philip Jose Farmer (F, R2)
-
The 100: A Ranking of the 100 Most Influence People in History,
Michael Hart (N)
-
Wonderful Life, Stephen J. Gould (N)
-
Diaspora by Greg Egan (F)
-
The Truth Machine
by James Halperin (F)
-
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Einstein's Universe by
Gary F. Moring (N)
-
Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice (F)
-
Menoch the Devil, Anne Rice (F)
-
Why I am Not Christian, Bertrand Russell (N)
-
Venus on the Half Shell, Kilgore Trout (F,Y)
-
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke (F,Y)
In terms of pure mind-boggling concepts, such as higher dimensions, imaginative
alien life, and the future of humanity, I'd say that Diaspora by Greg Egan
is my favorite book in this department. I also found that
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhart Tolle had many valuable lessons. I'm also a fan of the author,
Chuck Palahnuik.
For a wonderful book on Einstein and some ramifications of his strange theories,
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Einstein's Universe by
Gary F. Moring is great.
Here is
a journal someone started on my works.
The following book series are among my favorites:
George Chesbro (Mongo and Veil series, F),
Jack Chalker (Well of Souls series, F,Y),
Edgar Rice Burroughs (Martian series, F,Y),
Richard Marcinko (Rogue Warrior series, N/F).
Notes: The Mist is a novella in
Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauly.
He Who Shrank is a novella in
Famous Science Fiction Stores: Adventures in Time and Space,
edited by Raymond Healy and J. Frances McComas.
Number of the Beast drags towards the end, but the beginning
is especially interesting and exciting.
As for music, how can you beat: The Book of Secrets by
Loreena McKennitt or Ashes are Burning by Renaissance?
Cliff Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University, is the author
of twenty books (fiction and nonfiction)
with translations in six languages, and is
associate editor of numerous journals.
If you would like me to publish your own "Top Ten" list of books,
please send me your list formatted in html, as above, and
also send a one or two line biographical sketch.
Feel free to take the source of this page to help you format your
own list for inclusion on this page.
My Colleagues Favorite Books
Stephanie Herman
-
Henderson, the Rain King, Saul Bellow(F, R3)
-
The Road Less Travelled, M. Scott Peck (N, R3)
-
Cruel Shoes, Steve Martin (F, R3)
-
Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver (F, R2)
-
Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman (F, R2)
-
The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Allan Gurganus (F)
-
Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (F)
-
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers (F)
-
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (F)
-
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis (N)
-
Fried Green Tomatoes, Fannie Flagg (F)
-
The De-Valuing of America, William Bennett (N)
-
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins (F)
-
Writers Dreaming, Naomi Epel (N)
-
Who Stole Feminism?, Christina Hoff Sommers (N)
Stephanie
Herman is a critically-aclaimed conservative writer and
non-feminist who is fascinated by the connections between math,
language, science and art.
Craig
Becker, one man who's opinions I highly value, gives his own
science-fiction list.
From Larissa:
How'd you guess: I LOVE to read, to a near-excessive degree.
I'll mention some books in this note that I'd guess you might find
stimulating. In general, my own most transporting moments haven't
been sparked by reading, however, so I don't feel qualified to
recommend any books specifically for that kind of insight or
experience. I think the mental state that can use literature for as a
departure to transcendence, can also use other stimuli encountered in
daily life. The most mystical connections I have ever made have
stemmed from earthly/earthy, sensual experience.
Also, I am assuming that anything I as a non-scientific layperson
could have read on the subjects of chaos, computers, fractals, or
mathematics, you will have read or could have written, so I won't
mention such entertaining books.
That said, the following books occurred to me as some you might
enjoy arguing with. Let me know if any of them were what you had in
mind, and how you liked any you read!
Beggars in Spain, by Nancy Kress. The novella won a Nebula in
1991; there is a novel-length version, too, that I did not read. This
is a story about, among other things, people who do not need to sleep
and so have that much more time to learn, work, create, find
connections...and how much "normal" people hate and fear them. I wish
I could "sleep less to live more," as Napoleon said!* Your chapter on
The Human Mind Questionnaire, with its super-IQs and hyper-IQs,
reminded me of this favorite story.
A Beautiful Mind : A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr. by Sylvia
Nasar. Another Genius!
Seeing Voices : A Journey into the World of the Deaf , by Oliver
Sacks. This is a collection of three essays Sacks wrote over time on
deafness and the perception and brains of the deaf; how signing
changes the shape of the visual areas of the cortex in the deaf and
hearing alike, and how this can affect creativity, cognition,
perception and learning. Neurology, especially as it pertains to
perception or language, is always fascinating, and I enjoy all of Dr.
