I like your style

That's an interesting find.

Thank you

Guns, germs, and steel

Tagged this thread

W...T...F...

Don Quixote
The Count of Monte Cristo
War and peace - tolstoy

The Prince - Machiavelli
Art of war - Machiavelli
The Art of living - Epictetus, translation of his discourses
Meditations - Marcus Aurelia
The art of worldy wisdom - baltasar gracian
A pocket guide for heros - baltazar gracian
Pensees - blaise pascal
Great dialogues of plato

Treatises if government - John Locke
Common sense - Thomas paine

Leadership secrets of Attila the hun
Left of bang
Becoming a person of influence - maxwell
Developing the leader within you - maxwell
Developing the leaders around you - maxwell

How to win friends and influence people -carnegie
Personality Plus - Littauer


Capitalism and freedom - Milton Friedman
The richest man who ever lived - steven scott
The Solomon secret - Bruce fleet
The richest man in babylon - Clason
The ascension of money - Niall ferguson
The world is flat - Thomas friedman
The way to wealth - Ben Franklin
The four pillars of investing
All About Asset Allocation
The road to serfdom - f.a. Hayek
Economics in one lesson - Henry hazlitt

A book of five rings - musashi
The sword and the mind - - translation by mlhiroaki sato
Legacies of the sword - Karl Friday
On Combat - Lt. Grossman
On War - same
Warrior mindset - same
The gift of fear - Gavin De becker
The unfettered mind
Higher Judo - feldenkrais
Verbal judo

....off The top of my head.

I am going to assume you don't volunteer at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Civil War II, by Thomas Chittum.  Out of print, but supposedly a .pdf is out there on the interwebs.

TMIAHM is an excellent book if a little dated, same as all of Heinlein's stuff. The concepts are still there.

If you like this one, I'd then recommend Michael Z Williamson's Freehold. Similar principle (bully picking on a ruthless, competent, libertarian planet) but in a much more dynamic story.

The PRobability Broach by Neil Smith is a good one if you like libertarian sci-fi.  

in before someone claims "libertarian sci-fi" = "Fantasy"

HAHAHA  But very true!!

Flatland

The 5 love languages
Love and respect - eggerich

The theory of moral sentiments - Adam smith
The pilgrims progress
The Canterbury tales
Dantes inferno

The power of myth - Campbell  
Tao te ching
I ching
The prophet - Khalil gibran
The complete works - Shinn

The brothers Grimm - the latest English translation of the original German manuscript.  They cleaned it up over the years but a few years ago a professor did an English translation true to the original

Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell
Applied economics - same

Leaves of grass - whitman

A random walk down wall street - malkiel
Benjamin Franklin - biography by Walter isaacson


I have a small library.

The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.

Hard to believe I'm the first to suggest it.

Yea... meth makes for a long rambling book... whodathunkit?

I barely graduated high school! By my senior year I had already read quite a few of them. I've read some several times now. Love the classics. I've read quite a few other ones, those are just ones that really spoke to me, I realize that some of that could have been where I was in life at the time of reading them. They are like old friends.

Uh.... WTF? I think they have value in the context of plenty of other reading, but "books everyone should"????????????? Are you an 88er or something?

True.  I saw part of the movie they made and it is a terrible movie/book about trains.

not my kind of reading at all, but a fascinating read

Exhaustingly researched book on the Battle of the Bulge

also in addition to my nod to Lucifer's Hammer

Pournelle's There Will Be War series and his novels in The Prince with S.M. Stirling

The Second World War

Pick a few...

PTO:
Helmet for My Pillow by Bob Leckie (the other book that was major source material for The Pacific)

The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 - Toland - Wow... I always wanted to understand how the Japanese developed a society that produced that war and what was the thinking that resulted in the decisions they made... this is that book. What a perspective! I did find it a tiny bit tough on the audible because my ear isn't tuned to Japanese names well as my eye reading text.

Flyboys story of some US navy fliers who end up captured off of Chi Chi Jima during Okinawa and what happened to them and their captors... holy shit. I actually listened to an abridged version (only time I've ever done an abridged listen) a good thing.

Thunder Below - Eugene Fluckey - USS Barb's captain tells the story of one of the most successful US sub of WWII with some just truly amazing stories and also some home front vingettes

Shattered Sword - When I was a kid I read Miracle at Midway and it was the definitive book... but this one takes that and adds extensive Japanese sources to the interpretation of events

Unit 731 OMGWTFBBQHOLYSHITFUCKEDUP if you haven't heard of this, read this or something on this topic

Codename Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan - You might have heard of it... you might even know that we are still using purple heart medals that were made in anticipation of this invasion... and that it would make D-Day look like a small skirmish... but this is a detailed look at the plans and just how badly the Allies understimated the Japanese forces in their planning and casualty estimates.

The Big E - story of CV-6 USS Enterprise, the ship with the most battle stars in WWII (fought in the most engagements)... and my grandfather's ship... he is even mentioned in the book.

Neptune's Inferno - the US Navy at Guadalcanal just bought this one... renowned recent work from the same guy who wrote "last stand of the tin can sailors..."

Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors - US Navy's Finest Hour Destroyers charging battleships... epic

Japanese Destroyer Captain
memoir by an IJN captain who survived the war... next on my list

ETO:
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - If you want a good read on  the origins and execution of the holocaust and the mass killing and terror of the communists, this is it. If you've never heard of the Holodomor, read this book.

