# Recommend me some intellectual books?



## Charles (Jul 3, 2010)

In any field.

Truly, I'm looking to warp my mind in new and painful directions, and I'm willing to explore anything that you guys deem interesting.

With the doldrums of summer approaching, I feel my mind steadily declining in terms of function and I want to halt that before I find myself in front of the couch watching Steven Seagal movies at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

When I think of intellectual books I usually think of non-fiction stuff, but if you guys can suggest anything that is intellectually heavy fiction I'd be more than keen on that too.

Thanks!


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## Lord_Elixer (Jul 3, 2010)

I have 3 (collapsing) bookshelves, most of which are fiction, but many reference too.
It would be hard for me to suggest any of them as I am unsure of your interests. Personally, I love science. "Introduction to Quantum Physics" blew my mind and forced me to buy the rest of the "Introduction to" range lol


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## Awfulwaffle (Jul 3, 2010)

That depends on your definition of 'intellectual'. Are we talkin sciences and the like, or just any thought provoking book?


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## Charles (Jul 3, 2010)

Awfulwaffle said:


> That depends on your definition of 'intellectual'. Are we talkin sciences and the like, or just any thought provoking book?



More of the latter, as I've yet to have the educational background to truly benefit from any independent study of sciences.


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## fretninjadave (Jul 3, 2010)

Very interesting book about the quirks of modern humans.


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## Awfulwaffle (Jul 3, 2010)

Ah well in that case, I'd suggest Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich. It's a book comprised of monologues by various people affected by the Chernobyl disaster, from the first response firefighters that weren't properly equipped to deal with radiation to the peasants that were forcibly displaced from the surrounding areas. Shit's downright tragic, and it really made me think. I've only read it in Russian, but IK for a fact that I've seen an english copy or two at my local bookstore.


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## Charles (Jul 3, 2010)

^^ That's exactly the stuff I'm looking for, thanks. Keep it coming, gentleman, anything you can think of.


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## AK DRAGON (Jul 3, 2010)

Many references on Man and Dog's humble beginnings


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## Peekaboo_eeeeek (Jul 3, 2010)

Charles said:


> ^^ That's exactly the stuff I'm looking for, thanks. Keep it coming, gentleman, anything you can think of.



Well, I'm not a gentleman, and it's not really a "manly" book, but is by no means a chick-flick, and is very thought provoking (albeit not in the same league as the chernobyl stuff hah). 
It's "The Satanic Witch" by Anton LaVay - and no, it's not about potions and such. It's more an observation of how to read people via body types, body language and personality for your own gain. It _does_ tend to focus on women, but it's something that can be equally useful to men if correctly absorbed & applied!


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## liquidcow (Jul 3, 2010)

Charles said:


> ^^ That's exactly the stuff I'm looking for, thanks. Keep it coming, gentleman, anything you can think of.



In that case maybe try Underground by Haruki Murakami. It's his only non-fiction book, it's about the Tokyo subway gas attacks and is mainly constructed from interviews with victims and some of the cult members involved.


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## MFB (Jul 3, 2010)




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## Explorer (Jul 4, 2010)

The Basque History of the World - Mark Kurlansky

Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture - Mark Harris (short and accessible, but hugely illuminating)

Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond

Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine - Jasper Becker

I don't want to load you down, of course....


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jul 4, 2010)

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Heeeeaaavy. There's an entire chapter that's almost completely palindromic.

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Autobiographical, somehow ends up in the "Religion" section of the B&N near me, rather than "Philosophy", which I would think is more appropriate. Basically chronicles some dude going crazy while trying to figure out aesthetics and talking about "Quality" (with a capital 'Q').

Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Probably the most accessible of the books I've mentioned, and most certainly my favorite. There are some translations that are better than others. I have the Constance Garnett translation, which is quite decent.


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## Awfulwaffle (Jul 4, 2010)

It's not quite along the lines of the first book I suggested, but I really enjoyed reading A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester. It's a comprehensive history of the renaissance and the socioeconomic/religious factors that shaped it, and while Manchester does tend to be a bit biased it's still an interesting read imo.


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## Pauly (Jul 4, 2010)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

EDIT - beaten to it! 

Er... The Alchemist, The War of Art, The Fabric of the Cosmos, Just Six Numbers, In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, Candide (short story, Voltaire), A History of Western Philosophy, blah blah blah.


