What 5 books?

So, it appears we have at least a few OTers who are literate (who knew?). What 5 books do you think everyone should read? There is no need to include the Bible in the list. For those who find the Bible valuable, it will likely be on the list. For those who do not, it is unlikely it would make their list.

I'll have to post my list later, it seems this is more difficult than I thought.

A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson.
A walk across America. - Peter Jenkins
The Righetous Mind - Jonathan Haidt
Last child in the woods - Richard Louv
Demon haunted world - Carl Sagan

Good question...this will definitely take a little thought. I could blast 5 out there now, but I'd probably change them in 20 minutes.

However...I just finished "Pimp" by Iceberg Slim. I'm not saying it's in my top 5 list, but it had some insights that everybody should have. I'm not even remotely being sarcastic.

How to argue and win every time Gerry Spence

This should be on everyone�s list

The Cat in The Hat
Cows Can Moo Can You
Green Eggs and Ham
Thing 1 and Thing 2
One Cent, Two Cents, Old Cent, New Cent

Some thoughts concerning education, John Locke

The autobiography of Ben Franklin

Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein

The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

I'd also add "Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams. Yes, I know it's a collection of assorted unfinished writings, excerpts, speeches, and other bits and bobs but the way he wrote and there's some really good bits in there that need a greater view to the outside world.

Sagan was great, as is Bryson. I don't tend to suggest fiction because everybody is different in what they like. But the nonfiction that has shaped my understanding of the world is what makes this list.

1 fish, 2 fish, redfish, bluefish smokes em all

1. This is Water by David Foster Wallace (short read you can find for free on the web. Do it.)
2. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansign
3. The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
4. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris
5. Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution by Kenneth R. Miller

Note these are not necessarily my favorite books, but books I think everyone should read.

Honorable mention: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
Love Does by Bob Goff
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

I'm not sure that there are any books that EVERYONE should read.
A book that means a lot, or influences, some people may not have any relevance to someone else.
Now there are books I like to recommend.

James And The Giant Peach is pretty good. The book is better than the movie.

The Art of the Deal...or anything by Dr. Seuss if this confuses you. At this point what difference would it make.
Anne Frank
To Kill a Pit Bull Mockingbird
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
...and any science book/publication...or fishing hunting book/mag if science isn't your thing.

The trilogy - Lord of the Rings I know it�s 3 books but once you start you can�t stop
The Fountainhead - Ann Rand
Chuck Yeager�s autobiography

Went to opening night of the first LOR movies, and when we got to the last scene, you could hear the groaning and lack of satisfaction. I was so disappointed in humanity at that time. I blurted out, "People, it's a trilogy. There's 2 more coming. You should try reading for a change."

The Stand - Stephen King
Any Zane Grey books

For you baseball nuts you gotta read Strike Two by Ron Luciano

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon A. Mackenzie
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
The Practical Angler: Or, The Art of Trout-fishing, More Particularly Applied to Clear Water by William C. Stewart
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Ken Follet:
Pillars of the Earth
Fall of Giants
Winter of the World
Edge of Eternity
Any of the Lucas Davenport/Virgil Flowers series by John Sandford

Death in the Long Grass by Peter Capstick. It's about the adventures of a big game hunter in Africa.

Agree on PImp. Fantastic book. Raw mentality.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

John Wooden: A lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court
Douglas Adams: Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange
Carl Sagan: Intelligent life in the universe
Plato: The Republic
Aristotle: The complete works

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Both books would fit nicely in your list

Unbroken

Private Parts... .........Howard Stern
Miss America.... .........Howard Stern
Scar tissue......... .....Anthony Kiedis
The Heroin Diaries....... Nikki Sixx
The Pillars of the Earth..Ken Follett

I've read 2 on this list

Where the red fern grows
The outsiders
Mere Christianity
The hunt for red october
The jungle

Hunt for red October is a great read....

My wife said Fifty Shades Freed is probably the best of the series.

The power of Positive Thinking- Rev Dr.Norman Vincent Peale

FIFY

Citizen Soldier by Stephen Ambrose.

Busted

The wife is really into Scott Hildreth books right now, she got the limited edition mystery box

I'm currently reading P.O.B. magazine

My wife reads a lot of profit & Loss statements ....just turrible

maybe Chuck F*

1984- George Orwell
Lonesome Dove- Larry McMurtry
The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut
The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger

Is the part where the dude gets bit by all the water moccasins in the book?

I strongly second this recommendation - homework for trial preparation several years ago but sage wisdom applicable to life in general. Would also add Sun Tzu - The Art of War...

Borderland - Bud Shrake
The Son - Phillip Meyers
Into Thin Air - Krakauer
Go Down Together - Jeff Guinn
Our Final Invention - James Barratt
Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
The Incredible Journey - Sheila Burnford

I have read these recently & some years ago also

great suggestions

We had a one armed marine/ sixth grade science teacher that read Where the Red Fern Grows to his class every year. A few pages a day after we finished up our science work. I could not wait to get to his class every day. He would finish it up at the end of the school year and cry like a baby, as would every kid in the class, all through the last chapter. He taught there for 30 years and was one of the finest men I have ever known. Thank you for mentioning that Bob, I will be reading that again very soon.

This is a very good list, and I have actually read all of them. One change though - replace Slaughterhouse Five with Citizen Soldier. As a bonus I will toss out one book that no one should read, even though it shows up near or at the top of lists of greatest novels ever written - James Joyce's Ulysses, only matched for awfulness by his other "great" work, Finnegans Wake. I still hate my English Lit teacher for making me read those pieces of garbage.

I think Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey were basically the same story told much better.

