A few years back I participated in one of those old blogospheric themes, "the book meme", in this case a discussion of books that have made an impact on ones thinking. (My brother also participated.) A new one is making the rounds: Tyler Cowen started with Books that have influenced me most. Terry Teachout and Ross Douthat also weighed in. Since I've been reading serious books for some 40 years, I probably can't even remember every book that has had an impact on me, but here are some memorable ones that have influenced me the most. Readers are encouraged to list some of theirs in comments.
The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer. See my first link above for my description.
War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage by Lawrence Keeley. Completely explodes the myth mentioned in the subtitle and shows how and why death rates due to military violence in primitive societies were orders of magnitude higher than in civilized societies.
The Bell Curve by Murray and Herrnstein. No commentary needed.
A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark. How evolution caused the Industrial Revolution.
Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell. See also the first link for my description. I would now put it in stronger terms that, while Russell is a fascinating writer and his books are eye-openers for anyone raised in the conventional wisdom that prevailed before our glorious modern world, his personal life was contemptible, based on my reading of the massive two-volume biography by Ray Monk. Also, since I now believe that the old conventional wisdom was largely correct, but am unwilling to go back and re-read Russell, he was probably more wrong than I was able to understand at the time.
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. The author demolishes the lipid hypothesis of heart disease, which has dominated thinking on public health for 40 years and did so much damage. A hundred years from now this book will still be seen as a landmark.
The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. When I decided that I wanted to know world history I read this. Yes, all 11 volumes, and never dull.
Class by Paul Fussell. Totally changed my view of the world as "a painfully accurate guide to the American status system". Hilarious, too. Today it would need serious updating to bring race into the equation, something even the iconoclastic Fussell, liberal that he is, wouldn't be up to.
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Evolution by Greg Cochran and Henry Harpending. I may be suffering from recency bias here, but this much-discussed book will change ones view of the world. Until quite recently, conventional wisdom said that human evolution stopped long ago, and this book will disabuse the reader of that notion. Must reading for anyone who still thinks Stephen Jay Gould was anything but a dogmatic Marxist.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I've read it four times, though I might be embarrassed if I went through it again. In my travels, I've always been surprised that not a single non-American I've spoken to has heard of this book that has greatly influenced American culture.
I have read four of these which you list (and will be reading Taubes soon - though I have already gotten the gist of the book from a long video lecture).
ReplyDeleteThree of them also had a large impact on my life but especially Thoreau's Walden (as a teenager and then again in my thirties) and Greg Clark (much more recently, obviously).
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings had incomparably the greatest impact of any book on my life (from age 13) - and this continues.
I wonder how many adult Americans could even name 10 books they've read for pleasure or out of interest in the subject.
ReplyDeleteI hope this isn't a sign of shallowness, but I'd be hard pressed to think of 10 books that on their own turned my life or thought around. Many have formed a mosaic in my development, each contributing its own little bit, with a few bigger and more colorful than others.
It occurs to me that, although I haven't read a Robert A. Heinlein novel since I was in high school (by which time I had read almost every word he published), he may have been the single most influential writer in shaping my outlook.
The amazing thing about Heinlein was that his books were full of ideas, but with occasional exceptions like Starship Troopers, I never felt like I was reading a lecture or sermon. And even Starship Troopers was a cracking story in spite of the extreme militarism.
In contrast, although I credit Aldous Huxley with leading me toward the spiritual path, today I find his novels and most of his later essays impossibly preachy. Huxley seems to have been a tragic figure, a brilliant man who had insight into mysticism and wanted to be a mystic, but could never transcend his intellect — except perhaps in his LSD experiments, which in my view may have been remarkable experiences but not real mysticism.
Schopenhauer is an enormity. A thunderclap when I discovered him in my twenties. Yes! Of course we are nothing but Will manifested. Of course we are appetite, need, want. Which cannot ever be satisfied. Which is endlessly thwarted. Thwarted Will. Our condition. Painful. This is truth. I knew it to be the truth at twenty. I know it now.
ReplyDeleteThat others have classified him - belittled him really - as a pessimist is their problem. The unflinching truth. That is his gift to us.
What a towering figure is Schopenhauer.
"In contrast, although I credit Aldous Huxley with leading me toward the spiritual path, today I find his novels and most of his later essays impossibly preachy. Huxley seems to have been a tragic figure, a brilliant man who had insight into mysticism and wanted to be a mystic, but could never transcend his intellect — except perhaps in his LSD experiments, which in my view may have been remarkable experiences but not real mysticism."