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## Daemoniac (Jul 4, 2010)

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
1984 - George Orwell
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Name of The Rose - Umberto Eco
Just about anything by H. G. Wells is a really good read too


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## t3sser4ct (Jul 4, 2010)

Lots of good suggestions so far. Here are some of mine.
*
This Is Your Brain On Music* by Daniel J. Levitin. An interesting look at the theoretical, psychological, and neurological aspects of music. It doesn't go too deep into any particular category (good for the casual reader), but there's still some VERY interesting stuff in here.
*
Atlas Shrugged* by Ayn Rand. Novel about Rand's economic and sociological ideas and philosophies. Somewhat controversial. Maybe a little pretentious. Still a classic.
_
*Manufacturing Consent*_ by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. Non-fiction work which explores how the mainstream media essentially peddles propaganda and shapes the minds of the masses. I'd also highly recommend any of Chomsky's other works (aside from his technical stuff on linguistics, unless you're pursuing that).
_
*Mein Kampf*_ by Adolf Hitler. A long and boring read, but it's interesting to have insight into what made the most notorious leader in recent history tick.


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## White Cluster (Jul 4, 2010)

Noam Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent
Gore Vidal - Live From Golgotha


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## Mexi (Jul 5, 2010)

t3sser4ct said:


> _*Mein Kampf*_ by Adolf Hitler. A long and boring read, but it's interesting to have insight into what made the most notorious leader in recent history tick.



a very poorly written book that is incoherent at best. It's moreso a collection of his rambling thoughts about jews than an actual legitimate exercise in literature.

edit: I would suggest, however, Declarations of Independence by Howard Zinn, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.


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## josh pelican (Jul 5, 2010)

This book really puts a new perspective on life.


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## t3sser4ct (Jul 5, 2010)

Mexi said:


> a very poorly written book that is incoherent at best. It's moreso a collection of his rambling thoughts about jews than an actual legitimate exercise in literature.


Agreed. But I think it's still worth reading, not as literature, but as an artifact of a deranged mind.


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## Durero (Jul 5, 2010)

MFB said:


>



+1 a must read!

Also by the same author (Daniel Quinn) If They Give You Lined Paper Write Sideways.


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## Bren (Jul 5, 2010)

I would recommend the "Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. an awesome book! 
Or, another one, just as good (and as unusual  ) would be the "Life of Pi" by Yan MArtel... 
both of those are weird books, but are fantastic reads!


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## Trespass (Jul 6, 2010)

*Jorge Luis Borges.* He has several short story anthologies, pick any. (Labyrinths, Ficciones are great)

Very thick, allusion filled reading. I have Wikipedia open to catch anything I'm not sure of (and he'll regularly mix in real allusions with "real sounding" allusions). Very philosophical and fascinating works. The best part is, his largest short story is only 19 pages or so, with some topping out at 4 or 5.


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## matty2fatty (Jul 6, 2010)

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Neitzsche. It's a bit of a slog at times but has some really interesting ideas

The Trial by Kafka

The Ingenuity Gap by Thomas Homer Dixon. This is about how people have managed to engineer systems that are complex to the point of us not actually being able to control them (economic, social, technological, etc). Pretty interesting

Then, for the ultimate in intellectual bullshit books, refer to my sig, haha. If you can get through Ulysses and understand everything you deserve a PHd in English (I did not/do not)


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## pink freud (Jul 6, 2010)

MFB said:


>



THIS THIS THIS.

This novel was so provoking that I'm on the fifth person I've loaned it out to.


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## thraxil (Jul 6, 2010)

Seconding GEB, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Manufacturing Consent.

Adding: 

Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK (very dry writing and a bit tedious in parts but an overall amazing look at the intersection of industrial music, post-modernism, art criticism, and eastern european politics)

Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law in a Nutshell by Kenney F. Hegland (gives you the basics of how lawyers and judges think about and interpret law, the role of precedence, how law developed into what it is, and why that's very important)

Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court by Edward Lazarus (read the Nutshell book first, but then this gives a nice view of how things work in practice at the highest levels)

Letters From the Earth by Mark Twain (published posthumously because it had some pretty controversial, blasphemous stuff)

The Golden Bough by James George Frazer (unmatched on myth and the development of religion)


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