Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
Several years ago I came to the realisation that my exposure to great works of Fiction was limited and my efforts to rectify that problem were scattershot. So I decided to create a Lifetime Reading List. The list began at about 200 works and has continued to grow as new books strike me. I use the list not so much as a goal but as a guide – something to keep me focused as wander the aisles of bookstores and libraries.
Now, with your help, I would like to do the same for Non-fiction.
Here’s what I’m looking for:
1) This is a Lifetime Reading List – I am looking for works that will continue to be relevant in 10, 20, 30 years time.
2) Rule in every subject – I would like the list to be more wide than deep
3) Assume I know nothing about the subject – I would prefer big themes to granular analysis
4) Center-Right themes not necessarily required
5) Help me understand why the book you suggest is important for me to have read in my lifetime
Thank you, dear Ricofriends, for your help in compiling my list. I am very much looking forward to your suggestions and will be sure to share my Non-Fiction LRL with you upon completion.
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May '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
"Man, Economy, and State" by Murray Rothbard and "Capitalism" by George Reisman. These are among the top 10 texts on economic of all time, personally. And they are both available for free in pdf form online.
Edited on May 19, 2011 at 6:38pmJul '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
"Witness" by Whittaker Chambers.
Theme don't get no bigger.
Oct '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
Kafka novels "The Trial" and "The Castle", Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm", Ray Bradbury's "Farenhiet 451", Huxley's "Brave New World", Paulo Coelhlo's "The Alchemist."
Arthur Conan Doyle's complete Sherlock Holmes, Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" and Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon."
All of the short stories by Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns." Yes, graphic novels count, too.
Feb '11
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
For starters:
1)George Orwell's *essays*, which seem to be read much less than his fiction
2)Arthur Koestler's essays
3)Peter Drucker's "The Age of Discontinuity," a meditation on society and its institutions, especially education. Written in 1969 but still very relevant.
4)Edmund Burke, especially "Reflections on the Revolution in France"
5)Sebastian Haffner, "Defying Hitler," which despite its title is a memoir of growing up in Germany between the wars--my review is here.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
The Last Lion by William Manchester
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
My "commie" favorites:
A People's Tragedy: Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes. Gives a fantastic account of how the revolutionary forces progressed and reached its fury during Lenin's lifetime. Read it to understand the destructive power of Communism and the human tragedy that results from ideology run amok.
The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Yet another example of Communist totalitarianism and the complete lie that it produces.
Others:
Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington. A truly wonderful tale of how to earn your way to respect and dignity. If only so many of our downtrodden citizens could read this book and see how taking responsibility of their own lives can turn their fortunes around.
Basic Economics, by Thomas Sowell. I think everyone should read this book. It's simplicity and common sense make understanding economics so much easier.
A Conflict of Visions, by Thomas Sowell. He describes the age-old battle we fight today and will always fight.
The Road to Serfdom, by Freidrich Hayek. I know various members discount Hayek relative to other scholars, but this gives a great foundation to understanding the free market and the dangers of centralized decision making and government intervention.
Edited on May 19, 2011 at 7:18pmJun '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
By the way, I'd love to see your list of fictional works.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
The Law by Frederic Bastiat. It's clear and concise, but also so profound. Anyone and everyone should read.
Apr '11
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
I'm not sure a list I suggested would be helpful, but here are two lists to consider from a couple of gentlemen who really know what they are talking about:
http://www.vincehuston.org/books/top_30_books.html
Edited on May 19, 2011 at 7:40pmJun '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
4 books by Barbara Tuchman: A Distant Mirror; Bible and Sword; The Guns of August; The Proud Tower
Martin Gilbert's biography of Winston Churchill
A Prince of Our Disorder, The Life of T.E. Lawrence by John E. Mack
The Forgotten Man, a new history of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes
Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
Ratification, The People Debate the Constitution by Pauline Maier
Wizard, The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla by Marc J. Seifer
Churchill And The Jews by Martin Gilbert
The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester
Man Is Wolf To Man, Surviving the Gulag by Janusz Bardach and Kathleen Gleeson
Magnetic Mountain by Stephen Kotkin
Last Exit to Utopia, The Survival of Socialism in a Post-Soviet Era by Jean-Francois Revel
The Origin of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
How The Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman
Anything by Solzhenitsyn, Aldous Huxley, The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, anything by Gordon Wood, Thomas Sowell...ditto on the Last Lion by Manchester as well as Manchester's A World Lit Only By Fire
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
I'm sure most of my list would be duplicative of others'. So here are a few more obscure works:
The Burning Tigris, by Peter Balakian. A history of the Armenian genocide which will haunt you for the rest of your days.
A World Lit Only by Fire: the Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, by William Manchester. A reminder that as great civilizations rise, so do they fall - and then, through sparks of genius, rise again.
Darwin's Black Box, by Michael Behe. A biochemist's seminal work on intelligent design.
The Conservative Mind: from Burke to Eliot, by Russell Kirk.
Mar '11
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
You guys are fantastic! Keep 'em coming.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
"The Revolt of the Masses" by Jose Ortega y Gasset
"The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" by Bernard Bailyn
"From Dawn to Decadence" by Jacques Barzun
Anything written by Paul Johnson
Nov '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
"Night" by Eli Wiesel, although technically fiction, is generally regarded as nonfiction. A personal account of the Holocaust that reminds us of the horrifying extremes to which otherwise intelligent people can be lead by mere words. For those in the St. Louis area, Wiesel will be giving the commencement address at Washington University tomorrow morning.
A second vote for "Basic Economics". An entertaining primer for the economically illiterate like me.
Feb '11
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
"Cathedral, Forge, & Waterwheel," by Frances & Joseph Gies, is a useful corrective to the common view of the Middle Ages as a time of complete technological stagnation. Rodney Stark explores a related theme in "The Victory of Reason," in which he argues for the role of Christianity and the Middle Ages in explaining Western success.
E P Thompson, "The Making of the English Working Class," is a well-written social history of early industrialization. "Turning Points in Western Technology," D S Cardwell, explores why the industrial revolution happened mainly in Britain rather than in France.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
This would be a nice post for the Main Feed, so non-members could benefit.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
Contributors are waiting for One of Their books to be mentioned.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
"Novus Ordo Seclorum" by Forrest McDonald
Feb '11
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
Brian's mention of "Magnetic Mountain," which I have not read, reminded me of a couple of other books about the Soviet Union. "Black on Red" is the memoir of Robert Robinson, a black American toolmaker who in 1930 accepted a one-year assignment to apply his skills in the Soviet Union. He didn’t get out until 1974. His first renewals of his Soviet residency were voluntary; his later residency there, not so much.
"Bitter Waters: Life and Work in Stalin’s Russia," by Gennady Andreev-Khomiakov, is a fascinating look at the Soviet economic system in the 1930s, as viewed from the front lines of that system. The author became assistant manager of a sawmill, working for an excellent executive who was doing his best in a very difficult situation. I reviewed it here.
May '11
Re: Ricochet Reading List - Need Your Help
Both of John Stossel's books
Larry Elder's books
Bias, Arrogance, A Slobbering Love Affair; The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media by Bernie Goldberg
America Alone by Mark Steyn
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism by Kevin Williamson
Fed Up! by Rick Perry