Books You Should Read Before You Die

Johnno · Sep 25, 2007

pj_goober said:

Really?

I thought it was really rather average, I doubt it would be all that renound if it weren't for the assasination attempts and so on...
Click to expand...

Well you're perfectly entitled to your own opinion of course..... however wrong it is!

Su lin · Sep 25, 2007

Some more from me:
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
Rashomon and Other Stories by Akutagawa
The Metamorphosis by Kafka
Three men in a boat- Jerome K Jerome
Huis Clos (No exit) and other plays- Sartre. I'm not being pretentious,I just thought it was awesome.
The Age of Reason - Sartre, same as above!

Zodiac Monkey · Sep 25, 2007

Books i keep going back and could be classed as pulp fiction style of books are

Waylander - David Gemmell
Legend - David Gemmell

and you can read them in a day

LJoll · Sep 25, 2007

pj_goober said:

Really?

I thought it was really rather average, I doubt it would be all that renound if it weren't for the assasination attempts and so on...
Click to expand...

I liked it. I think his short stories are really good as well.

Banpen Fugyo · Sep 25, 2007

Anyone mention Tuesdays with Morrie yet?

slipthejab · Sep 25, 2007

A must read that ranks as one of my favorite all time books.

Title: A Cambodian Odyssey
Author: Dr. Hang Ngor

http://www.amazon.com/Cambodian-Odyssey-Haing-Ngor/dp/0446389900

This is the book that the classic movie about the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia was based on. The movie romanticizes the subject a bit. But even with that it's still a very powerful film and relatively historically accurate to the experience of Dith Pran. Hang Ngor (the actor who played Dith Pran in the film the Killing Fields) also managed to live through a number of years of torture at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. But I can highly recommend the book to anyone looking to understand the horrors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. It's also a very large testament to the human spirit (as horribly cliche as that sounds). Just a gut wrencher of a book.

Read the book, watch the film. Both well worth it... for me it was such a good read I bought the hardback edition... and have read it cover to cover several times over the years.

Angelus · Sep 25, 2007

Empress Akasha said:

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Click to expand...

That's one great book!

Dan Bian · Sep 29, 2007

Esoteric Warriors - Alex Kozma

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

The Hobbit - Tolkien

Combat Techniques of Tai Ji, Xing Yi, and Ba Gua: Principles and Practices of Internal Martial Arts - Lu Shengli & Zhang Yun

Emil · Sep 29, 2007

pj_goober said:

Really?

I thought it was really rather average, I doubt it would be all that renound if it weren't for the assasination attempts and so on...
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm. I strongly disagree. It captured the emotions of this one guy so perfectly. Absolute masterpiece.

Em

btw, forgot to add Paradise Lost, by John Milton.

L3vity · Oct 15, 2007

Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky

insearch4truth · Aug 25, 2011

Another Great Book

flashlock said: ↑

Here's my reading list. The summaries are from various sources, mostly academic reading lists. How many have I read? Only a few, but some I read twice (you'd be suprised which ones, too!).

1. HOMER: Iliad, Odyssey (c. 800 BCE)
The Iliad is about the Wrath of Achilles arising from an affront to his honour by the hubristic Agamemnon... but, it is also about many other things, both human and divine: it is a work which, though now printed and finally consigned to a permanent recension, is paradoxically in a state of constant flux, for no two readings are ever alike.
If we were to call the Iliad the world's first adventure story, the Odyssey could be called its first opera: certainly some of the plot twists along the way would be at home in that extravagant genre. In the context of Odysseus' s voyages and troubles, the poem touches on a number of significant topics such as loyalty, heroism, creativity, and order. Where the Iliad is noteworthy for its similes and epithets, the Odyssey is justly famous for its use of symbolism and for the pace and variety of its action.

2. THE BIBLE (c. 1445 BCE to c. 95 CE): Genesis, Job, The Gospels

3. AESCHYLUS (525-456 BCE): Plays: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides, Prometheus Bound
Many were the improvements which Aeschylus introduced, especially in diminishing the importance of the chorus and in adding a second actor, thus giving prominence to the dialogue and making it the leading feature of the play. He removed all deeds of bloodshed from the public view, and in their place provided many spectacular elements, improving the costumes, making the masks more expressive and convenient, and probably adopting the cothurnus to increase the stature of the performers. Finally, he established the custom of contending for the prize with trilogies, or series of three independent dramas.

4. SOPHOCLES (c. 496-40 BCE): Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Philoctetes
One of the great innovators of the theatre, he was the first to add a third actor. He also abolished the trilogic form. Aeschylus, for example, had used three tragedies to tell a single story. Sophocles chose to make each tragedy a complete entity in itself—as a result, he had to pack all of his action into the shorter form, and this clearly offered greater dramatic possibilities. Many authorities also credit him with the invention of scene-painting and periaktoi or painted prisms.

