Christopher_Dragon wrote:Title: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World
Author: Haruki Murakami
Summary/Description: Some dude gets a code unlocked inside his mind that causes him to gradually drift off into another world that only exists his mind.
Importance: It makes me feel all tingly inside

Author: Robert Heinlien
Summary/Description: Martians contact man and the first martianman comes to earth and makes a mockery of human emotions: the really long version of how to tie yr shoes.
Importance:

It makes me feel all tingly inside

Imagine gene hackman or bill Murray or even jack nicholson as the attorney for the spaceman. Do so or reread and do so.

Holy christfucking assfuck, M. H. Abrams steps down at 93! And Stephen Greenblatt steps up! Holy fuck!

I never finished Greenblatt's Shakespeare biography, Will in the World, but by Jove one day I might. Until then!

I'm a little surprised to see things like Fight Club on here as classics or great books. It might be a good read, but I think it gets pretty far away from Bradley's question.

I'll submit at least two:

Title: The Prince
Author: Niccolo Machiavelli
Summary: At once a political guide book for the busy executive while cloaked as a ploy for a job in the vein of one of those "mirrors of princes" asskissing writings that people were sending to rulers at the time. A careful, slow reading of it--including the Dedicatory Letter--will reveal the birth of modernity: Wholesale questioning of God, morality, science, and philosophy.
Importance: immeasurable.

Title: The Apology
Author: Plato [Get the West and West translation: It's literal and accurate without being stilted.]
Summary: Socrates is on trial in Athens for (1) not believing in the gods of the city, and (2) corrupting the youth of Athens. He defends himself and his actions while making the case for philosophy as a choiceworthy endeavor. It remains debateable whether Socrates was guilty [I'd say the evidence is overwhelmingly against him], and whether he "throws" the fight [I'd say he does]. Nonetheless, throughout the action of the dialogue, we see the incompatibility of philosophy and the city (politics) and we see the example of both why and how a philosopher must go underground, as it were, to avoid persecution. Also in this volume are Aristophanes' The Clouds, and The Crito. I'd suggest starting with the Clouds, moving to the Apology, and then finish with Crito. They're all quite short.
Importance: Again, it shows you how unsufferable being an overly-analytical prig can be. But how choiceworthy! The Clouds shows this problem in the context of social bonds and order, the Apology in the city and politics in general, and Crito shows the difficulties such a life presents when challenged with (unreasoning) law.

Title: Ferdydurke (a novel)
Author: Witold Gombrowicz
Summary/Description: An adult man is inexplicably forced to live as a teenage boy. Completely insane, vicious, and hilarious surrealist satire of modern (that is, mid-20th century) European culture.
Importance: First published in Poland in 1937; banned by the Nazis & the Soviets, un-banned in Poland in the late 1950s, then banned AGAIN when too many dissidents started getting into it. Still relevant, and a fantastic and deeply disturbing read. Several English translations are now available; to my mind the best one is still the first, by Eric Mosbacher in 1961.
Spoiler to give you a better sense of what this book is like than anything I could say about it: By the end of the novel, the sun has been replaced by a giant ass in the sky.

Not being in front of my shelves I will refrain for now.


I will give a hearty thank you to the posters of this thread.
I have added at least five books to the must read pile!

Thanks again brainiacs!

I'll refrain from considering any religious scripture or foundational religious or political writing for obvious reasons.

Title: The Castle
Author: Kafka
Summary/Description: An out of town land surveyor shows up for a job and finds himself unable to figure out what this job entails, why the locals treat him strangely and how the town is administrated other than that the castle is the locus of this confusion. The endless bureaucracy limits his ability to seek out those in power directly or to understand the confusing way in which everyone acts towards him, each other and the power structure in general.
Importance: Parable for the individual's place in modern society to such an extent that it was left unfinished, even ending in mid sentence.


Bradley, how about an update on any books you have read as a result of this thread and your thoughts on them.

Title: The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger

Synopsis:
Frustrated teen Holden Caufield goes AWOL from prep school and bums around NYC. Convinced that the world is a cruel place, he spends his time indicting the "phonies" all around him and how they have their priorities all wrong.

Thing is, you can't hide breeding, and Holden shows his true colors because he knows things like how to set a table, and what are "winter cocktails" even though he's below drinking age. He is also conflicted as to how to treat a prostitute.

He is obsessed with death, due to his brother's, "sell outs" due to his other brother who is in Hollywood, and taking care of his younger sister, who he despairs for as she is about to grow up in such a shit world.

The teen years are a tough time when one is trying to develop their own opinions and kids, well, they tend to be messed up and full of shit even when they want so badly to do the right thing.

Everyone loves an odessey, and this one was one of the best modern interpretations. Included elements of dry humor similar to the "Campus Novels" of Great Britain.

Importance:
Besides probably having the greatest GDPP count (God Damns Per Page) ever, this book told teens all over the world that what they were going through was common among all kids of the sensitive, thinking variety.

Encouraged kids to live out their spontaneous traits and come to terms with how much/little rebellion is the right amount.
Thus launching 1000 proto indie-rockers per day, for over 50 years.

My avatar, Sally, who died last year, is named after the books author.

-A

Can I repeat myself here and pose 'Jurgen' and 'Cream of the Jest' by James Branch Cabell? He doesn't qualify as a popular 'classic', but if you read the books, and look up the history, he should be. My opinion, of course...

Other postulated authors:

Anatole France.
Ambrose Bierce.
Louis F. Celine.
Jorge L. Borges.
Gustav Meyrinck (sp?)

ctrl-s wrote:Title: Ferdydurke (a novel)
Author: Witold Gombrowicz
Summary/Description: An adult man is inexplicably forced to live as a teenage boy. Completely insane, vicious, and hilarious surrealist satire of modern (that is, mid-20th century) European culture.
Importance: First published in Poland in 1937; banned by the Nazis & the Soviets, un-banned in Poland in the late 1950s, then banned AGAIN when too many dissidents started getting into it. Still relevant, and a fantastic and deeply disturbing read. Several English translations are now available; to my mind the best one is still the first, by Eric Mosbacher in 1961.
Spoiler to give you a better sense of what this book is like than anything I could say about it: By the end of the novel, the sun has been replaced by a giant ass in the sky.

I want this.

Title: The Clouds
Author: Aristophanes
Summary/Description:

The play opens with a citizen of Athens, Strepsiades (whose name means "Twister"), bemoaning the addiction of Pheidippides, his pretty-boy son, to horse-racing, which has put him into deep debt. He recalls his own humble upbringing on a farm and curses his marriage to an aristocratic city woman, whose wealth he believes is responsible for spoiling his son. Pheidippides refuses to get a job, so Strepsiades decides to go to Socrates' Thinkery (Phrontisterion) to learn rhetoric so he can talk his way out of having to pay his debts.

The Clouds (Nephelai) is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes lampooning the sophists and the intellectual trends of late fifth-century Athens. Although it took last place in the comic festival Aristophanes entered it in, it is one of his most famous works because it offers a highly unusual portrayal of Socrates. Many also find the play to be quite funny as an irreverent satire of pretentious academia.

2500 year old fart jokes must be preserved.

Quotes taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clouds
Read The Clouds for free: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/clouds.html