Book recommendations (philosophy / sci-fi etc. - thread includes a list of books I've enjoyed)

[Jimbo Mahoney]

I'm rekindling (pun partially intended) an interest in reading, so I'm looking for some more books that you feel have had an influence on how you see the world.

You'll probably get the idea when I provide my list of recommends and a quick summary of them (in no particular order, forgive my synopses!):

• George Orwell - 1984 - Dystopian fiction about governmental control
• Nassim Taleb - The Black Swan - sweeping philosophical / economic / philosophical book on unlikely events and how terrible humans are at handling non-normal distributions.
• Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene - Gene-level view of Darwin's theory of evolution.
• Douglas Hofstadter - GEB (Gödel, Escher, Bach - an Eternal Golden Braid) - Sweeping, technical treatise on the nature of reality, art and mathematics.
• Will Self - Great Apes - Fictional world that explores the relationship between man and nature.
• Memories, Dream, Reflection - C.G.Jung - Exploration of psychology, philosophy.
• Permutation City - Greg Egan - Fictional world that explore the nature of time, consciousness and computer simulation.
• Mister God, this is Anna - Finn - Fiction about a young girl exploring what it means to be human.
• Jonathan Livingstone Seagull - Richard Bach - Short fiction about what it means to be alive.
• Why Mars & Venus Colide - John Gray - Explores the relationship between men and women.
• The Vegetarian Myth - Lierrre Keith - An ex-vegan explores the challenge of the morality of eating meat.
• Ishmael - Daniel Quinn - Fiction. Novel that explores how humans interact with nature. (I don't want to give too much away).
• Papillon - Henri Charriere - True story about how a man survived / escaped a lengthy prison sentence (human spirit / resilience).
• Conversations with God - Neale Donald Walsch - (DISCLAIMER - Atheists / Agnostics / Christians will all likely find this series ridiculous / blasphemous, but if you read it with an open mind and simply take the good stuff and ignore the bad stuff, hopefully you'll get something good from it). Supposed auto-biography from a man who claims to talk to God and translate his messages for the modern world. (SECOND DISCLAIMER - I'm an open-minded person and I don't take this at face value. It has some clever word-play and I found it light-hearted. If you can try and put your personal biases to one side, I believe it has something of value for everyone).
• The Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins - An account of how the modern world / globalisation truly works.
• My Big Toe - Thomas Campbell - A series of books that explore the possibility that the universe is a giant simulation / computer.
• Flatland - Edwin Abott - Short fiction that explores the nature of reality / dimensional levels.
• The Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin - Sci-Fi that explores the game-theory of living in a universe with multiple intelligent lifeforms.
• Daemon - Daniel Suarez - Fiction in the near future where technologically-savvy individuals seize power from governments / corporations.
• Island - Aldous Huxley - Fictional optimistic view of society with a sting in the tail. Juxtaposed to his dystopian vision ‘Brave new world’
• Control Theory - William Glasser - Psychology. Exploration of human psychology in difficult/extreme situations.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I've recently bought a Kindle and your thread has caught my interest. I read a lot of easy going crime thriller nonsense but I do like the odd informative read. I would recommend Richard Dawkins to anyone with an interest in evolution - I'm absolutely fascinated with the obvious simplicity and also complexity of evolution and Dawkins does a great job IMO.