5. THUCYDIDES (c. 460-c. 400 BCE): History of the Peloponnesian War
Greek historian of Athens, one of the greatest of ancient historians. The incomplete History of the Peloponnesian War covered the period from 431 to 411 and was a departure from the histories of the past, both in method and presentation. He wrote a text to be read, not recited, and he was scrupulous in his presentation of facts. He is generally acclaimed as the creator of scholarly history as we know it today

6. EURIPIDES (b. circa 480 BCE): Hippolytus, Bacchae
Always a lover of truth, Euripides forced his characters to confront personal issues, not just questions of State. In many ways, he is the forerunner of the modern psychological dramatist. In Hippolytus and The Bacchae, he explores the psyche of men attempting to deny a natural life-force such as sexuality or emotional release. Perhaps his finest contribution to world drama, however, was the introduction of the common man to the stage. Even his traditional nobles such as Agamemnon and Menelaus were anti-heroic, almost as if he wanted to show the Athenian people what their beloved military heroes were really like.

7. HERODOTUS: Histories (5th C. B.C.E.)
The Greek researcher and storyteller Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fifth century BCE) was the world's first historian. In The Histories, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire under its kings Cyrus the Great, Cambyses and Darius I the Great, culminating in king Xerxes' expedition in 480 BCE against the Greeks, which met with disaster in the naval engagement at Salamis and the battles at Plataea and Mycale. Herodotus' remarkable book also contains excellent ethnographic descriptions of the peoples that the Persians have conquered, fairy tales, gossip, legends, and a very humanitarian morale.

8. ARISTOPHANES: Clouds (419 B.C.E.)

9. PLATO (427-347 BCE): Meno, Ion, Gorgias, Republic, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Parmenides, Theatetus, Sophist, Timaeus, Phaedrus

10. ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE): Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, On Generation and Corruption, Politics, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals, De Anima, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Categories

*11. EUCLID: Elements (c. 300 BCE) Classic text on Geometry and logic.

*12. LUCRETIUS (c. 99 BCE to c. 55 BCE): On the Nature of Things (c. 50 BCE) It is probably an exaggeration to say that the restoration and study of Lucretius’ poem was crucial to the rise of Renaissance "new philosophy" and the birth of modern science. On the other hand, one must not ignore its importance as a spur to innovative sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scientific thought and cosmological speculation. Greek atomism and Lucretius’ account of the universe as an infinite, lawfully integrated whole provided an important background stimulus not only for Newtonian science, but also (if only in a negative or contrary way) for Spinoza’s pantheism and Leibniz’s monadology.

13. PLUTARCH (c. 46 C.E. to c. 120 C.E) : Lycurgus, Solon, Caesar and Cato the Younger
Greek essayist and biographer. He traveled in Egypt and Italy, visited Rome (where he lectured on philosophy) and Athens, and finally returned to his native Boeotia, where he became a priest of the temple of Delphi. His great work is The Parallel Lives comprising 46 surviving biographies arranged in pairs (one Greek life with one comparable Roman) and four single biographies. The English translation by Sir Thomas North had a profound effect upon English literature; it supplied, for example, the material for Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Timon of Athens.

14. VIRGIL: Aeneid (19 BCE)
The ostensible purpose of Virgil's Aeneid is to express Rome's national greatness and destiny by means of a story concerning "her" legendary origin.

*15. EPICTETUS (c. 60-120 C.E.): Discourses, Manual
Epictetus was an exponent of Stoicism. Our knowledge of his philosophy and his method as a teacher comes to us via two works composed by his student Arrian, the Discourses and the Handbook. Although Epictetus based his teaching on the works of the early Stoics (none of which survives) which dealt with the three branches of Stoic thought, logic, physics and ethics, the Discourses and the Handbook concentrate almost exclusively on ethics. The role of the Stoic teacher was to encourage his students to live the philosophic life, whose end was eudaimonia (‘happiness’ or ‘flourishing’), to be secured by living the life of reason, which – for Stoics – meant living virtuously and living ‘according to nature’.

*16. MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations (167 C.E.)
The emperor Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus who reigned from 161-160 was the only Roman emperor besides Julius Caesar whose writings were to become part of the canon of Western classics. His Meditations are a loosely-organized set of thoughts relating to the stoic philosophy which had been popular among the better-educated citizens of Rome for some centuries. It stressed self-discipline, virtue, and inner tranquility.

17. CORNELIUS TACITUS, c.AD 55-c.AD: 117 Annals
Roman historian. Annals tell of the reign of Tiberius, of the last years of Claudius, and of the first years of Nero. The account contains incisive character sketches, ironic passages, and eloquent moral conclusions. The declamatory writing of the Dialogus is replaced in the historical works by a polished and highly individual style, a wide range of vocabulary, and an intricate and startling syntax.

