December 29, 2008
Review, What to Read
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I enjoy the writing of Leo Babauta (Zen Habits) and came across his 50 favourite fiction and 20 favourite non-fiction books.
This guy is one of my favourite internet writers, so I am enticed by his recommendations.
Top Five Zen Habits Non-fiction books:
The nonfiction books are mainly self-help. This is a whole new genre beyond the non-fiction novel, which I am more familiar with. I have read a couple from this list, and they are excellent. If you have not read anything in this area, it is a whole different experience to reading fiction.
- Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robins.
- Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, by Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey.
- Simplify Your Life, by Elaine St. James.
- The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama.
- Getting Things Done, by David Allen.
Top Five Zen Habits Fiction books:
The fiction list was inspired by the other classic must-read lists, and it contains a lot of old faithfuls, but also some unexpected gems.
- King Lear, by Shakespeare
- Hamlet, by Shakespeare.
- The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Tender Is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, by James Joyce
December 22, 2008
What to Read
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Life Optimizer scoured Delicious popular and collated the books that got the most recommendations for 2008. As a result, he has collected a list of 47 highly endorsed books. This would be an excellent start for your 2009 reading plans.
I have reproduced the top twenty on the list. Read the rest of the list and more detail on the statistics here.
- 1984 by George Orwell (Read it)
- Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter
- The Bible by multiple authors (Read it)
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Gave up on it)
- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (on TBR)
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (Read it)
- The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (on TBR)
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig (read it)
- Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Tried this one twice. Still on TBR)
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Mount TBR)
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (Towering tower of TBR)
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
- Foundation by Isaac Asimov (TBR)
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (TBR)
- Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding (TBR)
And yes, I admit that my to be read (TBR) pile is ridiculous.