The eye-openers reading list
 

It occurred to me tonight that there are a hand full of real eye opening books out there that shook my world and reformed my mind into the way it is today. So in an effort to broaden my horizons, and hopefully everyone elses in this forum, I want you guys to post a handful of books/authors that really had a profound impact on who you are and, if you'd like, share how they effected you. As for me:

1) Derrick Jensen, A Language Older than Words & The Culture of Make Believe
These books really rocked my world in that I consider myself to be a political liberal and concern myself with cultural and environmental in the manner befitting a liberal. Well, these books really opened my eyes to the depth of these problems and how in a lot of ways ignorance and hate is a part of our culture. I'd say they are a must read for anyone concerned about the environment or who believes there are problems inherent in our current way of life.

2) Ken Wilber, Integral Psychology & A Theory of Everything
Here it was hard to just name these two and I would highly recommend ANYTHING this man rights. Essentially he is about integrating all facets of our lives together (body, mind, soul, etc) and living in a wholistic (not to be confused with holistic) manner. Rather than seperating or neglating certain parts of our lives at times, he talks about being a whole person all the time. This guy is for anyone who is interested a more universal spirituality or psychology.

3) Carl Jung, The Collected Works of Carl Jung
What can I say? The idea of the collective unconscious just strikes a chord with me and I think that for an early psychologist this guy is right on. Very interesting, very scientific, and very spiritual... right up my ally.

4) Friedrich Neitzsche, The Collected Works of Friedrich Nietzsche
Have to pay lip service to the man who got me interested in philosophy, psychology, etc. in the first place. All of his work and a lot of the work about him going to reward anyone with a very unique mode of thought and ideas. I would recommend starting with something like Thus Spoke Zarathustra or The Gay Science before tackling The Will to Power or On the Genealogy of Morals, but whatever suites your fancy. I recommend Neitzsche to anyone looking to broaden their intellectual horizons.

Anyway, that turned out to be more of a chore than I thought, but feel free to post as few or as many books, authors, movies, etc. as you like. Just anxious to hear what you guys are in to and maybe find my #5.

that Carl Jung book looks very interesting to me. thanks for posting your list!

The Holy Bible, King James version

When I was about 14 I began to question my Christian backround so I read this book cover to cover. Shortly thereafter I began to form a different approach to religion and became mostly agnostic.

Man and Time, by J.B Priestley

This is one of those coffee table sized books with lots of illustrations of time devices and theories of time from various cultures throughout history. I picked it up in a dusty old used book store when I was in high school. The important thing to me was that it was the first time I read about Einsteins relativity theory and changed the way I thought about space and time and the universe in general. I don't recommend this book though, this was 40 years ago and there are far better books on the subject now.

Chaos : Making a New Science, by James Gleick

After reading this book I began to think of nonlinear complex systems as something that we may actually be able to predict some day. I began to understand the beauty of chaos and even if we can't predict it we are at least able to define some of the more complex system's boundarys.
"A Theory of Everything" has been sitting on my shelf for about a year. Maybe now I'll take the time to read it.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel C. Dennett
One of the most intelligent men on the planet turns his philosophical eyes towards neo-Darwinism. He clearly and concisely puts forward the case for Universal Darwinism and applies it to many of the problems of philosophy. (Most significantly towards the problem of "meaning"; according to Dennett, meaning itself, like so many other things, evolves). He also elaborates significantly on the implications of memetics and memes. He launches devastating attacks on the critics of neo-Darwinism (most notably Gould & Chomsky Inc.). He also debunks with wonderful clarity, the objections of Penrose et al to "mechanistic" theories of mind, and shows that their arguments are unsubstantiated.
Dennett likens Darwin’s theory to "Universal Acid", which eats through many of our assumptions and rigid thinking. He does all this with the utmost of clarity and rigour: never obscuricant, always profound.

I picked up a book similar to this several years ago. I believe it was called Does God Play Dice? and I can't recall who wrote it. It seemed very interesting since science is kinda a hobby of mind, but when I opened it there were a lot of intimidating equations and charts. But Chaos theory has always interested me so maybe I ought to give it another go around. If it doesn't work is this book of yours in more of a layman's format?

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It pushed me into studying Philosophy, which I enjoy very much.

MuadDib

It was one of the first popular books on chaos theory. I think it even made the best sellers list. There have been many others published since. I did not think it was too technical. You can read the prologue here. http://www.around.com/chaos.html

I agree wholeheartedly. Excellent book. Having said that, I wasn't aware that Chomsky was opposed to the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary theory.

Some of my own recommendations include

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David Landes
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...100754-4128640
Landes sets out to examine, discuss and explain why "Some are so poor and some so rich." This book can be considered a narrative history of the West and how its hegemony over the modern world came about. Erudite, opinionated and very enlightening.