18. PLOTINUS (204-270 C.E.): The Enneads
Plotinus is considered to be the founder of Neo-Platonism. Taking his lead from his reading of Plato, Plotinus developed a complex spiritual cosmology involving three hypostases: the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul. It is from the productive unity of these three Beings that all existence emanates.

19. AUGUSTINE: Confessions (c. 397-398 C.E.)
The book tells about his sinful youth and how he converted to Catholicism. It is the first autobiography ever published as well as being a significant theological work. A strong Platonic, and even Stoic influence is evident in this important work.

20. ST. ANSELM (1033-1109): Proslogium
The father of medieval scholasticism and one of the most eminent of English prelates. His most celebrated works are the Monologium and Proslogium, both aiming to prove the existence and nature of God.

21. AQUINAS (1225-1274): Summa Theologica, Summa Contra Gentiles
Aquinas developed in massive detail a synthesis of Christianity and Aristotelian philosophy that became the official doctrine of Roman Catholic theology in 1879.

22. DANTE: Divine Comedy (1308-1321)
The Divine Comedy is widely considered the greatest epic poem of Italian literature, and one of the greatest of world literature. Its influence is so great that it affects the Christian view of the afterlife to this day.

23. CHAUCER (c. 1340-1400): Canterbury Tales
Some of the tales are serious and others are humorous; however, all are very precise in describing the traits and faults of human nature. Religious malpractice is a major theme.

*24. DA VINCI (1452-1519): Notebooks

*25. MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527): The Prince (1513)

26. COPERNICUS (1473-1543): On the Revolutions of the Spheres
Nicolaus Copernicus was a mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it. Disturbed by the failure of Ptolemy's geocentric model of the universe to follow Aristotle's requirement for the uniform circular motion of all celestial bodies and determined to eliminate Ptolemy's equant, an imaginary point around which the bodies seemed to follow that requirement, Copernicus decided that he could achieve his goal only through a heliocentric model. He thereby created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the sun bore a direct relationship to the size of their orbits. At the time Copernicus's heliocentric idea was very controversial; nevertheless, it was the start of a change in the way the world was viewed, and Copernicus came to be seen as the initiator of the Scientific Revolution.

27. LUTHER (1483-1546): The Freedom of a Christian
Martin Luther was a German theologian and an Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of Lutheran, Protestant and other Christian traditions (a broad movement composed of many congregations and church bodies). His call to the Church to return to the teachings of the Bible resulted in the formation of new traditions within Christianity and his teachings undoubtedly impacted upon the Counter-Reformation in the Roman Catholic Church.

*28. RABELAIS (c. 1490-1553): Gargantua and Pantagruel
French Renaissance writer, a Franciscan monk, humanist, and physician, whose comic novels Gargantua and Pantagruel are among the most hilarious classics of world literature. Rabelais' heroes are rude but funny giants traveling in a world full of greed, stupidity, violence, and grotesque jokes. His books were banned by the Catholic Church and later placed on The Index librorum prohibitorumon (the Index of Forbidden Books).

29. MONTAIGNE (1533-1592): Essays
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay. In his main work, the Essays, unprecedented in its candidness and personal flavor, he takes mankind and especially himself as the object of study. He is generally considered to be a Skeptic and a Humanist.

*30. CERVANTES (1547-1616): Don Quixote

31. SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616): Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, The Tempest, As You Like It, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Coriolanus, Sonnets

32. BACON (1561-1626): Novum Organum
Bacon rejected the old Aristotelian learning still taught in the Universities, and proposed a new method, a new logic, developing the scientific method, in his Novum Organum.

*33. WILLIAM HARVEY (1578-1657): Motion of the Heart and Blood (1628)
Through careful and detailed research, Harvey was able to disprove Galen's theory that the body made new blood as it used up the old. He proved that the heart was a pump which forced the blood around the body through arteries and that the blood was returned to the heart through the vein.

34. GALILEO: Two New Sciences (1638)
The Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences (1638) was Galileo's final book and a sort of scientific testament covering much of his work in physics over the preceding thirty years.

