Sir Darius the Clairvoyent

Your all time favorite books

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So, lets see:

1. meditations by aurelius

Spoiler

So, I am now in the procces of reading this book. I do not read cover to cover, as it was written not in an attempt to win a pulitzer, but to reflect. This is reflected in the Norwegian tittle of the work: «to my self.»

A little note before i continue: Aurelius wrote in greek, I am reading a Norwegian translation and translating it to english, so it will naturally be flawed.

In the forward (by Viggo Johansen,) he raises the following question: how can a book written by the most powerfull person on the plannet, 1800 years ago, be relavent for us today?

He writers: (…) every evening he (Aurelius) sits down to write, in order to remember who he is - a human. Not an emperor, but a human.

For this reason, stoicism can appeal to the emperor himself, the slave Epiktet, and us. Our shell and roles are vastly different, but we are united in being human, and feel the same love, anger, desire to live authenticly, attempt to live morally and mortality. Since the will is free, we are free as well. We can be forced to act a certain way, but no one but our self controls our will, reactions and thoughts.

What does it mean to be human? Science can not help us here. Science assumed that man and nature is purley material, but Viggo points out that this is just an assumption, and nothing more. A plausible assumption, but and assumption none the less. Wise men and traditions have, however, allways talked about spirit and soul.

Aurelius writers:
«Things can never touch the soul, but stand inert outside it, so that disquiet can arise only from fancies within.»

Allthough we are more advanced technologicaly advanced today, are we any wiser? Do we understand what it is to be human? I would say no. I would even say we are less developted in this aspect. And i think this «book» shows that. It has been read and admired for almost 2000 years, by slaves, commoners and nobility as well - it touches on what it means to be human.


2. Children of Ash and Elm

Neil Price attempts to write about the norse from the perspective of the norse. Very refreshing considering how much church propaganda, romanticism, nazism and demonisation they have been subject to.
 

3. Bhagavad Gita

I wrote a summary here: 

 

4. embarresed to say so, but Harry Potter series. It literally was my childhood. 
 

Hope to hear about What books or texts has been special to you, and more importantly; why.

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted (edited)

this kind of topic repeats itself again and again. Here comes my list:

 

war and piece, Tolstoy

brothers karamazov, Dostoievski

a confederecy of dunes, Toole

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

Solaris, Lem

Republic, Plato

Enchiridion, Epictetus

Art of war, Sun Tzu

Book of five rings, musashi

Edited by Kojiro
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Lord of the Rings

Hobbit

The Owl Service - Alan Garner

Red Shift - Alan Garner

Nova - Samuel Delany

Dhalgren -Samuel Delany

Culture novels by Banks

Sassoons war trilogy Memoires of a fox hunting man

(not exhaustive)

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Le Mort D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter

Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World by Miguel Leon Portilla

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Les Chants de Maldoror by Lautreamont

Mirror of the Marvelous, by Pierre Mabille

The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany

The Stars my Destination, by Alfred Bester

The Palm-Wine Drinkard, by Amos Totuola

Poems of Joyce Mansour

Poems of Laurence Weisberg

The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington

The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov

Clark Ashton Smith's short stories

The Monk, by Matthew Lewis

What is Surrealism? by Andre Breton, ed. Franklin Rosemont

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, NaturaNaturans said:

Thus spoke zarathustra 

Der Steppenwolf (Hesse)

Hunger (Hamsun)

 

Journey to the East is my fav Hesse.

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8 hours ago, Apech said:

 

Journey to the East is my fav Hesse.

By Hesse ive read Siddharta and steppenwolf. Both very good, so might give journey tte a try.

 

On another note, you guys familiar with Murakami. I like him quite a bit, how about you?

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31 minutes ago, NaturaNaturans said:

By Hesse ive read Siddharta and steppenwolf. Both very good, so might give journey tte a try.

 

On another note, you guys familiar with Murakami. I like him quite a bit, how about you?


ive read Wind up bird chronicle and Kafka on the shore - liked both of them.

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Man Friday

 

The story of Robinson Crusoe

 

image.png.ff2f10dd8accd06446c5d32b32f10b20.png

 

But this time, from Friday's perspective  !

 

Its a film as well ;

 

image.png.3ca92d1be098e2eca8207eb07df61788.png

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(almost) anything cormac mccarthy.  the first two of the border trilogy are fantastically good (never made it through the third).  never thought I'd be into apocalypse novels, but i secretly cried at the end of the road.  i still get chills thinking about the embrace at the end of blood meridian. reading suttree next.