Sacks' books, books by or about Dr. Ramachandra, and so on.
The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester. This is an
exciting story about the compilation of a disctionary! THE
dictionary: the OED. And one of its major contributors, Dr. W.C.
Minor, a murderer living in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of
Violence, Evil, and Creativity, by Stephen A. Diamond and Rollo May
Many Lives, Many Masters, by Brian L. Weiss. This is the only
deliberately mystical book I've read lately, on the recommendation of
a programmer I was working with. The best part was arguing with my
friend about the book, and why we want to believe in reincarnation,
afterlife, alien allies, guardian angels...I pretty much take the
standard Jewish position that, "We don't pretend to know, and living
in this world, on Earth, is miracle, challenge to understanding, and
work enough for a very full lifetime," but speculating is fun and
fascinating. Here is a summary of the Amazon Books review:
"Psychiatry and metaphysics blend together in this fascinating book
based on a true case history. Dr. Weiss, who was once firmly
entrenched in a clinical approach to psychiatry, finds himself
reluctantly drawn into past-life therapy when a hypnotized client
suddenly reveals details of her previous lives."
Who is Fourier? A Mathematical Adventure, by the Transnational
College of Lex (Japan), in the English translation offered by the
Language Research Foundation. This is interesting not as a way to
play with FFTs, but because it was written by laypeople with no
particular mathematical ability or education, who decided to approach
mathematics strictly as a "language." The introduction to the book
and the group is fun, and different from the way math and language are
usually taught here.
Lois Greenfield's photography and Scott Kim's visual palindromes.
I have another book, I believe by Douglas Hofstadter, on visual
palindromes, but the friend I lent it to must like it, because it's
still out!
Anything by James Burke, but especially his Connections video
series from twenty years ago. This is fun science history and
biography, with Burke's conclusions on social consequence quietly
bundled in for a bonus. His most recent book, as far as I know
(1995), is The Axemaker's Gift, for which his co-author is Robert
Ornstein, director of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge
in Los Altos. The Institute sounds to me like a place where you would
be at home!
The Monkey's Wrench, by Primo Levi. If you like engineering as
well as science, this is a good novelette that captures the blessed
feeling of loving your work and being good at it, and the joy of
figuring things out.
Artistry of the Mentally Ill : A Contribution to the Psychology
and Psychopathology of Configuration , by Hans Prinzhorn, et al.
Creativity & Madness : Psychological Studies of Art and Artists,
by Barry Panter, Bernard Virshup
Depression and the Spiritual in Modern Art : Homage to Miro, by
Joseph J. Schildkraut, Aurora Otero
Mania: Clinical and Research Perspectives, by Paul J. Goodnick,
MD
Cognitive Psychology and Emotional Disorders, Wiley Publishing's
Series in Clinical Psychology
What I like to read: Anything, especially literature, popular
science and science history/biography, music, science fiction,
history, linguistic and cognitive theory, wordplay, puzzles and games,
reference materials (particularly on language and "trivia," like the
Cecil Adams books or dictionaries of unusual words), folklore and
urban legendry, historical folklore, folk wisdom, and folktales
(especially Yiddish folks). I have a thing for text as art, and the
elusive quality of light as expressed through color, so I find
illuminated manuscripts and old maps, and the obvious artists,
wonderful.
*(My high school boyfriend was taken with the idea, too, and
actually trained himself to sleep four hours less each night. Last I
knew of him, he had kept his sleep at that level for a few years with
no apparent harm. Sleep is such a pleasure, and dreams a source of
insight, creative connections, visualizations and even wordplay, that
I don't want to give it up completely; I'd like to reach about 65%
less sleep.)
From Dale:
For the record, here are my Top Ten Books and Movies:
Top Ten Movies
(1) The Godfather - Mario Puzo (F)
(2) King Rat - James Clavell (F)
(3) Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury (F)
(4) Hell House - Richard Matheson (F)
(5) Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice (F)
(6) My Sixty Memorable Games - Bobby Fischer (NF)
(7) Grammatical Man - Jeremy Campbell (NF)
(8) Programming & Metaprogramming In The Human
Biocomputer - John C. Lilly (NF)
(9) Journeys Out Of The Body - Robert Monroe (NF)
(10) Music, The Brain & Ecstacy - Robert Jourdain (NF)
Top Ten Movies
(1) King Kong - 1933
(2) Island Of Lost Souls - 1933
(3) War Of The Worlds - 1953
(4) Forbidden Planet - 1956
(5) Invasion Of The Body Snatchers - 1956
(6) Jaws - 1975
(7) Alien - 1979
(8) Apocalpyse Now - 1979
(9) Dreamscape - 1984
(10) Nightmare On Elm Street - 1984
From Donna:
Nonfiction: Laurens Van Der Post: The Heart of the Lonely Hunter
Admiral Byrd: Alone
Oliver Sacks: Awakenings
Dalai Lama: Autobiography
Aung San Suu Kyi: Letters from Burma
M. Scott Peck: The Road Less Traveled
Fiction: Antoine de Saint Exupery: Wind, Sand and Stars
Louisa May Alcott: Little Women series
Victor Hugo: Les Miserables
Chaim Potok: All of his books
Pearl S. Buck: Letter from Peking
The above sort of moves a person's soul. A thought provoking one
is: James Michener: The Covenent
From Nandor:
I've read some key book multiple times.