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...100754-4128640
Diamond begins this book trying to answer the question posed to him by a New Guinean friend "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo ["technology"] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo ["technology"] of our own?" So begins a rollercoaster ride from the evolution of man, the inception of society up to the colonization of the AsiaPacific and Africa. If you've ever wondered why the "West won", then this book is for you. Slightly more readable than Landes's book, it is a deserved winner of the Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize

The Third Chimpanzee by [i]Jared Diamond[/b]
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...100754-4128640
Diamond's second book asks the profound question "What is it to be human?" He argues convincingly for chimpanzees to be redesignated as members of the Homo genus and trys to explain why humans are what they are. Very interesting.


There are seveal other history or science books that I could recommend that are not "eye opening" per se, but rather very entertaining and educational. Perhaps another thread.


Mr Mephisto

The Celstine Prophesy

Pale Blue Dot

Dancing Wu Li Masters

Isn't the Celestine Prophesy a bit new agey? Something about gaining enough "vibrations" to raise yourself to the next energy level or something? Sounds almost like Scientology.

Of course, not having read it, I can't criticise it with any real validity. I'm just surprised to see it listed amongst "eye openers".

Please educate us (me?) on this one tecoyah.


Mr Mephisto

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and assorted sequels) by Douglas Adams.

That stuff was crack to a 14 year old public-school student disgusted with the pedestrian shit they put on the reading list. It was one of the first books I really enjoyed reading.

It is "New Agey"....and definately not for everyone. It did however change my path quite profoundly, thus its inclusion in my list.

There are just so many - some of which have been mentioned already, but anyway:

Chaos: Making a New Science - James Gleick
Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos - Roger Lewin
The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World (Penguin Science) - Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart
The Three Pillars of Zen - Kapleau
The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
Hitchikers Guide to The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest - Ken Kesey
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
1984 and Animal Farm - George Orwell
Earthsea Trilogy - Ursula Le Guin

I can recomend anything by Douglas Adams (the Dirk Gently series especially brought up some interesting Philosophical ideas), and the Jack Cohen/Ian Stewart books are unusually good too.

Oh The Three Pillars of Zen! Good one that I shoulda remember, but forgot about. I haven't opened that book in ages. I was really into Zen for a while and that book really helped me discover it. Now I've kinda grown away from it religiously though I still practice it for its spiritual aspects. I suppose my lack of focus on the buddhist underpinnings of zen is why it didn't come to mind immediately for this thread.

I also dug 1984 and Hitchhikers though I wouldn't say either of them profoundly impacted my life in anyway.

God's Debris: A Thought Experiment - Scott Adams
 

Yes, that Scott Adams.

Set aside whatever you might think about Dilbert and read this book. The author's description of it:

I read 1984 at an early age - it made me think - a lot. Same with Hitchhikers, though I suppose that's more of a comfort/enjoyment thing than a life-shaper.

See also:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett

Much of the Buddhist side is eroded away, from my limited understanding, Zen could be philosophically closer to a form of Taoism.

Well regardless, I stopped focusing on that side ages ago and mostly do the meditations to center myself as more of a psychological booster.

I read this book on one of my cross country motorcycle trips years ago. I even traveled on some of the route that Persig did. I have to say though that I found his logic on the search for quality rather hard to understand. I did enjoy the book though and contemplated his words during the long days of riding.

Since you put this book on your list would you mind writing a short explaination. I'm just curious. I may reread this book.

Thanks for this thread! It is hard to find good books like these. Lots of interesting things here I'll have to pick up.

Has anyone read "Godel, Escher, Bach"? I'm about to start it, wondering if anyone can give their opinions on it.

Fantastic. Mind-Blowing. One of the most profound books I have ever read. Also wonderfully playful and fun.

Ultimately, the attempted (and largely successful, in my opinion) answer to the question, what is the meaning of the word 'I'?

I may write a more thorough review later.

CSflim, thanks, I'll certainly read it now.

The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
What is DNA? Easy!...we all know that DNA is the mechanism by which we, and other living creatures, reproduce. Right? Wrong! Utterly wrong. WE are the mechanism by which DNA reproduces itself. It is from this viewpoint that we should look at nature when we endeavour to understand her secrets. Richard Dawkins, perhaps the greatest populariser of evolutionary biology, elaborates on this idea in his first and most critically acclaimed book.
When we examine a creature in nature we may find altruism towards its fellows. Is this for 'the good of the species'? Richard Dawkins demolishes this argument and in its place shows how selfish gene theory alone can explain this, and so many other of the novel things one finds in nature, from sexual politics to brotherly love.
(Make certain you get the second edition. The additions are very worthwhile).
This certainly is a book which counts as an eye-opener.


EDIT: And I should point out, as it is something that has been misrepresented on numerous occasions, that no, selfish genes are not genes for selfishness.

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

I'll second that.

Two books by Randel Helms that explore the history of early Christianity and the methods behind the writers of the books of the New Testament. Maybe the best analyses of Christianity for the layman ever written:

Gospel Fictions
Who Wrote The Gospels

Sure, love to - it's been a while, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone, (so skip the next few lines if you want to read it for yourself without my take on things in the back of your mind)


The story tells the story of this mans quest to find truth and meaning - in his earlier years he stumbles across a paradox - when he discovers the answer to the paradox, it forces him to struggles with his ego. He achieves a level of understanding, and is then forced to recoil from it. It is only at the very end of the book that he again becomes whole.