ReplyDeleteExactly what is "spirituality" and "the spiritual path"? What is "real mysticism"? I honestly have gotten no idea nowadays of what people mean by it.
This youtube movie could just as well have been me giving my opinion/experience on the subject: YouTube - Spirituality [ZOMGitsCriss]
"Philosophical Investigations" by Wittgenstein would be the most important book on my list, because it's so generally applicable. When I first read it as a young man I never thought it would be so useful. But now I find that I carry these ideas with me all the time and, in fact, that it would not be possible to think at all without absorbing the core ideas of this book.
ReplyDeleteAt the next level of importance I will mention three authors. First "Om undran inför samhället" by Johan Asplund. He engages in grand social theory in the best possible sense of the word. So many insights, especially regarding how to approach the understanding of social phenomena and human myths. Unfortunately he thinks that the essence of a text gets lost if you translate it, and therefore refuses being published in other languages.
Then Nietzsche: I would pick the "Genealogy of the morals". And Machiavelli, "Il Principe". Unlike other authors there is no wishful thinking whatsoever in the writings of Nietzsche and Machiavelli. Most people hate this of course. They like to read as a way to make their dreams come alive. Machiavelli is the most pure social scientist we can find. He simply explains things as they are in a disinterested way. And Nietzsche cuts through the many layers of human wishful thinking equally well, and essentially predicted much of the disaster we are living through today, and explained its origin.
After that, Edmund Burke's criticism of the French Revolution. The best book written on political ideology, just since it's without ideology. So much wisdom in it.
Then Eduard Bernstein's "Die Vorraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie" (for some reason called "Evolutionary Socialism" in English). The best criticism of Marxism ever written, among other things.
I guess I need to list the Koran too. Reading and understanding the Koran is most certainly essential.
That's seven books so far. I haven't read all of the Bible. But I read all the letters of Paul, and the relevant context for them. This is essential too.
I'm not sure I would recommend the whole book, but there are important ideas in John Gaventa's book Power and Powerlessness without which I would be quite lost in my analysis of our society. Or maybe I should rather mention Hans-Hermann Hoppe's "Democracy: The God that failed"?
Finally I could mention Fernando "Ferfal" Aguirre's "Surviving the economic collapse".
In summary, philosophy, power theory and keys to understanding/decoding human mythology is what I found most important. Many of the books I mention cannot be read in isolation, but require other reading beforehand to make sense.
Try James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner. No novel I've ever read is likelier to shiver your timbers.
ReplyDeleteI read a couple of books there. The good calories, bad calories one is really good.
ReplyDeleteI fully recommend Jean Francois Revel - Flight From Truth. This book deals with how ideology works and it even touches upon anti-racism(read anti-white).
1. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and its follow-up, "Lila: An Inquiry into Morals", by Robert Pirsig. Made me aware of the central importance of Quality to the meaning of life, which has given me joy and comfort pretty much every day since then.
ReplyDelete2. The End of Scarcity, by Julian Simon. The book that single-handedly started my turn away from leftist environmentalism by making a powerful case that the alarmism of the environmentalists was unfounded.
3. "The Importance of Living", by Lin Yutang. Showed me a new, light, playful way of seeing life.
4. "The Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged". For all the usual reasons.
5. "Anna Karenina/War and Peace", by Tolstoy. Probably the best novels I ever read - amazing insight into human behavior.
6. "Journey to Ixtlan" and the other books by Carlos Castaneda. Important to me in my 20s when I was all about walking the spiritual path.
7. "Embracing the Fear" by Bemis/Barrada. Taught me a technique that allowed me to conquer the panic attacks that were taking over my life at one point.
8. "Journeys Out of the Body", by Robert Monroe. Taught me that average people could learn to experience OOBEs, which directly led to me experiencing them myself and changed my view of the meaning of life forever.
9. "The White Mountains" and the other books in the Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher. My favorite books when I was a young teen - kids successfuly fighting off an alien invasion.
10. "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." Man, I love that guy. Smart, sensible, inventive, inquisitive, a leader, a wit. One of the reasons I feel so much affection for and loyalty to what America was.
MnMark: Glad you mentioned Lin Yutang's "The Importance of Living", which almost went onto my list. A classic of everyday philosophy, a sort of Chinese Thoreau.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are really amazing and just so different from me and the other average joes.
ReplyDeleteI was raised in a way where TV shows are more important than any books.
There haven't been any interests in politics, economics and society issues so I grew up
believing these things are boring.
And I guess I am no exception nowadays.
It's just since recently(maybe 2 years ago) I have abolished my TV
and started reading (serious) books and blogs.