35. DESCARTES (1596-1650): Geometry, Discourse on Method, Meditations, Rules for the Direction of the Mind

*36. HOBBES (1588-1679): Leviathan (1651)

*37. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613-1680): Maximes (1665)

38. MOLIERE: The Misanthrope (1666)

39. MILTON: Paradise Lost (1667)

40. RACINE (1639-1699): Phaedre
The French dramatist Jean Baptiste Racine, admired as a portrayer of man's subtle psychology and overwhelming passions, was the author of 11 tragedies and a comedy. His work is the greatest expression of French classicism

41. LA FONTAINE (1621-1695): Fables (1668-1694)

*42. PASCAL (1623-1662): Pensees (1670)
The Pensees is a collection of hundreds of notes made by Pascal, many of them intended for a book which would be a rational defense of Christianity. Pascal managed to organize and classify some notes before he died, but others remain unsorted, and the book he intended was never written. What we do have in this volume, however, is a collection of powerfully insightful thoughts (the translation of the French word pensees) which lead us more deeply into contemplation of human nature and the strivings of the heart and mind.

43. SPINOZA (1632-1677): Theological-Political Treatise
Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza is one of the most important philosophers -- and certainly the most radical -- of the early modern period. His thought combines a commitment to Cartesian metaphysical and epistemological principles with elements from ancient Stoicism and medieval Jewish rationalism into a nonetheless highly original system. His extremely naturalistic views on God, the world, the human being and knowledge serve to ground a moral philosophy centered on the control of the passions leading to virtue and happiness. They also lay the foundations for a strongly democratic political thought and a deep critique of the pretensions of Scripture and sectarian religion. Of all the philosophers of the seventeenth-century, perhaps none have more relevance today than Spinoza.

44. LOCKE (1632-1704): Second Treatise of Government
Locke's Second Treatise, by far, is the more influential work. In it, he set forth his theory of natural law and natural right; in it, he shows that there does exist a rational purpose to government and one need not rely on "myth, mysticism, and mystery."

45. LEIBNIZ (1646-1716): Monadology, Discourse on Metaphysics, Essay On Dynamics, Philosophical Essays, Principles of Nature and Grace

46. BUNYAN: Pilgrim's Progress (1678)
47. DEFOE: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
48. SWIFT: Gulliver's Travels (1726)
49. HUME: Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40)
50. FIELDING: Tom Jones (1749)
51. ROUSSEAU: Social Contract, The Origin of Inequality (1755)
52. GIBBON (1737-1794): The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
53. ADAM SMITH: Wealth of Nations (1776)
54. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1776)

*55. HAMILTON, JAY, and MADISON: The Federalist Papers (1787)
The entire purpose of The Federalist Papers was to gain popular support for the then-proposed Constitution. Some would call it the most significant public-relations campaign in history; it is, in fact, studied in many public relations classes as a prime example of how to conduct a successful campaign.

56. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (1787)

*57. SUPREME COURT OPINIONS (1893-present): Major Cases

58. KANT (1724-1804): Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals

59. GOETHE (1749-1832): Faust (1790)

60. HEGEL: Phenomenology of Mind (1807), "Logic" (from the Encyclopedia)

61. JANE AUSTEN: Pride and Prejudice (1813)

*62. SHELLEY: Frankenstein (1818)

63. TOCQUEVILLE: Democracy in America (Volume I, 1835 and Volume II, 1840)

64. POE: The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), The Pit and the Pendulum (1842), The Black Cat (1843), The Raven (1845), The Cask of Amontillado (1846)

65. KIERKEGAARD (1813-1855): Philosophical Fragments, Fear and Trembling

66. DARWIN: Origin of Species (1859)

67. LINCOLN (1809-1865): Speeches, Lincoln-Douglas Debates

*68. MARX: The Communist Manifesto (1848), Capital (1867), Political and Economic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology

69. HAWTHORNE (1804-1864): The Scarlet Letter

70. MILL (1806-1873): A System of Logic

*71. THOREAU (1817-1862): Walden

*72. MELVILLE: Moby-Dick (1851)

73. TOLSTOY: War and Peace (1865)

74. WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910): Pragmatism

75. NIETZSCHE: The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885), Beyond Good and Evil (1886)

76. HENRY JAMES (1843-1916): The American (1877)

*77. DOSTOEVSKI: Brothers Karamazov (1880)

*78. TWAIN: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

79. STEVENSON: The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)

*80. HARDY: Jude the Obscure (1896)

81. CONRAD: Heart of Darkness (1902)

*82. DUBOIS: The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

83. FREUD: General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1910)

*84. KAFKA (1883-1924): The Trial (1914)

*85. JOYCE: Ulysses (1922)

*86. BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970): Why I am Not a Christian (1927)

87. JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952): How We Think

*88. ORWELL: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

89. SALINGER: The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

*90. O'CONNOR: Wise Blood (1952)

91. TOLKEIN: The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955)

92. EINSTEIN (1879-1955): The Meaning of Relativity

*93. CELINE: Journey to the End of the Night (1952)

*94. NABOKOV: Lolita (1955)

95. HEIDEGGER: What is Philosophy? (1956)

96. JEAN PAUL SARTE (1905- ) Nausea, No Exit, Being and Nothingness

*97. ALEKSANDR I. SOLZHENITSYN (1918- ): The First Circle (1968)

