Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too. <3
deleted by creator
Foundation is great, have you also read the Empire trilogy? Also after reading Empire + Foundation you should read The end of Eternity, it’s an amazing book whose impact is only felt if you’ve read the other books.
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell.
When I was young and exposed to these stories, they had a different meaning
but as I have gotten older, wow those books sure do hit a bullseye but not always for what meaning popular culture puts on them
1984 to me is not about the government as much as it is about political ideas and opinions. Big Brother only punished the Winston because he broke the rules while being an insider. If he ran away to the proles, he would have been free but nope, he was theirs and they were going to punish him for his deviancy. They prepared for it even.
An in my opinion, those MAGA dupes are Winston of our age.
Animal Farm is similar but even more on point of our nature allowing these pigs to rule us with “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”
Its good we call cops PIGS, because they are.
Add Brave New World by Aldous Huxley to the list. I think he actually managed to get closer to where we were heading before Trump. Things took a right turn though.
I loved 1984, but when I was younger, I always found Orwell’s treatise on language that takes up a big chunk in the middle to be dull and far-fetched.
Boy was I wrong…
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
it was the first book I ever read, and I decided to do it on my own. I was 16 and it was the greatest thing I had done for myself up to that point. It was such a big thing for me. I had never read a book front to back before, let alone deciding to do it on my own.
And so I checked that book out at the library. Went home and started to read the first couple chapters. Got some tomato soup and a grilled cheese and then next thing I know its 2AM and I read that whole book in almost one sitting!!!
The freedom it gave my mind was a gift I can never reply. Douglass Adams is and always will be one of my favorite humans for what he gave me in that story.
I agree. I’ve introduced it to a number of people and I find it’s a bit of a litmus test for me. If they come back with “that’s just stupid” I know they’re missing a sense of play that comes with messing with the rules of life.
We lost DA far too early, but he left us a wonderful gift.
Hatchet.
It taight me that you never have to give up. Even when all looks completely lost, keeping your head on a swivel and keeping yourself goal oriented, you can get yourself through almost anything.
I read that book when I was younger and couldn’t remember the name until a few years ago. It resonated with me in a profound way. Having to be resourceful and not just make do, but survive, with what you have around you is something I’ve ingrained into my life. And not just in emergency situations but all the time. Seeing other uses for things, coming up with novel solutions, and yes, not giving up. My boss really appreciates my outlook at work for this reason.
I really liked the movie cast away for the same reasons.
Is that the one where the boy just up and decides to go live in a tree up in the Caskills and ends up with a pet falcon, or is that the one where the kid is stranded in the woods in a plane crash? I read those two books around the same time in later middle school and I think they ran together in my brain.
Plane crash
Atomic Habits.
As someone who is likely on the spectrum, it was like someone gifted me a user guide for life where other self-help books have either leaned a lot on the emotions of things or tried to cram all sorts of philosophy down my throat.
Lot’s of common sense ideas around how to turn what, where, and who you want to be into actually achievable goals and genuinely helped me figure out who I want to be for myself and not for other people.
I wouldn’t say it has any groundbreaking or radical ideas in it, but the structure and presentation of the simple ideas really helped me work out some life things for myself.
House of Leaves. I don’t know if I want to read it again, but that book was a cool experience.
Yes! You may want to write in this one, it’s kind of made for this.
“The Arsonist in the Office” by Pete Havel
Helped me recognize that the incredibly toxic job I was in was not sustainable.
“It’s Your Ship” by D. Michael Abrashoff
Excellent book on leadership. Should be required reading for anyone who manages people.
“Psychopath Free” by Jackson MacKenzie
Most people probably have no idea what it’s like to be in a relationship with someone who has a personality disorder. It can be absolute hell. It certainly was for me. This book provided some good insights but also helped me feel less alone.
There are other books but those are three big ones for me.
Played bloody knuckles with hard copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire once in grade school, and still have a lil mark from it.
Whale Done by Ken Blanchard
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. The first book I read was “Guards, Guards” and it’s still one of my favourites. I own the series and every few years I read through it again.
John Darnielle’s Devil House is a GREAT novel. All of his books are but it’s particularly great
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Can I say the entire Discworld series? Sure they’re funny fantasy stories, but I reckon Pterry’s view on humanity formed a lot of how I think about the world.
Also Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
My opinion of Discworld is that it was always social/historical satire first, fantasy second - and I even more so as the series progressed. And, to be clear, I don’t mean that as a criticism, but as a compliment. Discworld could have been written as any one of a hundred different genres and still have been superb, but by making it fantasy Pratchett made it all the more timeless.
GNU pTerry
Going to add Dark Money to my reading list. Thanks!
Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky.
