81–90 of 92 posts
Asimov's Foundation (I only recommend the trilogy, though; Foundation's Edge is good but will make you want to read Foundation and Earth, which does severe damage to the universe. Haven't read the prequels.)
Asimov's short stories
Tolkien
Ben Hur
The Count of Monte Cristo (brilliant revenge story)
A lot of Brandon Sanderson's work (The Stormlight Archive is promising to be fascinating)
Too long a list of other stuff to put here.
Herman Hesse "The Glass Bead Game" is incredible. For great mind fucks, check out the crime fiction of Jim Thompson: 1st person, you're a petty crook, dumb & scared, people trying to kill you are right behind you, and most the books end with you being caught and killed in the last sentence. It takes a day or two to shake off his books' reality.
Thanks for the spoilers. I'll pass, now.
I've been chewing through some Neil Stephenson books lately. I think a lot of his earlier work was somewhat prescient (in terms of general themes) and some of his newer work bring up some interesting societal points especially about the role of government with regards to technology. Another theme that I feel is particularly relevant lately is the bifurcation of the technically skilled (or even aware) and the technica…
I liked Rainbows Edge because in addition to a nifty story, it felt like a blueprint or use case for the near future. Marshall Brane's Manna did something similar, even if you don't consider it fine literature. Charles Bukowski for poetry, which for some reason I can relate to, despite not sharing any experiences with the author ... which kind of worries me. Various practical books such as Secrets of Power Negotiatio…
After reading Game of Thrones I wanted to read more book series, so went with science fiction ones: Started with: Dune, by Frank Herbert (+ 5 books in the series) Continued to: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (+ 3 sequels) Now reading: Foundation by Isaac Asimov (+ 5 books) All those are pretty great in sense of that they take set in span of thousands of years, and touch bit different ideas around society, myths, re…
Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series is rather epic, as well.
Another would be halting state but time have properly overrun it.
He even have a interesting background as a programmer/tech writer/pharmacist, read it here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/07/how_i_go...
As has already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, most of Neil Stephenson's work is just great. Cryptonomicon is my favorite, but The Baroque Cycle (three books) is very good as well. If you're into crime/mystery fiction, the recently deceased Elmore Leonard was one of the best. A few of his books have been made into movies (Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, The Big Bounce) with mixed results, but I do I highly recomme…
I think "King Rat" might also be part of James Clavell's series. Even if it isn't, you should like it if you like the others
Thanks for the recommendation though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I definitely should have been more clear. I meant that in terms of formal philosophy, she isn't usually ranked up there with Plato, Nietzsche or Kant, and that as far as literature goes, I haven't seen too many highschools advocating Atlas Shrugged . Universities might (I'm not really sure), but even then, I'm not sure it's really regarded as a "classic." I don't think everything she has to say is bad, wrong or unimp…
Ayn Rand's Atlas and Fountainhead are literature in the same sense that Harriet Beacher Stowe's "uncle Tom's Cabin" is literature. These three pulp novels address important topics, but in shamefully oversimplified ways that almost defame the topics they present. Their authors both caught lightening in a bottle by accident. West Point has no business assigning either book to any class presented to a future Army Office…