But I'm already 25 now and my pesonality and thinking patterns are already manifested so my potential is definitely limited. Just have a look at my poor English skills :)
However, I hope Fjordman will show up here and share his list of most influential books with us.
"Philosophical Investigations" by Wittgenstein would be the most important book on my list.
ReplyDeleteDespite our different thoughts wrt HIV, I share your view of "Philosophical Investigations." That's the one book that has most affected me over the years.
Thanks to all for the book ideas.
MnMark,
ReplyDeleteAs a longtime student of psychical research, I am interested in OOBEs. Is there a way I can get in touch with you or vice versa to hear about your experiences?
Rick
There was the weekend when I was ten or so that I read 1984 and Brave New World one after the other.
ReplyDeleteMore recently, Atlas Shrugged was something I experienced like an ongoing bolt of lightning over the course of about a week. I reread it during the campaign in 2008 just to keep track of how many times Paulson and Obama and Bush were unknowingly quoting the bad guys (often, word-for-word quotes). Her model of reality isn't complete, and I disagree with her prescriptions, but as a work of analysis of consequences, it should be essential reading.
I constantly return to H. Beam Piper's _Space Viking_. Available here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20728
Yes it's a rip-roaring sci-fi adventure involving lots of spaceships blowing up and massacring tons of faceless Other People. It's also a primer on civilization, and how it falls. Piper knew exactly what he was talking about. I really wish he hadn't killed himself.
And finally, Watership Down. It isn't so much about rabbits, it's about leadership, and survival.
Some books not yet mentioned:
ReplyDeleteCharles Murray's long essay in Commentary from 2005 The Inequality Taboo which led me to Carleton Putnam's Race and Reason. These forever changed my views on race and the racial history of mankind and America. They were my initiation into HBD. Mindblowing.
Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom which introduced me to serious free-market economics and started me out on my journey through the Randians to the Austrian School.
Murray Rothbard's What Has Government Done to Our Money? which formed, in stone, my understanding of money, its nature, origins and significance as well as all the ways in which statists manipulate its value for their purposes. (Not to mention clueing me in to how many on the left and the "right" really are statists in this respect)
Embarrassingly, my reading of the classics is woefully sparse, having grown up a mindless product of apathetic Generation Y American pop culture, not unlike commenter mephju, above.
Looking back at how far I've come and the amount of time and effort it has taken, and in some ways still takes, to shed all the dead weight of mainstream (leftist) thought and replace it with truth (and this coming from someone who was never a liberal true believer but always something of a mild center/center-right type if only by slight instinct and barest perceptions) really makes me less than enthusiastic, I guess I'll say, about the West's chances.
I also recommend Kenneth Clark - Civilization, which is a great documentary on the European civilization. It's like 13-14 hours long though so get a 6pack for the duration of it. :)
ReplyDeletemephju, read my comment on the newer blog post of Dennis and you will find some really cooky beliefs I had. If you are willing to follow through on the logic of your beliefs, you can change how you think regardless of age. Hell, I convinced people three times older than you that universal healthcare is a bad idea. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is really curious what Fjordman has on his shelves in his home, by the way. Besides, I had boyfriends older than you and I am a teenager(god, I love saying this and I will refer to myself as such as long as I can :P) so it's not like you're old.
I must admit that my beliefs for the most part were shaped not so much by the reading of books but by experiences. Only afterwards I tried to find an intellectual foundation for them. Since I use the internet more frequently I only read fewer books than I did before anyway.
ReplyDeleteStill, I´d like to recommend "The world of yesterday" by Stefan Zweig. For my taste it argues too much against nationalism but it beautifully describes the Europe of the good old days that is now gone.
Probably most of you already know a lot about the Nazi era but if you´re interested in the intellectual climate of the Weimar Republic you may want to have a look at "Defying Hitler" by Sebastian Haffner. It is the autobiography of a young German intellectual who eventually escaped to England in 1939. It covers the years from the outbreak of WW 1 to his immigration. It´s very learned and still fascinating to read.
Chripa
Here are my recommendations:
ReplyDeleteI would second whoever mentioned Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It is not merely a rollicking good adventure, but also a meditation on the nature of good and evil, and on the passage of time and the transitory nature of the world.
"Radical Son" by David Horowitz: An insiders view of the "New Left", and one of the most compelling damnations of socialism ever put on paper. Horowitz disputes that common belief that goes "socialism may be good in theory, but just isn't practical". As Horowitz describes, socialism is not even good in theory, but rotten root-and-branch.
"The Gulag Archipeligo": The Soviet Union's secret to success? The massive, organized, sysematic enslavement of its own people, and not just metaphorically. That those condemned should not be forgotten, this book should be read.
