To Rowane

To Rowane

*Because you're asking for a list of things to read (on the Philosophical side)

1 The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce- Hilarious. Satirical and witty. It's like 500 pages of word definitions that will make you laugh AND think. This one's reeaaally good.

2 Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietszche- This is where the famous "God is dead" statement came from.

3 Medea, by Euripedes- A lesson on feminism, racism, chauvinism, morality and, of course, mythology. Features Jason of the Argonauts as an extreme ass.

4 1984, George Orwell- If you read this you'll never look at "Big Brother" the same way ever again.

5 The Animal Farm, George Orwell- Allegory on communism. Amusing. Disturbing. Amusing.

6 Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler- Disturbing. Cruelly brilliant.

7 Dialogo, by Galileo Galilei- Haven't read it in full yet, just saw it on "Great Books" on Discovery Channel. I remember Simplitio. Hahaha. *If you know him then you know why I'm laughing.

8 The Republic, by Plato- Again, not in full. Idealistic and rather unreal, but he makes sense from the "philo" standpoint.

9 The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli- Reads like a textbook, but somewhere in the mumbo-jumbo of words there are real gems of thought, like:"If harm must be done to a man, then it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared."and"It is better to be feared than to be loved."

10 Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorn- Creepy gloom and doom of the finest kind. Amazing short story. Will leave you amazed.11 The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir- The handbook of feminism.

*Really really good writers (for light reading)

1 Sidney Sheldon- Take it from someone who's read 14 of the 18 novels. (Yes I am a fan.) The best in my opinion is "The Master of the Game," closely followed by "The Sands of Time," "The Windmills of the Gods," and "If Tomorrow Comes." Aack. I wanna write all the titles. I think I have a list with summaries of that somewhere in this blog... Sometime during the summer...

2 Kathy Reichs- I have 6 of her 9 novels. What's good about her is the facts and the way that the story is delivered. Also because she is a real forensic anthropologist like her heroine Temperance Brennan.

3 Patricia Cornwell- Like Kathy Reichs.

4 Jefferey Deaver- Seriously. You are missing half of your life if you've never read his "The Vanished Man." All the Lincoln Rhyme novels are GOOD. I swear.

5 Michael Crichton- Really good sci fi action mysteries. He wrote Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Sphere, The Terminal Man, Next, Prey, The Andromeda Strain, The Rising Sun, Timeline, A Case of Need, and Congo. These are all movie material plots. Extremely fascinating books.

6 Louis Sachar- Young adult books. The Wayside Stories (3 books) are hilarious. You will never stop laughing.

7 Stephen King- Duh. Read his short stories and your life will never be the same. Hahaha. "Night Shift" is one collection that includes tales like "Children of the corn" and "Jerusalem's Lot."

8 Christopher Pike- Like Stephen King. But his protagonists are often teenagers, as I've seen from the 8 books I read. *Kim, borrow if you have new ones! Hahaha.

9 John Grisham- Ah, the law. My personal favorite is "The Firm." He has a lot of books out there... All about the law. And he makes it interesting. It's cool. Hahahaha. I remember this anecdote:"In law school, there was a student who forgot to study for his exams. When the papers were returned, his teacher's comment read,'You have a real talent for fiction.' " Yeah, that became John Grisham. I swear, his books are good.

10 Dan Brown- I am seriously wondering why he stopped at four books. Anyway. The best (and it's still my favorite after all this time) is Angels and Demons. Second best, Deception Point. Then Da Vinci Code. Then Digital Fortress.

--------------------NO I AM NOT A BOOKWORM.