Night - Elie Wiesel - considered one of the best autobiographical accounts of surviving the Nazi death camps... actually a trilogy of very short memoirs.

Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose the source material for the mini-series

Twelve O'Clock High a really good fictional account of the air war over Europe... I don't know why its so dang expensive... they made a movie too

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller - amazing piece of satire, hailed as great American literature, yes fictionalized, but WWII B-25 squadron in the Med... Heller was an anti-war activist and he flew 60 combat missions as a B-25 bombardier

ALL ENCOMPASSING:
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 this is by far the best book I've ever read on this time period... now there is a good long focus on the depression and the basis of the view is US politics, but there is a great coverage of the world and WWII as well.

No End Save Victory - Collection of essays and excerpts on some pivotal or reveling events of the war not usually heard about... found it fascinating after having extensively read on the era

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes - there is no better book on the subject

And if I can throw in WWI:

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman - Amazing summary on how Europe was on a collision course that lead up to 1914... covers the lead up and first months of the war. She will really introduce you to the personalities in power... the bunch of nutbags

Alls Quiet on the Western Front - Fictionalized yes, considered an anti-war piece, truly a fantastic work... I enjoyed far more than Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun

Paris 1919 - How did we manage to fuck up everything forever and cause dozens of more wars for the next century? This is how!

Wow... that was off the top of my head... longer than I thought

OK I have the first two... the rest are now my reading list after I finish some stuff on the history of Psychiatry and Psychology (I've done several on the history of medicine).

SciFi (Hard/Space/Military)

Ender's Game by Card
The Forever War by Haldeman
Foundation Trilogy by Asimov
Dune by Herbert
Ringworld by Niven
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlen (I didn't like Starship Troopers)
Footfall - Niven and Pournelle (not as good as the above books)
Lucifers Hammer - Niven and Pournelle (not as good as the above books)

Various Other SciFi/Dystopia
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
Carbide Tipped Pens (collection of short stories)
All the Myriad Ways (collection of short stories)
A Wrinkle in Time - Madline L'Eagle
The Time Machine - HG Wells
1984 - Orwell
Animal Farm - Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
War of the Worlds - HG Wells
Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip Dick
Red Rising Series - Brown (actually pretty good)

Cold War Fiction:
Red Storm Rising - Clancy
The Hunt for Red October - Clancy
Trinity's Child - Prochnau
Team Yankee - Coyle
Arc Light - Harry
Flight of the Intruder - Coonts
The Third World War - Sir Gen. Hackett
Warday - Strieber

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

And a handful of others:

Left Behind
ISIS:  The State of Terror
Ghost Wars – Afghanistan
The Places In Between (Afghanistan)
The Demon in The Freezer
Hot Zone
Combat Crew: The Story of 25 Combat Missions Over Europe From the Daily Journal of a B-17 Gunner
Unbroken
Run With The Horsemen
Alas Babylon
Red Storm Rising
The Bounty:  The True Story of the Mutiny on The Bounty
In The Heart of the Sea:  Whaleship Essex
The Emperor of All Maladies
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

For those with the same question as the OP, THIS is a great little reference, and enjoyable reading in its own right.

There are some really good suggestions here, several have made it onto my wish list.

The biggest problem is deciding what to go with first. The new Jack Ryan novel comes out next month, so I'll have to make room for that too.

My list was joking.

Mein Kampf is a terrible book.  Poorly written, rambling, repetitive, and aimless.  This is independent of its philosophy which is also shit.

The Turner Diaries is a white supremacist masturbatory aid.

The Camp of the Saints I haven't read yet, but I know its subject and thought it may round out the list.  Not passing judgement.  It might be a good book.

Fuck the SPLC.

Is that the one where he says the Ruger Mini-14 is the best rifle for civilians, recommends keeping it disassembled with the parts in different places, and advocates not owning handguns because they're 'useless'?

All quiet on the Western Front

Glad to see this on the first page.

A humorous take on the subject of education / self improvement, meant for a much younger audience but still a good read: The Phantom Tollbooth. Yeah it's a "kids" book, but the work play is sharp and anyone can benefit from the lessons contained.  I think I can get my 8 year old into it; I wouldn't introduce ZAMM until... I don't know, maybe 13 or so.

I haven't seen "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", which is a good book on getting shit done... but a reminder that I spend too much time on ARF :-(

Quadrant 4 activities, unimportant and not urgent, are ok sometimes but focus must be on quadrant 2, not urgent but important.


It's like the food pyramid, you do need a little fat and a little sugar in your diet...

The Wheel of Time
Mistborn Series

The Tempest; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Macbeth; and King Lear by Shakespeare.

Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins

Gateway by Pohl

American Psycho by Ellis

To name just a very few.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1994721_.html&page=1&anc=66118852#i66118852

From thread: what are some good books on the dark ages

A couple good suggestions in there by this topic.

1. Elements of Style - GD really needs this one.
2. Rules for Radicals - know your enemy and understand their tactics.
3. Unintended Consequences - a good read albeit a bit dated.

Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World.  He was a badass.  He refitted/rebuilt his vessel personally and headed out.  There were portions of his voyage where he'd scatter carpet tacks on deck before sleeping, to alert him of anyone (barefoot, this was back in the 1890s) sneaking onto the ship.

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast.  Harvard boy signs up as a common sailor for a trip around Cape Horn in the 1830s.  Things were haaard.

ETA for an oldie.

Aristophanes, Lysistrata.  The more things change ...