Unintended Consequences maybe my all time favorite ... John Ross

The Federalist Papers ... Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

Advise and Consent ... Allen Drury

Gilead ... by Marilynne Robinson

The Conscience of a Conservative ... Barry Goldwater

Atlas Shrugged , should be on everyone's reading list ... Ayn Rand

The Gulag Archipelago ... Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Anything by Louis LAmour
'

1. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
2. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
3. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
5. The 7 Haits of Highly Successful People - Stephen Covey

1. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

2. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

3. Lord of the Flies William Golding

4. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

5. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

Empire of the Summer Moon



Mo

forgot that one

I'm a little surprised that The Catcher in the Rye has come up so many times. It's a great book and one of my favorites. Bit it is also one of the most banned books in school/public libraries.

To all of you that recommended it a question. Have you ever seen or been involved in an attempted ban of it?

I guess when I hear "books everyone should read," I think about books that are going to really change perspectives or improve peoples lives. Certainly the classics are good reads, and some of them obviously can be though provoking... That said, I can't think of too many folks who would attribute their success to the Great Gatsby or the Lord of Flies.

Mindset - Carol Dweck
From Baghdad, With Love - LtCol Jay Kopelman
Maus - Art Spiegelman
Any Sigma series by James Rollins
Koran (Qur'an) - I am a Christian. However, I refuse to form an opinion of a 1,000 page text or an entire religion based on a few cherry-picked lines found on the interweb.

Plato and Aristotle were the same person Some have said.


But as too books.

Into the Wild- Jon Krakauer

Boy Kings of Texas- Domingo Martinez

Walden (On Waldens Pond)- Henry David Thoreau

Common Sense/The Rights of Men- Thomas Paine (more manuscripts, but still)

A Confederacy of Dunces- John Kennedy Toole

Thanks for all the suggestions. This ought to keep me busy for awhile.

That would be Socrates
There are some that theorize Socrates was an alias Plato manufactured to avoid political persecution.

Plato and Aristotle have been verified to have existed as two different individuals.

Plato 428 BC to 348 BC
Aristotle 384 BC to 322 BC

Socrates 470 BC ??? to 399 BC ???

Reading/Viewing/Experiencing great art changes us in ways that mental gymnastics never will.

I find this curious too, and wonder if it's legend is better than the book itself.

Yes, but adding to your understanding of the universe changes perspectives. To be able to see the changes in effect from children not being allowed to roam by themselves and get into trouble with minimal adult supervision teaches responsibility for their own actions in ways that books never will. We can draw direct correlations between lack of time spent outdoors playing in nature and cases of anxiety, poor self control, lack of a sense of responsibility for one's own actions, and a lack of desire of control.

Haight explains where morality comes from. Adams explains how we have a tendency to look at the universe with a "top down" complexity, when in truth it is reversed... and you can watch that from programming computers in a way that wasn't readily apparent in previous generations.

Art is a requirement for a well rounded life. And yes, there are MANY books I would suggest to broaden horizons in fiction. But for reccomended reading to broaden your understanding of this thing called life, I would suggest non-fiction first.

Catcher has been railed at by literary critics almost as much as it has been applauded but no doubt it sits as one of the best 20th century American novels

Didn't read it in school but I wasn't a fan of catcher in the rye. It just didn't hold my attention.

I'm not a fan of forcing kids to slog through boring books. Teach them a passion for reading and the rest will come. Literary classics are spectacular and dramatically help understand the human condition. But if you give kids boring books, and force them to read them, then they're not going to want to read much as adults.

Old Man's War
Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything
Animal Farm
Fuzzy Nation

I still don't have my five, but I have one of them. It's hard to think of books that *everyone* should read. I can think of many great and enjoyable, even important, reads...but I can't really justify everybody needing to read them.

Anyway, I do have my first of the five, but I'm going to cheat a little, because it is actually 8 books, but since they are all published as a single volume, in one book, I'm going to call it one book.

"John Muir: The Eight Wilderness Discovery Books"

I think as Americans one of the greatest assets we have, collectively, is our wilderness. It truly is a defining asset of America, and it's an absolutely finite resource. We're all charged with its protection, and if any generation screws up that responsibility, future generations will forever live with the consequences.

Since literally every single one of us shares this responsibility, I think we ought to all have a little knowledge of where this whole idea of protecting our wild spaces came from. To do that, you don't really need to look any further than Muir. I believe anybody who reads Muir comes away a better conservationist, and that serves us all.

1. Wild at Heart - John Eldredge
2. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
3. The Shack - William Paul Young
4. Good to Great - Jim Collins
5. Washington's Crossing - David Fischer

Yes My apologies.

I misspoke.

if you like that you really need to read "The Son"

you were able to get through "The Boy Kings" ?

I thought it was greatness. But I am familiar with that culture so I could relate to it in ways maybe you did not.

His follow up book was total garbage though. "MY Heart Is A Drunken Compass". Total waste. Too bad bcs Boy Kings was excellent IMO.

Actually, some of the most successful people in the world say Great Gatsby was an important read, somewhat influencing their success. I read a Business Insider article a few months ago that was about the books successful people(very subjective) recommend and Great Gatsby was in the top 25(I think) books recommended by the world's most successful people. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: Found It! http://www.businessinsider.com/the-world...se-books-2015-2
Gatsby ranked #15 out of 20. Warren Buffet was one of the names dropped in the article, who knows.

During my search for it I also found Bill Gate's top 10 favorite books, in which Great Gatsby is listed as the book he "re-reads the most". He mentions a quote out of the book that could really influence a person's life: �His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.� https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/t-magazine/my-10-favorite-books-bill-gates.html

Personally I think there quite a few potentially life-changing lessons in Great Gatsby.

The Brotherhood of War - W.E.B Griffin

It's a series of 10 books about 4 men, their careers and friendship through the officer ranks from the end of WWII to retirement. Good fun read.

These are not life changing books just fun.