Top 5 books

[MarxSchmarx]

Inspired by the film thread.

Fiction or nonfiction, what are some books that you feel deserve to be in the top 5 ever written?

[o well this is ok I guess]

House of Leaves
Notes from Underground
For Whom the Bell Tolls
No Longer Human
Gravity's Rainbow

[socialistjustin]

Homage to Catalonia is probably my favorite book. Such an easy and brilliant read. Hearing some of the stories like the guy who kept yelling to the other side about how they were eating elegant foods was awesome.

[x359594]

Mexico City Blues by Jack Kerouac
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
God and the State by Mikhail Bakunin
The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein
Nadja by Andre Breton

[eyeheartlenin]

The single best political book, I think, is, without a doubt, State and Revolution, an absolutely essential work for any worker or leftist to understand.

I remember thinking Homage to Catalonia was a great book, when I read it a long time ago. The latest book I have read is Thirteen O'Clock, a novel about some incidents in Orwell's life, and that was very entertaining. I once saw a novel, I think the title was After 1984, which continued the story that Orwell had begun, but I saw After 1984 one time decades ago, and I have been unable to find a copy since. I respect Orwell as a truth-teller, particularly about the Spanish Civil War, and also because he took a bullet in the neck for the Spanish working class.

[∞]

1. QED by Richard Feynman
2. Special and General Relativity by Albert Einstein
3. On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
4. The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell
5. The Rosa Luxemburg Reader

[Art Vandelay]

Homage to Catalonia
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Naked Lunch
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Trainspotting

[mrmikhail]

1) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
2) State and Revolution by V.I.Lenin
3) The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky
4) My Life by Leon Trotsky
5) For Whom the Bell Tolls by E. Hemingway

[Smyg]

Homage to Catalonia
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Naked Lunch
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Trainspotting

Interesting combination.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Fiction:

In Dubious Battle
Catch-22
Perdido Street Station
Infinite Jest
Breakfast of Champions

[Art Vandelay]

Interesting combination.

How so?

[Smyg]

Orwell in the Spanish civil war: Fought in the POUM, liked the anarchists, despised the stalinists, fought them in the May days, was hunted by them.

Hemmingway in the Spanish civil war: Covered the International Brigades, despised the anarchists, liked the stalinists.

:D

[Art Vandelay]

Orwell in the Spanish civil war: Fought in the POUM, liked the anarchists, despised the stalinists, fought them in the May days, was hunted by them.

Hemmingway in the Spanish civil war: Covered the International Brigades, despised the anarchists, liked the stalinists.

:D

True, out of the the two I will always have more respect for Orwell due to this politics and the fact he actually picked up arms, but it does not take away from Hemingway's beautifully simple style.

[Il Medico]

Not quite as hard as the movie one.

No particular order:

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams (first book)

The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde

Star's Tennis Balls- Stephen Fry

A Farewell to Arms- Ernest Hemingway

Some Runners-up:

For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway

1984- George Orwell

Les Misérables- Victor Hugo

A Midsummer Night's Dream- William Shakespeare

[Belleraphone]

1.)1984
2.) Brave New World.
3.) Homage to Catalonia.
4.) Manufacturing Consent
5.) MacBeth.

Obviously MacBeth is written the best and transcends politics but i am posting on a revleft board.

[Art Vandelay]

1.)1984
2.) Brave New World.
3.) Homage to Catalonia.
4.) Manufacturing Consent
5.) MacBeth.

Obviously MacBeth is written the best and transcends politics but i am posting on a revleft board.

Personally, I know I will most likely take some flack from fans of the great bard, but I personally HATE Shakespeare. And before you accuse me of simple disliking him because I cannot understand him, know that since I was in my early high school years I disliked him. I have always found him unoriginal, not humorous and pretentious, making up his own words and all.

[∞]

Not to mention no character development.

[Smyg]

I believe the humour in Shakespear is very easily missed, due to being adapted to the time period and not modern society.

[Il Medico]

I believe the humour in Shakespear is very easily missed, due to being adapted to the time period and not modern society.
Indeed. I was reading a review of a book this priest wrote about humor in the bible and apparently, according to the father anyways, Jesus' parables are full of jokes, which are of course are lost on their modern readers. Same thing applies to Shakespeare, but to a lesser degree. I've always found his comedies humorous, but not overtly funny like I think a theater goer at the would have. Some of the humor is lost to time.

[piet11111]

Roadside picnic
The gun, the AK-47 and the evolution of war
1984
hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
imperialism the highest stage of capitalism

[ВАЛТЕР]

It was hard to do, because I left out out all political books. Since I'm sure we would all have most of the same ones. I put them in no particular order, except for my number one, which I love.


