Here I don’t want you to list neccessarily your favourite books, but rather those books which you believe are truly great. Books that constitute a gift to mankind, books written in the grandest style, books that are ignored at your peril. My list is as follows:
Madness and Civilisation by Michel Foucault (a must for any psychiatrist, either future or present) The Histories of Sexuality by Michel Foucault (Brilliant research that really challenges accepted notions) Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault (brilliant research into the history and current practice of disciplinary machines) Hammer of the Gods edited by Stephen Metcalf (a collection of Nietzche’s works but with a very good introductory chapter by Stephen himself) Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (introduction to schizo-analysis, a suggested alternative to psychoanalysis) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (I haven’t read this one yet. But I’m sure it’s great, hence I’ve included it) Negotiations 1972-1990 by Gilles Deleuze (a collection of interviews with Deleuze in which he clarifies key points from his earlier published work) The Old Testament (more of a curse than a gift, but still, full of stories of great things and great events, with a style so truly infernal that it reaches greatness) The Anti-Christ by Friedrich Nietzsche (a crushing critique of Christianity) Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche (the only completed volume of the Revaluation of All Values) Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche (Nietzsche’s autobiography and last completed work) Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche (the actual book of the air of the heights)
Hermann Hesse almost makes the list, but his works are for the most part more beautiful than great.
Conversations with God I, II and III by Neale Donald Walsch. Also the following other books by Neale Donald Walsch Home with God
Communion with God
Basically any other book by Neale Donald Walsch, but I don’t remember which books have what. Notes from the Universe by Mike Dooley
“The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” -Kuhn
“After Virtue” -Macintyre
“The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” -Weber
“A Matter of Interpretation” -Scalia
“The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” -Wolfe
From the look of the lists thus far, I think this thread should be called "The Greatest Books of Western Civilization". Part of the globe appears to be missing, I’ll try to remedy that.
Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way - Nagarjuna Treatise on Human Nature - Hume The Republic - Plato The Dhammapada - Buddha Hamlet - Shakespeare The Descent of Man - Darwin The Qur’an (since the Bible was already mentioned) Principia Mathematic - Whitehead, Russell Feminism Unmodified - MacKinnon Ethica Nicomachea - Aristotle War and Peace - Tolstoy Great Expectations - Dickens The Trial - Kafka The Souls of Black Folk - Dubois
(caveat: this list is off the top of my head and will change tomorrow)
if I may, I noticed the importance of a lot of these books, at least in appearence from the titles, have to do with the experiences/journeys of the individual people posting these titles. so rather than throwing out titles in total confidence that these are the greatest books that everyone needs to read, perhaps from now on we should describe in at least a sentence or two what these books mean to us, and that way our suggestions will be more useful to other people, on different paths.