98. DERRIDA: Glas (1974), Of Grammatology (1974)

99. FOUCAULT: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975)

100. HARRISON & WOOD (editors): Art Theory: 1815-1900, Art Theory: 1900-2000
Click to expand...

Another great book to go along with Plotinus' Enneads is a book by his student Proclus called The Elements of Theology. It really lays out Plato's theology even more thoroughly than Plotinus did.

insearch4truth · Aug 25, 2011

Another Great Book

flashlock said: ↑

Here's my reading list. The summaries are from various sources, mostly academic reading lists. How many have I read? Only a few, but some I read twice (you'd be suprised which ones, too!).

1. HOMER: Iliad, Odyssey (c. 800 BCE)
The Iliad is about the Wrath of Achilles arising from an affront to his honour by the hubristic Agamemnon... but, it is also about many other things, both human and divine: it is a work which, though now printed and finally consigned to a permanent recension, is paradoxically in a state of constant flux, for no two readings are ever alike.
If we were to call the Iliad the world's first adventure story, the Odyssey could be called its first opera: certainly some of the plot twists along the way would be at home in that extravagant genre. In the context of Odysseus' s voyages and troubles, the poem touches on a number of significant topics such as loyalty, heroism, creativity, and order. Where the Iliad is noteworthy for its similes and epithets, the Odyssey is justly famous for its use of symbolism and for the pace and variety of its action.

2. THE BIBLE (c. 1445 BCE to c. 95 CE): Genesis, Job, The Gospels

3. AESCHYLUS (525-456 BCE): Plays: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides, Prometheus Bound
Many were the improvements which Aeschylus introduced, especially in diminishing the importance of the chorus and in adding a second actor, thus giving prominence to the dialogue and making it the leading feature of the play. He removed all deeds of bloodshed from the public view, and in their place provided many spectacular elements, improving the costumes, making the masks more expressive and convenient, and probably adopting the cothurnus to increase the stature of the performers. Finally, he established the custom of contending for the prize with trilogies, or series of three independent dramas.

4. SOPHOCLES (c. 496-40 BCE): Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Philoctetes
One of the great innovators of the theatre, he was the first to add a third actor. He also abolished the trilogic form. Aeschylus, for example, had used three tragedies to tell a single story. Sophocles chose to make each tragedy a complete entity in itself—as a result, he had to pack all of his action into the shorter form, and this clearly offered greater dramatic possibilities. Many authorities also credit him with the invention of scene-painting and periaktoi or painted prisms.

5. THUCYDIDES (c. 460-c. 400 BCE): History of the Peloponnesian War
Greek historian of Athens, one of the greatest of ancient historians. The incomplete History of the Peloponnesian War covered the period from 431 to 411 and was a departure from the histories of the past, both in method and presentation. He wrote a text to be read, not recited, and he was scrupulous in his presentation of facts. He is generally acclaimed as the creator of scholarly history as we know it today

6. EURIPIDES (b. circa 480 BCE): Hippolytus, Bacchae
Always a lover of truth, Euripides forced his characters to confront personal issues, not just questions of State. In many ways, he is the forerunner of the modern psychological dramatist. In Hippolytus and The Bacchae, he explores the psyche of men attempting to deny a natural life-force such as sexuality or emotional release. Perhaps his finest contribution to world drama, however, was the introduction of the common man to the stage. Even his traditional nobles such as Agamemnon and Menelaus were anti-heroic, almost as if he wanted to show the Athenian people what their beloved military heroes were really like.

7. HERODOTUS: Histories (5th C. B.C.E.)
The Greek researcher and storyteller Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fifth century BCE) was the world's first historian. In The Histories, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire under its kings Cyrus the Great, Cambyses and Darius I the Great, culminating in king Xerxes' expedition in 480 BCE against the Greeks, which met with disaster in the naval engagement at Salamis and the battles at Plataea and Mycale. Herodotus' remarkable book also contains excellent ethnographic descriptions of the peoples that the Persians have conquered, fairy tales, gossip, legends, and a very humanitarian morale.

8. ARISTOPHANES: Clouds (419 B.C.E.)

9. PLATO (427-347 BCE): Meno, Ion, Gorgias, Republic, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Parmenides, Theatetus, Sophist, Timaeus, Phaedrus

10. ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE): Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, On Generation and Corruption, Politics, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals, De Anima, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Categories

*11. EUCLID: Elements (c. 300 BCE) Classic text on Geometry and logic.

