Eyeglass me some books

ben_j_davis

ben_j_davis

ben_j_davis

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Yes thats right BOOKS!

I need something to read on the train everyday.

However i don’t necessarily want light reading, I wonder if anyone knows any decent philosophy, historical autobiographies, science books - Something like Karl Marx, Stephen Hawking, possibly George Orwell. I.e. books that expand your mind.

Any ideas?
 
If you want philosophy, start out light. Try Bertrand Russell problems of philosophy for a good introduction - it is excellent.

Most philosophical books will be hard to read on the train, you need a lot of concentration and a good level of reading comprehension, as well as secondary texts.

Try out Candide by Voltaire, it is a good light read also.
 
carvegio said:
If you want philosophy, start out light. Try Bertrand Russell problems of philosophy for a good introduction - it is excellent.

Most philosophical books will be hard to read on the train, you need a lot of concentration and a good level of reading comprehension, as well as secondary texts.

Try out Candide by Voltaire, it is a good light read also.
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Will do thanks,

Oi, who changed my thread title? Cheeky moderator monkey's.
 
Some more suggestions - this is the kinda stuff I read when I was commuting to uni on train. I kept a list of everything read.

Dante's Divine Comedy
Gulliver's Travels
Tolstoy's War and Peace
Plato's Dialogues - Apology, Crito, Phaedo etc..
Aristotle's Ethics & Politics
Plutarch's Lives
some plays of Shakespeare
Montaigne's Essays
Locke's Second Treatise on Government
 
Been meaning to read Divine Comedy, just havent decided on which translation/interpretation to choose.

All the rest look good as well, although i might have trouble getting some of them in my bag :)
 
Science fiction collections. Look out for stories by Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Theodore Cogswell, John W Campbell, Theodore Sturgeon and Harry Harrison. Harry Harrison owns! Any of the Stainless Steel Rat books by him are superb classic sci-fi.

Oxfam shops and tatty second hand bookshops are great for this stuff, I quite often go to my local one and come out with a great big armful of books for a tenner.
 
ben_j_davis said:
Yes thats right BOOKS!

I need something to read on the train everyday.

However i don’t necessarily want light reading, I wonder if anyone knows any decent philosophy, historical autobiographies, science books - Something like Karl Marx, Stephen Hawking, possibly George Orwell. I.e. books that expand your mind.

Any ideas?
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Ha ha! you read books.. nerd :p







:(
 
Laurie Garrett - The Coming Plague : Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
Christopher Hibbert - The English: A Social History, 1066-1945
Christopher Hibbert - Wellington: A Personal History
Antonia Fraser - Boadicea's Chariot: Warrior Queens
William T Close, M.D. - Ebola

Both Antonia Fraser and Christopher Hibbert write good historical biographies.
 
Not quite what you are after but...

I recommend you check out some Chuck Palahniuk, not necessarily mind expanding, but generally an interesting read (the last book by him, Hunted, was very good, if not a little weird :p).

I recommend Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk to start with, as its not so "out there" as some of his other books (imo).
 
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