"Doctor Zhivago": a great humanist work
"I, Claudius" by Robert Graves: The good are often naive, the evil relentless, and history is often absurd.
"The General Belisarius" by Robert Graves: a fictionalized account of the life of the Emperor Justinian's best general. An excellent read. The descriptions of the military campaigns alone makes it worth the read.
Anthing by George Orwell.
"Roman Realities": A good, well-written introduction to roman history. Good preparation for tackling Gibbon.
"The Guns of August", "A Proud Tower", and "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman: I've heard that academic historians despise her. Perhaps because she's more successful than all of them combined. I don't care if she's middle-brow - theres a lot of information in her books, and they're well written.
"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad: Contrary to what literary critics seem to think, this book is not about colonialism. It is about Darwinism - what it implies for civilization and for Christian faith. It is bleak and pessimistic and haunting.
Anything by Joseph Conrad.
The "Flashman" novels by George MacDonald Frazier: hilarious and picaresque stories about a shameless coward and bounder. And at the same time an unapologetic defence of western, and especially British, civilization. They are also quite interesting travelogues and guides to 19th century history.
I'd like to echo Martin B. on Conrad. Heart of Darkness is about the possibility for meaning in a meaningless universe, a deeply philosophical work. The Secret Agent is a masterpiece. I learned of Conrad's novel Nostromo after reading Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon" (I don't necessarily recommend Bloom's work), and he called it the greatest novel in the English language. Hard to disagree. Bloom also called Tolstoy's Hadji Murad the best short story written, and again I agree with the old autistic fool.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that no-one has brought up Shakespeare. After Hamlet, my favorite is Measure for Measure, a masterpiece of dark (very dark) comedy.
Then Nietzsche rounds out my ten.
Basically, a life-changing book for me is one that forces me to confront the problem of nihilism in a godless universe.
The Gulag Archipelago is a good book. I read part of it, but to me it's mental torture since my family has been through similar things. I guess it's like a rape victim reading rape testimonies.
ReplyDeleteSex and Culture by JD Unwin was a nice book. This book is really great by the way. It's written by an anthropologist and he makes a parallel in between the developement of a society and the regulation of female prenuptial chastity. The book was written by a liberal who thought genders are social constructs. I don't agree with some things in it, like sexual repression driving developement, it's actually men not competing over marriageable women which is the key to developement, but it's still a really great read IMO.
Sun Tzu - Art of War
Judy Jones, William Wislon - An Incomplete Education
Ion Mihai Pacepa - Red Horizons(basically, something like the Romanian Gulag Archipelago. this man was the highest ranking general to defect to the US from the Eastern bloc; also there are some things on Arafat's homosexuality that made me crack up in this book and some Middle Eastern politics thingies since he worked in intelligence and we had a kick ass intel service back then)
Dennis will probably like this one:
Weston Price - Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
Anthony Colpo - The Great Cholesterol Con
"As a longtime student of psychical research, I am interested in OOBEs. Is there a way I can get in touch with you or vice versa to hear about your experiences?"
ReplyDeleteKetamine does OOB consistently. I had it once (at a general anesthesia level, where there is no body awareness at all) and it was, well, the problem is attempting to describe it. Seemed to last for years or eons, a completely different form of consciousness. What adjectives to use? Amazing, profound, mind-blowing? Most highly recommended. I'll never forget being on the other side (it's a death experience), makes this life sweeter just knowing that such altered states exist. (I don't think consciousness can exist without a brain, BTW...the very fact that chemicals can profoundly alter our experience of it is evidence that it is a brain function and not arising from a body-independent "spirit")
Keta Man,
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling me about your experiences. I have heard that ketamine produces OOBEs. Never had access to ketamine and I might be nervous about trying it.
Your difficulty in imagining how the mind can exist outside the physical body is widely shared, of course.
Nevertheless, there is considerable evidence that discarnate beings, including people who have passed out of the physical world through death, are around and can sometimes communicate with us or make their presence felt. For a good summary of the evidence, by a scientist (not a medium or spiritualist), I can recommend David Fontana's Is There an Afterlife?.
It seems that we have not one body, but several ranging from the most dense (the physical) to less and less dense (the "etheric" or "astral" and "mental" bodies). So in a sense you are right, consciousness cannot exist without a vehicle, but it can reside in more subtle bodies.
If anyone feels like doing ketamine, I suggest you use the bathroom first - you don't want to feel like you're taking eons to get there, believe me. ;P
ReplyDeleteA lot of great books posted here. And many I will look to read except for Charles Murray and Ayn Rand...though the movie "Atlas Shrugged" was very good. My 10..
