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FROM THE WWW.NEILSTRAUSS.COM VIP LIST

NOTE: The following are a few of the favorite books you submitted. The
recommendations below have not been corrected for spelling, grammar, or factual
accuracy. Rather than just being fiction from the last 150 years, they cover the gamut.
Look it over at your leisure, and pick your next read carefully. It just may change your
life.


Catcher in the Rye - Bit of a clich, but I think it's truly one of the funniest and most
enjoyable reads out there. Especially for those who don't read books that often.

Anything by Dickens - Talk about a master of language... every single sentence is written
with eloquence that few writers ever matched.

Slaughter House Five - I'm sure you've read it. My favorite of all time.

-- B.T., New York

Have you ever read A Confederacy of Dunces by J ohn Kennedy Toole? It's the funniest
book I've ever read and perhaps the most ironic considering the book's tragic background
story.

-- A.M.

A few recommendations:

'Disgrace' by J .M. Coetzee. This was the first book to be an author's second Booker prize
winner. Coetzee's style is brutally succinct. The book opens with the words 'For a man of
his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well.'
Some are deterred by its bleakness, but when you live in South Africa what do you
expect...

'Ravelstein' by Saul Bellow. This is Bellow's last book, and I feel glad having read it
when I'm 20, as it feels more like a warning rather than a lamentation. If you can, also
read 'The Closing of the American Mind' by Allan Bloom, as he is the inspiration for
Ravelstein.

On the lighter side, 'Headgames', by Nick Earls (He went to the same school I did so
there's a certain personal satisfaction from knowing the exact places the book refers to).
This is a collection of short stories and, whilst some aren't great, there are a few real
jewels. 'Green' encapsulates social anxiety better than any other book I've read, and also
put me onto the alcoholic abomination that is creme de menthe. And 'Problems with a girl
and a unicorn' put me off share-housing altogether.
I can't boast to having read Finnegan's Wake, but I have just made a sizable dent in
Volume 1 of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I'm trying to get those 'read before
you die' books out of the way. My only regret is that I'm not reading it in French. Yet.

-- D.

Id also like to recommend reading some fantasy books. like from 'the late' Robert J ordan
- The Wheel of Time and Terry Brooks' - Shannara novels

-- R.O.

My favorite must-read book is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

-- C.M.

"Starship Troopers", by Robert A. Heinlein

-- J .S.

I strongly recommend the "System of the World" trilogy by Neal Stephenson.

A bouillabaisse of History, Science, Math, Pirates, Slave galleys, kings,
the bubonic plague and adventure - Possibly the most entertaining faux
history book series I've ever read - where else can you read something with
Isaac Newton as a core character that also has King Louie, William and Mary,
Leibniz (co-inventor of calculus) and Blackbeard!

-- M.M.

I also read Ulysses with Greg Baker at Latin. What an experience. RIP.

-- D.H.

How about Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card!!!

-- B.K.

"The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon is absolutely the
best book I've read in the past 5 years. Cool-as-hell. Check it out.

-- T.S.






As for recommendations:

I know your a fan of Murakami but have you tried The Other Murakami:
Ryu Murakami. He's really enjoyable. He writes novels about a bleak
dystopia J apan with a slightly pop edge. COIN LOCKER BABIES, from what
I've read, would be the best starting point.

Dictionary of the Khazars is another brilliant novel by a Serbian poet
called Milorad Pavic. Actually to call this a novel is inaccurate.
This creation of a folk history for a forgotten nation is written in a
dictionary form divided into three sections each pulling inspiration
from the three Abrahamic religions, Christian, Hebrew and Islamic.
This book reframed, for me, the constrictions of "writing a novel" and
opened up a whole new way of constructing a story with out any
gimmicky post modernism as used in House of Leaves in instances (not
dissing the book, just some of the conventions and codes seemed to be
fashionable rather than literary.). This is also one of the best
translations for a book I have ever read, while I can't read kajkavian,
Dictionary of The Khazars has such a unique style it's hard to
imagine that this was the style of the translator.

Finally Victor Pelvins "The Cly Machine Gun" or "Buddhas Little
Finger" as I think it was called in North America. I read this when I
was 14 and if I didn't I don't think I would read anything at all
nowadays. It's the story of mental patients and there take on reality
while the main protagonist shifts from the hospital in Modern Day
Russia to the October Revolution while a famous Russian Revolutionist
teaches him of the true nature of perception.

-- D.A.

My revelatory book was Lolita. I was 13 when I read it, and as a young girl
more able to relate to Lolita than Humbert Humbert it had an incredible
Impact. When I moved to Switzerland I read again in German, which gave me a
slightly bizarre German vocabulary for a relative beginner. My next
revelation came from reading two poets, Gwen Harwood and T.S. Eliot. The
Violets and The Love Song of J . Alfred Prufrock particularly.

Anyway, recommendations. A Fringe of Leaves by Patrick White. Australia's
literary pride (go team us). Second 'A Handmaid's Tale', actually anything
whatsoever by Margaret Atwood. Easily my favorite author. She is
incredible at communicating female experience.

Hopefully you find benefit from these books.

-- L.S.

I don't know if this is really your email address, but in case it is, the greatest novel (and
love story) ever written is Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Read it if you haven't. I think it
beats most of the books you've listed.

-- W.P.