Much of the book deals with the nature of 'classical' with the romantic thought, and explains in depth the differences of these two approaches, and how 'Quality' is a means by which one can bridge the gap between the two.

What is quality? How can we define it? The point is we can't, we shouldn't, it's something beyond categorisation. Much of the explanations of quality don't come from the detailed explanations in the book, but from descriptions of moments that pass while they are on their trip. So when he describes a landscape through which they are travelling, it is just as important as when he's explaining the difference between groovy people and squares.

It's not all Philosophy, in fact, it's more a narrative of a deeply personal journey, one that is of the utmost importance, and which in the end comes to a wonderful conclusion.

But I'm in no way entitled to describe what the story is about - I just hope I haven't put anyone off. It stands on its own as a marvellous and enjoyable book, that brings a tear to my eye every time I read it.

The text of the book is available at the following address...

http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon/Quality/PirsigZen/

In addition to the King James edition, I recommend the New Jerusalem translation, and while we're at it whatever translations you can get a hold of. Studying the New Jerusalem version compared to the King James and others was a jarring and unforgettable history lesson.

Thanks Fourtyrulz. I just spent a few hours reading comparisons between the different Bible versions and find that the NJ version is certainly easier to understand than the KJ version. My purpose in reading the Bible when I was in my teens was not so much for absolute accuracy but more to determine the nature of the Jewish tribal god and whether to accept his word and his son as my religion.

The NJ translation seems to try and interpret the scripture as gender neutral whereas I believe the oldtimers who wrote it were very sexist and wrote what they meant. To me it is like re-writing Mark Twain and replacing all the racial slurs with the more accepted nowadays African American. I would rather read what Twain actually wrote instead of a modern politically correct version. Other than that, from what I have read the NJ version is probably a more accurate interpretation than the KJ one.

It's alive!!! Oh God it's alive!!!

I've been wondering, what are some good books on quantum theory? Such as loopholes in space and the string theory, lately this stuff has been fascinating to me and I need some further reading.

What a great list! I'm adding them to my "to read" list. Here's a few that shaped me:

Communist Manifesto - Carl Marx
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Death Be Not Proud- John J. Gunther
The Art of Happiness - Dalai Lama
The Diamond Sutra
Tao Te Ching
Mahabarata
Psalms
The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity - Martin Palmer

Prayers of the Cosmos-niel klutz

fascinating read....highly recommended

First of all "The Holy Bible", I prefer the NIV for reference, but "The Message" is an excellent paraphrase and is easy to read.

Secondly, "1984" by Orwell. I read it several years ago and had never imagined a world like that; and now I think I can see it approaching.

Finally, while not world changing, "The Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov may be the best science fiction I've ever read.

Fortyrulz, have you read "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene?

You can watch the NOVA special based on Greene's book on the PBS website, linked below.
The Elegant Universe
It is 3 hours long but you can watch it in 5 to 10 minute sections. It is quite entertaining and a great illustration of much of what is covered in the book.

George orwells 1984, anthony burgess - a clockwork orange, hate to admit it but "to kill a mockingbird" has stayed with me, never would have read it if I wasn't forced to at school though, the teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda has changed the way i deal with anger and in search of schroedingers cat by John Gribbin opened up my eyes to quantumn physics and made me question a lot of what i take for granted

I'm surprised Brave New World only made this list once. I read that in 8th grade and it's stuck with me ever since.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is another one that's stuck with me. In my mind the best piece he's written yet, it had me looking around corners for weeks, just wondering... It's also the book that got me hooked on coin tricks.

White Noise by Don Delillo. Amazing book. Got me into plenty of debates with my parents and teachers on the subjects of life, worth, death, and a handful of other universally pertinent issues. (Note: Not even remotely the same thing as the movie of the same title... In fact, I hate that they do because people kept asking me recently if it was the book the movie was based on.)

Great thread - my reading to do list has doubled in the last 10 minutes. In the spirit of staying true to the thread topic, I must lead with...

1. The Amazing Spider-Man, Stan Lee - Quite simply, the books I sat and poured over while other kids watched t.v. and threw Jarts at each other. My 2 book/week habit started here.
2. Johnathon Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach - thrown at me when I was 12 or 13, and he was the James Dean of birds. I decided it was cool that I did my own thing... this also sent me down the road of all of Bach's books that still mean the world to me.
3. The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
4. A Book of Dreams - Peter Reich, John Lennon's favorite book. I have read it 10 times, easy, and I am still not quite sure what I should be getting from it. It keeps me fascinated like the girl who just wants to be friends.
5. Memnoch the Devil - Anne Rice, I know, I know. But if you were to read 1 Anne Rice this is the one.

Thanks for the link. I just watched the first three chapters. Fantastic!