this thread's inspired by something ian macdonald said about why he wrote "revolution in the head" — i can't find the interview anymore, but it was something along the lines of "i wanted to make the book as informative as possible, because so many books are just useless."
what books made you feel way smarter after you'd read them?
― J.D., Saturday, 1 November 2008 04:02 (fifteen years ago) link
The Worldly Philosophers
I don't know if I was necessarily way smarter but it was definitely the most interesting and useful book I ever read on economics. I recommend it to everyone, even people whose eyelips droop at the word.
― mitya, Saturday, 1 November 2008 04:55 (fifteen years ago) link
I read "The Millionaire Next Door" when I was 13 or so, and it shaped my philosophy on money and spending for the better. Save your money, invest and spend wisely, and don't live above your means (live below it if possible). I didn't exactly have all that much to my name, except for saved up allowance, but I still took the message to heart.
― ILX MOD (musically), Saturday, 1 November 2008 05:34 (fifteen years ago) link
It may sound corny but The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists has shaped my thinking.
― mmmm, Saturday, 1 November 2008 07:48 (fifteen years ago) link
Appropriate thread considering the death of Studs Terkel, I admit to somewhat...er...limited views of American and Americans before reading Working. There are so many others though. Also The Decline and Fall of Great Powers, The Making of the English Working Class, The Pleasures of the Imagination and a whole load of criminology books, to mention a couple - Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears and Folk Devils and Moral Panics.
― A country only rich people know (Ned Trifle II), Saturday, 1 November 2008 09:15 (fifteen years ago) link
lame but i'm learning a lot from 'consider the lobster' by david foster walllace. read the title essay a while ago but 'big red son' and the grammar essay are awesome.
― Matt P, Saturday, 1 November 2008 09:38 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah i just read "consider the lobster" and was pleasantly surprised by how informative and readable it was (i hadn't read any DFW before).
― J.D., Saturday, 1 November 2008 09:41 (fifteen years ago) link
in 'big red son' he gets a little full of himself, but i've settled on dfw getting full of himself sometimes and i like it. it's still great.
x-post - oh cool! that essay was the first thing that made me think seriously about vegetarianism, as lame as that sounds.
― Matt P, Saturday, 1 November 2008 09:43 (fifteen years ago) link
i read it six months ago.
― Matt P, Saturday, 1 November 2008 09:44 (fifteen years ago) link
i read 'illusions' when i was about 15 or 16
i didn't exactly feel like i could walk through walls or anything, but i felt a lot smarter
― the sir weeze, Saturday, 1 November 2008 13:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Hannah Arendt's On RevolutionGarry Wills' Nixon Agonistes
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 1 November 2008 14:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Everything by William Gaddis and JM Coetzee - actually, they made me feel incredibly ignorant at first. But they've certainly help me learn to think. Also any book, fiction or non, that deals with history in any deep way.
― franny glass, Saturday, 1 November 2008 14:05 (fifteen years ago) link
The Daughter of Time taught me all about Richard III.
― clotpoll, Saturday, 1 November 2008 15:30 (fifteen years ago) link
The aforementioned Worldly Philosophers taught me that Adam Smith was kidnapped by gypsies as a little child! (And later returned.)
― rubisco (Abbott), Saturday, 1 November 2008 18:01 (fifteen years ago) link
The Celestine Prophesy.
HAHA had for you a second, I'm joking.
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Saturday, 1 November 2008 18:05 (fifteen years ago) link
dianetics
― human cactus (latebloomer), Saturday, 1 November 2008 18:06 (fifteen years ago) link
I've learned a lot from a lot of books.
OK!
― rubisco (Abbott), Saturday, 1 November 2008 18:07 (fifteen years ago) link
The Art of Sensual Massage
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Saturday, 1 November 2008 18:07 (fifteen years ago) link
a world lit only by fire. (cheesy best selling pop-history answer.)
― ian, Saturday, 1 November 2008 18:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Harry Thompson's novel about Fitzroy and Darwin, This Thing of Darkness.
― chap, Saturday, 1 November 2008 18:51 (fifteen years ago) link
The Da Vinci Code taught me that a literary novel can be as clever, meditative, allusive and well-written as it likes, but a pulp book with a thumping plot will always win
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 1 November 2008 21:32 (fifteen years ago) link
win what?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 1 November 2008 21:48 (fifteen years ago) link
$
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 1 November 2008 21:49 (fifteen years ago) link
The Secrets of the Temple, by William Greider has a lot of highly interesting information about the Federal Reserve Bank, monetary policy and the banking system. It is from circa 1987, so it misses the Greenspan years, but it still can teach you a lot.
― Aimless, Sunday, 2 November 2008 01:17 (fifteen years ago) link
How to Be Idle
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
― Autobot Lover (jel --), Sunday, 2 November 2008 10:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Sophie's World in middle school. Several books I had to read for classes in college, particularly some On Capital, Distinction, and Culture & Equality. Moby Dick, because the more you know about whaling the smarter you are. And every time I read an ethnography I feel like I've learned a lot.
― Maria, Sunday, 2 November 2008 22:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Politics and the English Language by Orwell.
― what U cry 4 (jim), Sunday, 2 November 2008 22:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Zen Keys by Thich Nhat HanhDude talks Zen in such a way that this ex-philosophy student can understand.
Bedford Glossary of Critical & Literary TermsThe only glossary I've ever read for fun. It's clear & concise. Best textbook I ever bought.
The Essential KirkegaardErudite & poetic.
Hip: The History by John LelandDraws a line through a lot of stuff I like and explains what they have in common.
― HOOS HOOS HOOS on the autosteen (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Will I sound like I dick if I say "Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James? Because I love that book.
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:04 (fifteen years ago) link
I should read Moby Dick again, because being forced to read it in high school is surely not the optimal circumstance under which to fully get it.
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:06 (fifteen years ago) link
everything i thought i learned ended up seeming like a crock, so i read jackie collins now
― grab the rabbit and punch it (sunny successor), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:07 (fifteen years ago) link
such truth there
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Also for me, "Nicomachean Ethics"
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:09 (fifteen years ago) link
"Nicomachean Ethics" is the Dianetics of the ancient world
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, "Yertle the Turtle" by D. Seuss.
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:16 (fifteen years ago) link
yall need to write what you think you learned from these books.
― don't bite your friends (sunny successor), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:20 (fifteen years ago) link
I've been meaning to read "Varieties of Religious Experience" sometime. Also, you should definitely reread "Moby Dick," it's fantastic but could so easily be ruined by high school class assignments.
― Maria, Monday, 3 November 2008 00:25 (fifteen years ago) link
"Varieties of Religious Experience": You are what you think. James also thinks you are lost without faith, but since he includes himself in that category, I can't accuse him of harboring resentment to the faithless.
"Nicomachean Ethics": Do what you're good at, because we all have something to give. Kind of the Dirk Diggler worldview.
"Yertle the Turtle": I know up on the top you are seeing great sights, but down at the bottom we, too, should have rights.
― Mozarella sticks. Think about it. (kenan), Monday, 3 November 2008 00:26 (fifteen years ago) link
moby dick is righteous
― Mr. Que, Monday, 3 November 2008 00:26 (fifteen years ago) link
I learned a lot about how horrible and fat Marie de Medici was from Huxley's "Grey Eminence".
― calumerio, Monday, 3 November 2008 12:10 (fifteen years ago) link
crush of shame ^
― don't bite your friends (sunny successor), Monday, 3 November 2008 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link