1) The Art of War - Sun Tzu
2) Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (Had to Google how to spell his damn name lol)
3) The Godfather - Mario Puzzo
4) The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi
5) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne

[Belleraphone]

Not to mention no character development.
Lol wut?

[Blackscare]

Fiction:

In Dubious Battle
Catch-22
Perdido Street Station
Infinite Jest
Breakfast of Champions

oh you motherfucker, I didn't think anyone would pick that one.

Anyway

Neuromancer
The Dunwich horror (really anything lovecraft, even if he was a racist sack of shit)
the silmarilian
The Prison Diaries - Gramsci
the scar (considering perdido is taken)

[Zostrianos]

1- Hermetica volume 1 by Walter Scott
2- The Egyptian Hermes: a historical approach to the late pagan mind, by Garth Fowden
3- Kabbalah by Gershom Scholem
4- The Nag Hammadi Library by James Robinson
5- Hyperspace, by Michio Kaku


oh you motherfucker, I didn't think anyone would pick that one.
The Dunwich horror (really anything lovecraft, even if he was a racist sack of shit)


I rarely read fiction, but Lovecraft definitely takes up most of it, he was a literary genius (despite being a racist prick in person). I also like Ambrose Bierce.

[Jimmie Higgins]

oh you motherfucker, I didn't think anyone would pick that one.

Anyway

Neuromancer
The Dunwich horror (really anything lovecraft, even if he was a racist sack of shit)
the silmarilian
The Prison Diaries - Gramsci
the scar (considering perdido is taken)

Ha. Fucking moths - crazy stuff.

[leemadison11]

Top 5 books:
The Call of the Wild
Great Expectation
Beautiful Mind
Hamlet
Great Gatsby

[Tenka]

Roadside Picnic
Relic
The Lost World
Kallocain
House of Leaves
----
No order & tried to be diverse. It's very hard for me (to be diverse with these things).

[ColonelCossack]

the silmarilian


High five!

[Magón]

Top 5 Fiction

The Iron Heel - Jack London
Rum Diaries - Hunter S. Thompson
The Spanish Cockpit - Franz Borkenau
Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck
Factotum - Charles Bukowski

Top 5 Nonfiction

Out of the Night - Jan Valtin
The Teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda
A Separate Reality - Carlos Castaneda
Journey to Ixtlan - Carlos Castaneda
Tales of Power - Carlos Castaneda

[Rooster]

Breakfast of Champions
Rendezvous with Rama (severely disappointed with the sequels :()
Homage to Catalonia
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Scanner Darkly

I've read a lot of books that I liked, I just can't remember them... these are just the ones whose stories I can remember more vividly so I guess that must mean they stuck in my head better. I could have listed the whole Dune series (the original, not the new ones that his son wrote).

[x359594]

Top 5 Nonfiction...
The Teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda
A Separate Reality - Carlos Castaneda
Journey to Ixtlan - Carlos Castaneda
Tales of Power - Carlos Castaneda

Non-fiction? Are you sure about that?

[Magón]

Non-fiction? Are you sure about that?

As far as I'm concerned he did/experienced what is written down. It's really just a never ending debate going around in circles, on whether he did or didn't actually experience, etc. what he wrote. But I think he did. There's no one that's come up and said what he experienced, wasn't actually what was written down, and bring up reasonable proof or any proof at all as far as I know. Most who criticize and say it's made up or at least semi-autobiographical, probably haven't even experienced what Peyote can do.

[Sixiang]

Capital, by Karl Marx (by far his magnum opus, not The Communist Manifesto)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson (funny as hell. broke all conventions of journalistic writing)
The Road to Wigan Pier, by George Orwell (made me a socialist)
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (probably the most beautifully written non-fiction novel)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Alex Haley and Malcolm X (inspiring)
Black Boy, by Richard Wright (made me want to read Marx)
Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell (made me believe that revolution is possible)

[∞]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Alex Haley and Malcolm X (inspiring)

This was the only Biography that actually gave me good insight of life in general and how race was treated. Malcolm X had a way with words.

[RedTrackWorker]

Petals of Blood
God's Bits of Wood
History of the Russian Revolution
Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution
Marriage of Heave and Hell (William Blake)

[khlib]

Museum of Unconditional Surrender - Dubravka Ugrešić
Encyclopedia of the Dead - Danilo Kiš
Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
Coming Through Slaughter - Michael Ondaatje
Encyclopedia of the Dead - Danilo Kiš
Les choses - Georges Perec

[Meditation]

1.The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2.Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3.The Salmon of Doubt
4.End of oil
5. End Of food

This are my top 5 books i read