ReplyDeleteIsac Asimov; The Foundation Series. Spurred my interest in science and math.
The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. In this book Bloom takes no prisoners as he cuts through the dogma of the left and right.
The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker. An instant classic that sets traditional economic theory on it's head.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Know this one is probably not terribly popular with this group, but after 25 yrs of painstaking research this is a great book.
As mentioned earlier by someone the book by Robert Monroe on oobe's is a classic and hastened my conversion from a bible thumping christian to an agnostic atheist.
Everything by Bertrand Russell. One of the greatest thinkers of his time. His dissection of christianity is to this day breath-taking.
Chaos by James Glieck changed my view of the natural world by introducing the science of Complexity Theory.
1984. Nothing more need be said.
Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. An insightful narration about the power of the human spirit.
Black Like Me by James Griffin. The diary account of a white man who through medical procedures changed his skin from white to black. Done in 1961 in the deep south this is a great book that hits home the brutality of segregation and racism. Not a weepy book, but a interesting account.
honorable mentions...
Trust by Francis Fukuyama
The Genius of the Beast by Howard Bloom
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Flatland by Edwin Abbot
Mind and Society by Vilfredo Pareto
b
In addition to the books on nutrition mentioned by rebelliousvanilla:
ReplyDeleteMalcolm Kendrick has a book that goes by the same name as Colpo's: amazon 1844546101
And it seems Uffe Ravnskov (from THINCS.org) has rather recently released a new book: Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You (919755538X). His classic The Cholesterol Myths (0967089719) sells for a minimum of 653 dollars used on Amazon.
@ Rick Darby: I have not read these books (yet), but I'm told they're great on the subject:
- The Case for Reincarnation (1987) - Colin Wilson (amazon 0385237669)
- Reincarnation: A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society (1984) - Sylvia Cranston and Carey Williams (amazon 1557000255)
But as I said higher up: I'm skeptical. And is there really something like "the supernatural"? Aren't psychic and spiritual phenomena just part of the natural world then? Either it exists, which would make it "natural" - we're not talking about advanced (or yet to be discovered) human technologies using natural phenomena in a way nature wouldn't do on its own) - or it does not, in which case it exists only in the imagination of some people.
Exactly what is "spirituality" and "the spiritual path"? What is "real mysticism"? (terms mentioned above)
I hope this thread will eventually lead to a new thread: Ten (music) recordings?
Thanks, Karl. I wrote a fair amount about Malcolm Kendrick and his book.
ReplyDeleteI thought about doing a "ten recordings" post, and may, but musical tastes vary so much that finding common ground on a non-musical site like this may be difficult.
@ Dennis: the idea for a thread on music came from seeing Rick Darby's Blogger profile and seeing mostly classical as his favorite. You have on many occasions shown your fondness for classical, and I myself have only been intensely into it for slightly over a year (and loving it immensely). So I'm always interested in hearing what other people like.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure such a thread will come up here eventually! :)
How about influential books you no longer agree with? Two on my list would be:
ReplyDeleteRace and Culture by Thomas Sowell. This one is cool for its assembly of interesting facts. Diaspora Germans dominate farming everywhere they go. Middleman minorities move into the professions when allowed to do so and are always flaming leftists. Etc.
Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman. Pursues the logic of libertarianism relentlessly to its logical conclusion in anarchocapitalism. Plus sagas!
Ivan Illich's "Toward a Histoy of need" and " Tools for Conviviality" are good. They are about giving people control of their tools outside of corporate or gov't control. It also involves using less enery than we use today. I a sense we are slaves to the energy. It almost an Anarchist Conservative way of life. It's hard to describe.
ReplyDelete"Geography of Nowhere" by James Kuntsler is about how our ugly suburbs, bad cities and car lifestyle came about. His hilarious description of Disney World is a classic.
I just found Schopenhauer and I think he got it about right.He said don't regret the past it couldn't have happened any other way. It seems neuroscience is confirming his insight that we have no free will.
Orwell's Essays are great. Plus, "Down and out in Paris and London" and "Road to Wigan Pier".
Russell's "An outline of Intellectual Rubish" is also great.
Mark Twain's "What is Man?" and "Letters from the Earth".
"War is a Racket" Smedley Butler
@Conservative Swede
ReplyDeleteGreat list! Planning to check out the works of Nietschze, Burke and Machiavelli that you mention. I regard you as one of the sharpest and most inspiring political thinkers around in Sweden today. Patiently waiting for a new fertile period with regular updates on your blog!
Great list and blog as well by Dennis Mangan!
/Kalle