My tallies below, sadly enough. I'm sure you'll be able to read too
much into my psyche, but here we go. All spellings and numbers of
books are from memory (are there 14 John Carter books, or only 12? I
forget)
2 times:
The 5 books in the Riverworld sequence, Philip Jose Farmer
The 14 books in the John Carter sequence, Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Handmaid's Tale, Margret Attwood
3 times:
The Bible straight through
The 8 books in the Well World sequence, Jack Chalker
V for Vendetta, Alan Moore
The Watchmen, Alan Moore
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain
4 times:
The 14 books in Asimov's robots, empire, and foundation sequence
The 4 books in the Wrinkle In Time books, Madeline L'Engle
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
The 5 books in the Prydain Chronicles, Lloyd Alexander
The 3 books in the space trilogy of CS Lewis
5-10 times:
The 5 books in the Hitchhiker's Guide sequence, Douglas Adams
The 3 books in The Pendragon Cycle, Stephen R. Lawhead
10-20 times:
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
20-30 times:
The 5 books in The Dark is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper
The Book of Job from the Bible
About 50 times:
Each of the 4 Gospels and Acts
And the worst of all:
I've read The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien exactly 57 times. Yes,
I kept track (starting about 20 years ago). I read it for the first
time in fourth grade (so I must have been about 9 years old). I read
it for the 50th time just before the release of the first movie in
2001 (when I was 29). Yes, there was even one year where I read it
four times (my sophomore year of college, when my girlfriend was at an
exchange semester at another college). Yes, I've read through four
different sets of the books and had to throw them away due to wear and
tear (no, I didn't hold burials of the remains). Yes, I shed a tear
every time I read that Samwise puts Elanor on his lap and tells his
wife "Well, I'm back." What can I say? I'm a loser. But I LOVE that
book!
From Lon:
I've read a
number of books several times:
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy, 3 times
Outer Dark, by Cormac McCarthy, twice
Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut, at least half a dozen times
Water Music, by T.C. Boyle, twice
The Road To Wellville, Boyle, twice
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson, at least half
a dozen times
The Double Helix, by James Watson, about three or four times
From Eva:
I reread a lot of books I have liked. I have always done so, and I
didn't realise that was unusual until relatively recently. I enjoy
it--it's like visiting with an old friend, and I usually don't reread
until the details of the plot have grown sufficiently fuzzy in my
memory for me to enjoy them all over again. It's less tense, too,
than an initial reading--I feel no need to hurry to the ending, to
find out what happens, to see if beloved character so-and-so survives
the plot. Wordplay, imagery or phrasing I might have loved, dialogue
that might have moved me--I get to enjoy it again, in a more leisurely
fashion. I often notice details and foreshadowing that I missed the
first time around, too.
Upon rereading the above ;), I note the 'old friend' comparison--to be
honest, when I was younger, especially, I didn't have a lot of those.
Friends, that is (as opposed to... er, comparisons :). We moved
around a fair bit, so I suppose that's part of it. I really lost
myself in books, and I still do.
Sometimes I just reread books because I haven't any new ones to read,
but usually it's for the sheer pleasure of revisiting the stories.
From Mike Blailock:
- The Chronicles of Doodah , George Lee Walker
- The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan
- Innumeracy, John Allen Paulos
- Freethinkers, Susan Jacoby
- PGP: Pretty Good Privacy, Simson Garfinkel
- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
- The Gift of Tears, Frank J. Mountford
- Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative, David Roberts
- Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?, Molly Ivins
- Dictionary of Philosophy And Religion, W.L. Reese
Mike Blailock, critically unacclaimed, has spent time on Earth as an alter boy, musician, college student, dishwasher, marine, pipelayer, senior systems engineer (computer programmer), mountain climber, skydiver, motorcyclist, stagehand and truck driver. He has waltzed with the suits and run with the tough guys. Nobody cares about any of this but it's fun for me to recollect. The point is to turn someone on to a book they may not have read and hopefully they enjoy. Ciao!