*12. LUCRETIUS (c. 99 BCE to c. 55 BCE): On the Nature of Things (c. 50 BCE) It is probably an exaggeration to say that the restoration and study of Lucretius’ poem was crucial to the rise of Renaissance "new philosophy" and the birth of modern science. On the other hand, one must not ignore its importance as a spur to innovative sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scientific thought and cosmological speculation. Greek atomism and Lucretius’ account of the universe as an infinite, lawfully integrated whole provided an important background stimulus not only for Newtonian science, but also (if only in a negative or contrary way) for Spinoza’s pantheism and Leibniz’s monadology.

13. PLUTARCH (c. 46 C.E. to c. 120 C.E) : Lycurgus, Solon, Caesar and Cato the Younger
Greek essayist and biographer. He traveled in Egypt and Italy, visited Rome (where he lectured on philosophy) and Athens, and finally returned to his native Boeotia, where he became a priest of the temple of Delphi. His great work is The Parallel Lives comprising 46 surviving biographies arranged in pairs (one Greek life with one comparable Roman) and four single biographies. The English translation by Sir Thomas North had a profound effect upon English literature; it supplied, for example, the material for Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Timon of Athens.

14. VIRGIL: Aeneid (19 BCE)
The ostensible purpose of Virgil's Aeneid is to express Rome's national greatness and destiny by means of a story concerning "her" legendary origin.

*15. EPICTETUS (c. 60-120 C.E.): Discourses, Manual
Epictetus was an exponent of Stoicism. Our knowledge of his philosophy and his method as a teacher comes to us via two works composed by his student Arrian, the Discourses and the Handbook. Although Epictetus based his teaching on the works of the early Stoics (none of which survives) which dealt with the three branches of Stoic thought, logic, physics and ethics, the Discourses and the Handbook concentrate almost exclusively on ethics. The role of the Stoic teacher was to encourage his students to live the philosophic life, whose end was eudaimonia (‘happiness’ or ‘flourishing’), to be secured by living the life of reason, which – for Stoics – meant living virtuously and living ‘according to nature’.

*16. MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations (167 C.E.)
The emperor Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus who reigned from 161-160 was the only Roman emperor besides Julius Caesar whose writings were to become part of the canon of Western classics. His Meditations are a loosely-organized set of thoughts relating to the stoic philosophy which had been popular among the better-educated citizens of Rome for some centuries. It stressed self-discipline, virtue, and inner tranquility.

17. CORNELIUS TACITUS, c.AD 55-c.AD: 117 Annals
Roman historian. Annals tell of the reign of Tiberius, of the last years of Claudius, and of the first years of Nero. The account contains incisive character sketches, ironic passages, and eloquent moral conclusions. The declamatory writing of the Dialogus is replaced in the historical works by a polished and highly individual style, a wide range of vocabulary, and an intricate and startling syntax.

18. PLOTINUS (204-270 C.E.): The Enneads
Plotinus is considered to be the founder of Neo-Platonism. Taking his lead from his reading of Plato, Plotinus developed a complex spiritual cosmology involving three hypostases: the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul. It is from the productive unity of these three Beings that all existence emanates.

19. AUGUSTINE: Confessions (c. 397-398 C.E.)
The book tells about his sinful youth and how he converted to Catholicism. It is the first autobiography ever published as well as being a significant theological work. A strong Platonic, and even Stoic influence is evident in this important work.

20. ST. ANSELM (1033-1109): Proslogium
The father of medieval scholasticism and one of the most eminent of English prelates. His most celebrated works are the Monologium and Proslogium, both aiming to prove the existence and nature of God.

21. AQUINAS (1225-1274): Summa Theologica, Summa Contra Gentiles
Aquinas developed in massive detail a synthesis of Christianity and Aristotelian philosophy that became the official doctrine of Roman Catholic theology in 1879.

22. DANTE: Divine Comedy (1308-1321)
The Divine Comedy is widely considered the greatest epic poem of Italian literature, and one of the greatest of world literature. Its influence is so great that it affects the Christian view of the afterlife to this day.

23. CHAUCER (c. 1340-1400): Canterbury Tales
Some of the tales are serious and others are humorous; however, all are very precise in describing the traits and faults of human nature. Religious malpractice is a major theme.

*24. DA VINCI (1452-1519): Notebooks

*25. MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527): The Prince (1513)

26. COPERNICUS (1473-1543): On the Revolutions of the Spheres
Nicolaus Copernicus was a mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it. Disturbed by the failure of Ptolemy's geocentric model of the universe to follow Aristotle's requirement for the uniform circular motion of all celestial bodies and determined to eliminate Ptolemy's equant, an imaginary point around which the bodies seemed to follow that requirement, Copernicus decided that he could achieve his goal only through a heliocentric model. He thereby created a concept of a universe in which the distances of the planets from the sun bore a direct relationship to the size of their orbits. At the time Copernicus's heliocentric idea was very controversial; nevertheless, it was the start of a change in the way the world was viewed, and Copernicus came to be seen as the initiator of the Scientific Revolution.