 

hesse is good too.  the glass bead game is my favorite of his.  the end of the main story line left me completely paralyzed.  steppenwolf was too hippie for my taste, maybe I was not born to be wild. 

 

kurt vonnegut is good too.  reading cats cradle now, which brings up an interesting question:  why is there no subforum on this site for bokononism?

 

another really good book is the man without qualities by musil.  the first volume is really cool.  very daoist imo.  the second, unfinished one is somewhat disjointed (did not make it very far)

 

for space opera, i like alistar reynolds (revelation space, chasm city, pushing ice), hyperion by simmons was good too. the second book in that series was good too, though I can't remember the name. 

 

the trial by kafka and nausea by sartre are also memorable. the stranger by camus is good too:  why'd he take the shot? 

 

how can one pick an all time favorite.

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Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, Brad M said:

(almost) anything cormac mccarthy.  the first two of the border trilogy are fantastically good (never made it through the third).  never thought I'd be into apocalypse novels, but i secretly cried at the end of the road.  i still get chills thinking about the embrace at the end of blood meridian. reading suttree next.

 

hesse is good too.  the glass bead game is my favorite of his.  the end of the main story line left me completely paralyzed.  steppenwolf was too hippie for my taste, maybe I was not born to be wild. 

 

kurt vonnegut is good too.  reading cats cradle now, which brings up an interesting question:  why is there no subforum on this site for bokononism?

 

another really good book is the man without qualities by musil.  the first volume is really cool.  very daoist imo.  the second, unfinished one is somewhat disjointed (did not make it very far)

 

for space opera, i like alistar reynolds (revelation space, chasm city, pushing ice), hyperion by simmons was good too. the second book in that series was good too, though I can't remember the name. 

 

the trial by kafka and nausea by sartre are also memorable. the stranger by camus is good too:  why'd he take the shot? 

 

how can one pick an all time favorite.

this weekend I am planning to read Cormac for the very first time, I already have Blood meridian ready to be open :) let's see how it goes, people talk very well of this book. It has been on my wishlist for a long time

Edited by Kojiro
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Posted (edited)

In no particular order:

 

-Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo 

 

-Edgar Allan Poe - Tales

 

-Jack London - Call of the Wild

 

-Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist

 

-Manuel Mujica Lainez - Bomarzo

 

-Bram Stoker - Dracula

 

-Oscar Wilde -The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

-Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles

 

-Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan

 

-Marguerite Yourcenar - Opus Nigrum aka The Abyss

 

-Middle Eastern folktales - One Thousand and One Nights

 

-Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa - Tuareg

 

-Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa - Sicario

 

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince

 

- Patrick Süskind - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

 

Edited: forgot to add the last book on my list.

 

 

Edited by Gerard

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18 hours ago, Kojiro said:

this weekend I am planning to read Cormac for the very first time, I already have Blood meridian ready to be open :) let's see how it goes, people talk very well of this book. It has been on my wishlist for a long time

 

Its amazing, though not for the faint of heart. on my re-read list as well. Also, mccarthy uses an impressionistic writing style that personally took me some time getting used to, but once I did I could not stop.  Its one of those books where you walk away feeling like you have gained some tremendous insight, though you cant exactly pinpoint what it is--good, bad or ugly.    

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1 hour ago, Brad M said:

 

Its amazing, though not for the faint of heart. on my re-read list as well. Also, mccarthy uses an impressionistic writing style that personally took me some time getting used to, but once I did I could not stop.  Its one of those books where you walk away feeling like you have gained some tremendous insight, though you cant exactly pinpoint what it is--good, bad or ugly.    

do you think it is his best book? people also like the road and no country for old men, among others

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On 6/28/2024 at 3:53 PM, Kojiro said:

do you think it is his best book? people also like the road and no country for old men, among others

 

hard to say. it is definitely the most gripping of his books ive read. i read that one first, and would probably again if i had to start over. i think i liked the crossing the best though, at least of the ones I have read.  i only finished the road a few weeks ago. it has a different tempo, though the story is powerful--definitely more than worthy of all the awards.   

