Comments on: “Ten Books to Read Before You Die” – I think not

By: Wes

Wes — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:07:32 +0000

What an absurd list! I’ve only read 1, 7, and 10, and have no intention at all of reading the others. Could have done without 1, too.

I don’t know if I could make a list of just three books. Maybe if I divvied it up by category:

Philosophy:
Plato’s Republic
Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil

Science:
Darwin’s Origin of Species
Einstein’s Relativity: The Special and General Theories
Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Fiction:
Cervantes’ Don Quixote
Twain’s Huckleberry Finn
Tolstoy’s War and Peace

Poetry:
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Milton’s Paradise Lost
Whitman’s Leaves of Grass

Drama/Stage:
Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus
Shakespeare’s MacBeth
Aristophanes’ The Clouds

History:
Thucydides’ Pelopennesian War
Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Sarton’s History of Science

Short fiction collections:
Kafka’s complete works
Poe’s complete works
Faulkner’s Go Down Moses

Political writings:
The US constitution and the Federalist Papers
Hobbes’ Leviathon
Rawl’s Law of Peoples

Religious writings:
Augustine’s Confessions
Hume’s Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion
The Upanishads

Still, looking at each of these lists, they seem woefully incomplete. So my ultimate conclusion is: You need to read a LOT more than three books before you die.

By: Dan!

Dan! — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:13:52 +0000

Who hasn’t read Catcher in the Rye!? I thought that was a national requirement to pass the 10th grade…

And really, Dan Brown wouldn’t have made this list if they asked responders how many books they’ve read in their life, and thrown out everyone who said under 10.

By: Michael Fugate

Michael Fugate — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:09:24 +0000

I have been thinking ecologically lately…
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Turtle Island by Gary Snyder

By: DLC

DLC — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:27:22 +0000

three books?
Damn, only three ?

By: Mike P

Mike P — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:55:16 +0000

Ok, I’m going to break with tradition and offer books you should read before you die… once you’ve read all those other classics.

Fiction:
1. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
2. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
3. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski

Non:
1. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
2. The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker
3. On the Genealogy of Morality by Nietzsche

By: Alan Kellogg

Alan Kellogg — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:04:23 +0000

A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawkings

Ludwig von Wolfgang Vulture Dolph Sharp

Those are the two I recommend you read before you die.

By: Ubiquitous Che

Ubiquitous Che — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:01:38 +0000

Actually, I’ll amend that.

1) Beyond Good and Evil – Friedrich Nietzsche
2) Apology – Plato

Still can’t think of a third, though.

I would’ve loved to get my hands on Gorgias’ On Nature or the Non-Existent.

By: Ubiquitous Che

Ubiquitous Che — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:59:15 +0000

Only 1 so far that I think would qualify for ‘read before you die’ status.

1) Beyond Good and Evil – Friedrich Nietzsche

I have a large number of other, favorite, much-loved books. They don’t quite cut it.

By: TheMonkeyMan

TheMonkeyMan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:21:16 +0000

catch 22
slaughterhouse 5
kavalier & clay

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:22:15 +0000

With the element of arbitrariness that comes in choosing just 3 books…

Fiction:
-The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the real unabridged version)
-Lolita
-Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide (Kenny, I was also heavily considering Count of Monte Cristo!)

Non Fiction:
-The Selfish Gene
-Malcolm X’s Autobiography
-The Blank Slate

By: Kenny Rotter

Kenny Rotter — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:02:32 +0000

Fiction:
1. Count of Monte Cristo – Unabridged
2. Slaughterhouse Five
3. Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide

Non
1. Origin of Species
2. Freakonomics
3. Maus

By: writzer

writzer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:52:10 +0000

Fiction:
1=Zorba the Greek
2=Tom Jones
3=Don Quixote

Non-fiction:
1=On the Origin of Species
2=Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
3=Montaigne’s Essays