27. LUTHER (1483-1546): The Freedom of a Christian
Martin Luther was a German theologian and an Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of Lutheran, Protestant and other Christian traditions (a broad movement composed of many congregations and church bodies). His call to the Church to return to the teachings of the Bible resulted in the formation of new traditions within Christianity and his teachings undoubtedly impacted upon the Counter-Reformation in the Roman Catholic Church.

*28. RABELAIS (c. 1490-1553): Gargantua and Pantagruel
French Renaissance writer, a Franciscan monk, humanist, and physician, whose comic novels Gargantua and Pantagruel are among the most hilarious classics of world literature. Rabelais' heroes are rude but funny giants traveling in a world full of greed, stupidity, violence, and grotesque jokes. His books were banned by the Catholic Church and later placed on The Index librorum prohibitorumon (the Index of Forbidden Books).

29. MONTAIGNE (1533-1592): Essays
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay. In his main work, the Essays, unprecedented in its candidness and personal flavor, he takes mankind and especially himself as the object of study. He is generally considered to be a Skeptic and a Humanist.

*30. CERVANTES (1547-1616): Don Quixote

31. SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616): Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, The Tempest, As You Like It, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Coriolanus, Sonnets

32. BACON (1561-1626): Novum Organum
Bacon rejected the old Aristotelian learning still taught in the Universities, and proposed a new method, a new logic, developing the scientific method, in his Novum Organum.

*33. WILLIAM HARVEY (1578-1657): Motion of the Heart and Blood (1628)
Through careful and detailed research, Harvey was able to disprove Galen's theory that the body made new blood as it used up the old. He proved that the heart was a pump which forced the blood around the body through arteries and that the blood was returned to the heart through the vein.

34. GALILEO: Two New Sciences (1638)
The Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences (1638) was Galileo's final book and a sort of scientific testament covering much of his work in physics over the preceding thirty years.

35. DESCARTES (1596-1650): Geometry, Discourse on Method, Meditations, Rules for the Direction of the Mind

*36. HOBBES (1588-1679): Leviathan (1651)

*37. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613-1680): Maximes (1665)

38. MOLIERE: The Misanthrope (1666)

39. MILTON: Paradise Lost (1667)

40. RACINE (1639-1699): Phaedre
The French dramatist Jean Baptiste Racine, admired as a portrayer of man's subtle psychology and overwhelming passions, was the author of 11 tragedies and a comedy. His work is the greatest expression of French classicism

41. LA FONTAINE (1621-1695): Fables (1668-1694)

*42. PASCAL (1623-1662): Pensees (1670)
The Pensees is a collection of hundreds of notes made by Pascal, many of them intended for a book which would be a rational defense of Christianity. Pascal managed to organize and classify some notes before he died, but others remain unsorted, and the book he intended was never written. What we do have in this volume, however, is a collection of powerfully insightful thoughts (the translation of the French word pensees) which lead us more deeply into contemplation of human nature and the strivings of the heart and mind.

43. SPINOZA (1632-1677): Theological-Political Treatise
Baruch (or Benedictus) Spinoza is one of the most important philosophers -- and certainly the most radical -- of the early modern period. His thought combines a commitment to Cartesian metaphysical and epistemological principles with elements from ancient Stoicism and medieval Jewish rationalism into a nonetheless highly original system. His extremely naturalistic views on God, the world, the human being and knowledge serve to ground a moral philosophy centered on the control of the passions leading to virtue and happiness. They also lay the foundations for a strongly democratic political thought and a deep critique of the pretensions of Scripture and sectarian religion. Of all the philosophers of the seventeenth-century, perhaps none have more relevance today than Spinoza.

44. LOCKE (1632-1704): Second Treatise of Government
Locke's Second Treatise, by far, is the more influential work. In it, he set forth his theory of natural law and natural right; in it, he shows that there does exist a rational purpose to government and one need not rely on "myth, mysticism, and mystery."

45. LEIBNIZ (1646-1716): Monadology, Discourse on Metaphysics, Essay On Dynamics, Philosophical Essays, Principles of Nature and Grace

46. BUNYAN: Pilgrim's Progress (1678)
47. DEFOE: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
48. SWIFT: Gulliver's Travels (1726)
49. HUME: Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40)
50. FIELDING: Tom Jones (1749)
51. ROUSSEAU: Social Contract, The Origin of Inequality (1755)
52. GIBBON (1737-1794): The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
53. ADAM SMITH: Wealth of Nations (1776)
54. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1776)

*55. HAMILTON, JAY, and MADISON: The Federalist Papers (1787)
The entire purpose of The Federalist Papers was to gain popular support for the then-proposed Constitution. Some would call it the most significant public-relations campaign in history; it is, in fact, studied in many public relations classes as a prime example of how to conduct a successful campaign.

56. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (1787)

*57. SUPREME COURT OPINIONS (1893-present): Major Cases

58. KANT (1724-1804): Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals

59. GOETHE (1749-1832): Faust (1790)

60. HEGEL: Phenomenology of Mind (1807), "Logic" (from the Encyclopedia)

61. JANE AUSTEN: Pride and Prejudice (1813)

*62. SHELLEY: Frankenstein (1818)

63. TOCQUEVILLE: Democracy in America (Volume I, 1835 and Volume II, 1840)

64. POE: The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), The Pit and the Pendulum (1842), The Black Cat (1843), The Raven (1845), The Cask of Amontillado (1846)

65. KIERKEGAARD (1813-1855): Philosophical Fragments, Fear and Trembling

66. DARWIN: Origin of Species (1859)

67. LINCOLN (1809-1865): Speeches, Lincoln-Douglas Debates

*68. MARX: The Communist Manifesto (1848), Capital (1867), Political and Economic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology

69. HAWTHORNE (1804-1864): The Scarlet Letter

70. MILL (1806-1873): A System of Logic

*71. THOREAU (1817-1862): Walden

*72. MELVILLE: Moby-Dick (1851)

73. TOLSTOY: War and Peace (1865)

74. WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910): Pragmatism

75. NIETZSCHE: The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885), Beyond Good and Evil (1886)

76. HENRY JAMES (1843-1916): The American (1877)

*77. DOSTOEVSKI: Brothers Karamazov (1880)

*78. TWAIN: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

79. STEVENSON: The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)

*80. HARDY: Jude the Obscure (1896)

81. CONRAD: Heart of Darkness (1902)

*82. DUBOIS: The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

83. FREUD: General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1910)

*84. KAFKA (1883-1924): The Trial (1914)

*85. JOYCE: Ulysses (1922)

*86. BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970): Why I am Not a Christian (1927)

87. JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952): How We Think

*88. ORWELL: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

89. SALINGER: The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

*90. O'CONNOR: Wise Blood (1952)

91. TOLKEIN: The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955)

92. EINSTEIN (1879-1955): The Meaning of Relativity

*93. CELINE: Journey to the End of the Night (1952)

*94. NABOKOV: Lolita (1955)

95. HEIDEGGER: What is Philosophy? (1956)

96. JEAN PAUL SARTE (1905- ) Nausea, No Exit, Being and Nothingness

*97. ALEKSANDR I. SOLZHENITSYN (1918- ): The First Circle (1968)

98. DERRIDA: Glas (1974), Of Grammatology (1974)

99. FOUCAULT: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975)

100. HARRISON & WOOD (editors): Art Theory: 1815-1900, Art Theory: 1900-2000
Click to expand...

Another great book to go along with Plotinus' Enneads is a book by his student Proclus called The Elements of Theology. It really lays out Plato's theology even more thoroughly than Plotinus did.

Princess Haru · Aug 26, 2011

Typing on a tablet so expect some typos and punctuation errors. Isnt this list biased in favour of political and philosophical writers which wont make a lot of sense just read in the style of a novel, you may as well stick in some quantum physics * and the novels why Lolita and not Anna Karenin

oops there is some, War and Peace is overrated, only read 25 of the 100 listed

AndrewTheAndroid · Aug 26, 2011

Kafka on The Shore

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

Vimtoforblood · Oct 27, 2011

"A Song of Ice and Fire" series - George R.R. Martin.

Log in or Sign up

Books You Should Read Before You Die

Johnno Valued Member

Su lin Gone away

Zodiac Monkey New Member

LJoll Valued Member

Banpen Fugyo 10000 Changes No Surprise

slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

Attached Files:

Hang Ngor.jpg

Angelus Waiting for summer :D

Dan Bian Neither Dan, nor Brian

Emil Valued Member

L3vity Resident poet

insearch4truth New Member

insearch4truth New Member

Princess Haru Valued Member

AndrewTheAndroid A hero for fun.

Vimtoforblood .

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Books You Should Read Before You Die

Johnno Valued Member

Su lin Gone away

Zodiac Monkey New Member

LJoll Valued Member

Banpen Fugyo 10000 Changes No Surprise

slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

Attached Files:

Hang Ngor.jpg

Angelus Waiting for summer :D

Dan Bian Neither Dan, nor Brian

Emil Valued Member

L3vity Resident poet

insearch4truth New Member

insearch4truth New Member

Princess Haru Valued Member

AndrewTheAndroid A hero for fun.

Vimtoforblood .

Share This Page

Useful Searches