Reading list

[pseudo christ]

I am young (16) yet i have a thrist for leftist books. I have plowed my way haphazardly through "anarchy" by malatesta, the communist manifesto and che guevara : a ravolutionary life, a guid to post war soviet litreture and a collection of the writings of tolstoy. I am now left with a basic understanding of the left, and i thrist for more knowledge. I was wondering if any of the better read members of the community could tell me of another other books as to help my broaden my leftist horizons (i am currently working my way through das kaptial). Maybe even some good right wing stuff, i have read mein kampf and a collection of neitzche's works, and i feel in order to battle the right wing you must understand it first.

[pseudo christ]

sorry for all the typos, it was written in a hurry :/

[Conghaileach]

James Connolly: Collected Works Vol 1 and 2

Connolly was a very good Marxist writer.

[Nateddi]

When I first became a marxist, I read a few books by Michael Parenti, one of the few active Marxists in the US. He doesn't write openly about communism, however his writing on current events, capitalism, america, is really good.

http://www.michaelparenti.org

[suffianr]

Read up on communist/marxist history, before you head into the heavy philosophical/intellectual stuff. It will give you a better sense of perspective, and you'll appreciate the ideology better...imho, at least.

[Supermodel]

I tend to prefer non-fiction, but if you like fiction, it was written in several biographies that Che and Fidel both liked:

The Citadel
Vanity Fair
Grapes of Wrath
Poetry of Pablo Neruda
Thoreau's works
Jack London's works


In the non-fiction category, go to www.pathfinderpress.com
for some good short writings on current marxism, you may find current events easier to put into perspective.

Now don't forget to re-read:

The New Testament
The Old Testament Proverbs

Good luck and keep reading! Read everything you can get your hands on and remember never to beleive in all of it!

[abstractmentality]

In Defense Of Anarchism by Robert Paul Wolff

this one may be a little hard to find, as i think it is out of print, but i found a copy of it, and liked it a lot. short (82 pages), but very good.

[Lardlad95]

Jack London? He was a racist..but a good author though

[evil chris]

Downsize This!- Michael Moore
The Spanish Civil War - Antony Beevor
Hidden Agenda- John Pilger
Angles On Anarchism - George Walford (panflet)
The Abolishion On Britain - Peter Hitchens
Critical Thinking,an introduction to the basic skill,3rd edition - Willaim Hughes
Homage To Catalonia - George Orwell
You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train - Howard Zinn (autobiography)
Terrorism And War - Howard Zinn
and if you don't belive that fun is a bougieois indulgance, TV Go Home and The Onion rule the earth.
(the onion is avliable to read online at www.theonion.com and you can get a couple of fuckin A periodicals in some bookshop.TVGH is no longer updated at the site but find the book if you can)

All that should feed your mind for abit.

Welcome aboard
chris

[Revolution Hero]

" State and Revolution" by Lenin
and
" Scientific Communism" ( of course , if you find it in English).

[Ian]

I think George Orwell's books are great for younger readers. My first commie book, which I read in January this year, was Animal Farm by George Orwell and I enjoyed it. I read 1984 after it and probably enjoyed it more. So that is my advice! READ ORWELL!

[ArgueEverything]

the revolution betrayed - trotsky

also, read some of pablo neruda's poetry if you can. i like "i can write the saddest lines"

[Lardlad95]

Quote: from Ian Rocks on 10:48 pm on July 17, 2002
I think George Orwell's books are great for younger readers. My first commie book, which I read in January this year, was Animal Farm by George Orwell and I enjoyed it. I read 1984 after it and probably enjoyed it more. So that is my advice! READ ORWELL!



you do realize that Animal Farm was anti communist?

Even though George Orville was a socialist.

[Nateddi]

WRONG

animal farm was anti-stalinist, not anti-communist. George Orwell supported the bolshevik revolution and Trotsky.

[Conghaileach]

Are you sure he was a Trotskyist? In Homage to Catalonia he describes being aligned with the anarcho-syndicalist POUM.

[evil chris]

Orwell had no truck with Communist Parties,mainly because of their shamefull lies and plotting he witness when fighting with the POUM.
He was also very weary of the Left press aswell for the same reason.
He was a revoultionary Socialists ,which pretty much rules you out of working with the likes of Commie Party anyway!

[Conghaileach]

Orwell often described himself as a democratic socialist.

[Alejandro C]

www.ratm.com has a great reading list that is full of leftist books as well as very creative and origianl books. I've read all of the books on it that i can find, they were all good.

[Ian]

Dude, Napoleon was Stalin and Snowball was Trotsky! Snowball was portrayed as good because Orwell liked Trotsky and communism! He hated stalinism and portrayed Napoleon as a *****

[James]

No Logo

[sypher]

Sadly I have a very short attention span (an effect of ADHD) and if a book doesn't capture my attention right away a keep it I can't read it for shit. Are there any books you can recommend for me?

[Lefty]

the onion, sypher

i like orwell as well, and the writings by mumia abu jamal are very worthwhile. Jonathon livingston seagull by...umm...some english guy is good as well. Read everything you can find. Im 13 and i have more books than all the teachers i've had in the past 2 years...combined lol

[Mazdak]

Justinian the Last Roman Emperor

Now ther eis some interesting reading. However it has no relevance to this discussion...

Economic and Philisophic manuscripts of 1848 by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. (not the manefesto)