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On 6/28/2024 at 7:26 AM, Brad M said:

mccarthy uses an impressionistic writing style that personally took me some time getting used to, but once I did I could not stop

 

On 6/28/2024 at 8:53 AM, Kojiro said:

do you think it is his best book? people also like the road and no country for old men, among others

 

I've read several others by McCarthy including The Road, No Country for Old Men, The Border Trilogy, Child of God, and Outer Dark. I can't really say which is his best but I listed Blood Meridian below because for me it was the most strikingly beautiful and original, even in it's brutality. Kind of like a Hieronymous Bosch painting reimagined through an impressionist lens

 

Some of my favorites in fiction that come to mind are:

 

Blindness - Jose Saramago 
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami (3 way tie with 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle)

Naked Lunch - William S Burroughs

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (not yet finished as I'm reading a chapter a day but no question among my favorites)

Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

City of Thieves - David Benioff

Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons

Silo - Hugh Howey

Gaia series - John Varley 

The Sparrow series - Mary Doria Russell

Geek Love - Katherine Dunne

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

The Bone People - Keri Hulme

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, JSPS - Jeremy Leven

Kindred - Octavia Butler
Remembrance of Earth's Past - Liu Cixin

Voice of the FIre - Alan Moore

The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

 

 

 

 

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Some poetry -

 

Rumi - everything!

Life on Mars - Tracy Smith

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear - Mosab Abu Toha

Devotions - Mary Oliver

Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur

The Wasteland - TS Eliot

Me (Moth) - Amber McBride

Spirit Boxing - Afaa Michael Weaver 

Bright Dead Things - Ada Limon

The Hill We Climb - Amanda Gorman 

Of Gods and Strangers - Tina Chang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted (edited)

and what about moby dick? nobody has listed it as one of his favourites. Yet some people claim is one of the best books ever written in English, so I am thinking if I should read after finishing Blood Meridian (my current reading). Some opinions on this book? thanks

Edited by Kojiro
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2 hours ago, Kojiro said:

and what about moby dick? nobody has listed it as one of his favourites. Yet some people claim is one of the best books ever written in English, so I am thinking if I should read after finishing Blood Meridian (my current reading). Some opinions on this book? thanks

 

I read it in college, it was part of my American Literature course.  (Read it in translation though, didn't have enough English back then for the original -- nor access to the original.  Read the original years later.)  Wrote a term paper on it too.  My professor (whom I had a crush on by the way -- he was a fearless free thinker, a rare bird at the time/place, an eloquent, deeply and broadly educated man, and he looked like Kirk Douglas in Spartacus and had a most dignified demeanor but easygoing, not self-important...  sorry for the tangent, got carried away by the memory) --

suggested "Man and Nature" as the focus of the paper, but I asked him to change it to "a study of the nature of evil" because I thought that was the main theme, so we compromised on changing the assignment title to something like "ethical problems tackled in Moby Dick."  In hind sight, "man and nature" could have been a great aspect to touch upon too, but I was always a ponerologist,* and remain one to this day.  

I loved it, though when I re-read it later, I found that it's too long and there's a million pages there it could do without -- but then that's my opinion of most novels ever written, with some 5% exception consisting of those I hated to see the end of. 

To this day I count the opening line of Moby Dick one of the best opening lines in all of literature. (But don't let me write a paper on why. :)  )  

I delivered the oral presentation (which was required) of that term paper to the audience with such passion that everybody woke up (of course the audiences were typically sleeping through those presentations) and at the end cheered like it was a football match and their team scored. :D

 

 

*Ponerology: a study of the nature of evil

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1 hour ago, Taomeow said:

 

I read it in college, it was part of my American Literature course.  (Read it in translation though, didn't have enough English back then for the original -- nor access to the original.  Read the original years later.)  Wrote a term paper on it too.  My professor (whom I had a crush on by the way -- he was a fearless free thinker, a rare bird at the time/place, an eloquent, deeply and broadly educated man, and he looked like Kirk Douglas in Spartacus and had a most dignified demeanor but easygoing, not self-important...  sorry for the tangent, got carried away by the memory) --

suggested "Man and Nature" as the focus of the paper, but I asked him to change it to "a study of the nature of evil" because I thought that was the main theme, so we compromised on changing the assignment title to something like "ethical problems tackled in Moby Dick."  In hind sight, "man and nature" could have been a great aspect to touch upon too, but I was always a ponerologist,* and remain one to this day.  

I loved it, though when I re-read it later, I found that it's too long and there's a million pages there it could do without -- but then that's my opinion of most novels ever written, with some 5% exception consisting of those I hated to see the end of. 

To this day I count the opening line of Moby Dick one of the best opening lines in all of literature. (But don't let me write a paper on why. :)  )  

I delivered the oral presentation (which was required) of that term paper to the audience with such passion that everybody woke up (of course the audiences were typically sleeping through those presentations) and at the end cheered like it was a football match and their team scored. :D

 

 

*Ponerology: a study of the nature of evil

I will let you know if I finally decide to read it :) By the way, if you are a true ponerologist then I guess you love Dostoievski ;)

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