The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.
Few other sci-fi books do as good a job of depicting how a gift/library economy could work like in practice. It’s quite a hopeful vision of where we can collectively go in the future.
It also shows a realistic version of utopian hope. An eternal struggle for better
That reminds me that I really need to put more le guin into my book pile
1984, so that people mentioning it online will stop sounding like complete fucking idiots.
Or perhaps The Jungle; it sparked public outcry and major overhauls the last time it became popular, maybe it can work its magic again.
1984 was about the government being able to read your mind so they can give you a rat, right?
No, that was the diary of Ann Frank actually.
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No,I think that’s Helter Skelter (?)
wasnt that He-man’s nemisis?
He-man’s nemesis is She-man, everybody knows that.
I was going to say this.
1984, A Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451.
Add Animal Farm to that list.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Just the intermissions would get everyone’s blood boiling.
One of my favorite books and unfortunately lots of the story still is relevant today.
Hah. I’d be happy to hear that everyone read at least one book in their lifetime.
Don Quixote
It’s old but very readable and surprisingly funny. Even gets quite meta at points!
Goes off on some tangents at points (including some nested stories), but even these I found quite fun.
The Maxims of Ptahhotep. First book we know of & filled with practical advice.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. For me, I think Russian literature is a must-read.
A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
The egg by Andy Weir. It gave me the basis for Gnosticism / the spirituality that I genuinely think is closest to the truth ie: humans do have a soul, but it’s all the same soul / consciousness that just splits up into sperate little chunks of perception for a little bit at a time before rejoining the whole in different places and splitting off again from and to a completely different place. Honestly the main thing I learned from psychology, neurology, and physics classes is that time, or at least the human perception of it, is almost completely bullshit, and that our perception of our brain as a separate thing that controls the rest of our body, or even as our body as a separate thing from the world like a suit in space is a significant cause of mental illness.
Why does our sense of self so often stop at our brain when most of our neurotransmitters are in our gut? How can you be the cells but not the fluid you filter then piss out? Your upper layers of skin and hair are dead how can they be more you than the air trapped between them? There’s a reason drugs dissolving your sense of self, even temporarily, is often described as a positively transformative experience.
A Brief History of Time
The Count of Monte Christo, Fahrenheit 451, Neuromancer.
Count of Monte Christo imo isn’t so great, or maybe I’ve read too many shorter riffs on the theme. I’d also plop 1984 before 451.
The Count of Monte Christo
i keep seeing this listed, but I saw the Wishbone episode of it when i was younger and i dont think i could take it as seriously and also already knowing the twist at the end
Give it a try. I was blown away by how good it is. I prefer the audiobook because it’s so long.
Feels pretty cliche to say them, but
1984, the handmaid’s tale and brave new world
Should probably be on anyone’s list that hasn’t managed to get to them yet
It Could Never Happen Here. A book about how fascism takes hold in America. Written in 1935
Dont forget the graphic novel version of 1984. Awesome und a downer.
Oh I’ve never actually read that one, thanks for the rec, I’ve not read 1984 in a good decade or so now, so that seems a good way refresh my mind
Grapes of Wrath is a good one that’s relevant now as when it was made.
The Stranger by Albert Camus. It’s very short, barely over 100 pages, and it helped me realize that nothing really matters.
Flowers for Algernon
This book is so beautiful and sad. Everyone should read it