An interesting if relatively modern list. Of course, fiction has been written for a LONG
time and, since It's my contention that there's nothing new under the sun (Sun Tzu
included elements of Game in his Art of War and even ancient Greeks had a lot to say on
Inner game), might I suggest replacing Butter Batter Book with Gulliver's Travels as
essentially the same book but arguably more interestingly written( although BBB is
probably more digestible for, dare I say it, Americans....).

The Count of Monte Cristo could supplant the dreadful (and very American) Faulkner,
with hopes, dreams, persistence and Alpha trait rehearsals.

Chuck in Voltaire's Candide - for spiced up optimism, persistence again and a LOT
about handling chicks.

I liked Diderot, The Nun, in case the message about mysticism didn't sink in while
reading Voltaire. And there's plenty of prurient interest.

The Water Margins would provide longer entertainment than the Winter's Night.

A finally what about the Koran? A work of fiction too, but surely the scariest read of all
time! And yet more on being an Alpha Male! No - I am joking in this last respect!!!

-- M.H.

Excellent letter. I was beginning to think that I was the only one left alive that knew
what the word sesquipedalian means. I once had an English Professor at the University
of Wyoming accuse me of making that word up. I had just accused him of
sesquipedalian circumlocution.

I am a bit sad that you didn't include many of the classics on this list. The Prince by
Machiavelli comes to mind. As does Slaughterhouse-Five, Hamlet, Paradise Lost and
The Count of Monte Cristo. But I suppose that if the people you're aiming this toward
have failed to read anything in such a long time, these might be a bit heavy for them.

There was, in fact, a list compiled earlier this month containing 100 must read books, The
Essential Man's Library. Here's a link, if you're interested.
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-library/




As always, thanks for taking the time to write emails to us poor saps following in your
footsteps, and thanks for showing me the tools to change my life for the better.

-- J .M.

First of all, I absolutely loved 'The Game' - people who knew me
before I read the book a year ago keep saying to me that I'm really
different now, for the better I hope!

Now that we got this out of the way, thanks so much for the list. I'm
finishing my exams at university now and can't wait to get back to
reading 'real' books once again.

Let me tell you about a book that was another powerful, moving, at
times excruciating experience: The Gospel According to J esus Christ,
by the Portuguese writer J ose Saramago. It's the re-imagined story of
J esus Christ as a normal human being who is just a pawn in the game
between God and the Devil.

Neil, I grew up with the idea of J esus being, of course, divine, but
reading about him as a normal human being, I got the sense that
Saramago really understands the pain and the beauty of the human
condition. But my words will never do justice to this book.

I hope you have time to check it out.

-- P.F.

Anyway, just wanted to give a shoutout to "If On A
Winter's Night A Traveler" by Italo Calvino. I
absolutely love this book since I discovered it
shortly after college and am always amazed that others
are not talking about it. I thought I was one of the
only 'cool cats' to have known about this wonderful
book. So, cheers to you!! ;)

-- T.W.











I think I should introduce myself: I'm one of the girls who loved "The Game".

When I saw that you'd read Kundera I couldn't stop laughing.
I wonder - have you read his "Laughable Loves"? I found this book
miraculously on my boyfriend's bookshelf. It was borrowed
from his friend, sixteen year old girl, just as The Game was
some time earlier. (BTW: that girl still astonishes me.)

The book is full of great short stories about men and women
(or men vs women I should say). The Czech reality of the Communist
era is... oh, forget it. I think you should try this book if you
haven't read it yet. Maybe you did, but I think it's worth reminding.
Some stories collected there remind me of The Game and guys
who read your novel should read Kundera's one also.

-A.


The most influential book I've ever read is The Long Hard Road out of Hell, the Marilyn
Manson biography, by you.

Besides it being immensely entertaining and well-written, it caused me to go from being
an incredibly closed-minded individual to an open-minded one. The book describes, in
detail, crude and almost inhuman events and behaviors, which I'd normally reject. It
opened my mind to accept everything and every experience that it can, instead of defend
and reject.


No other book has had such a great influence on me.

--- S.M.


Hands down... Les Miserables!

-- K.P.










MY 5 MOST MEMORABLE NON-FICTION BOOKS:

1. Goedel, Escher & Bach: An Eternal Golden Brace, by Douglas R Hofstadter. (non
fiction)

Winner of a physics Nobel prize, Dr Hofstadter wrote a book about Intelligence, and
whether there is a chance that machines will ever be intelligent. One thing I *loved*
about his book is that he starts every chapter with a small fable (like the one about
'Achilles & the turtle') that illustrates, in extremely simple language, some of the more
complex concepts he then discusses in the chapter.

2. Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!, by Richard P Feynman (non fiction)

Yup, written by another Nobel Prize winner; Richard Feynman was one of the most
irreverent members of the 'Physics establishment'. This book relates some of the most
crazy stories about Dr. Feynman, including the time when he removed top-secret material
from a colleague's safe by breaking into it, just to show how unsafe those were (if
memory serves me right, this was whilst he worked on the Manhattan Project, building
the atomic bomb that ended WW2)

3. All I really need to know, I learned in Kindergarten, by Robert P Fulcrum.

Mr Fulcrum is a pastor, and in this (and subsequent) books he reflects on life through a
series of short stories about his life. A wonderful, innocent, yet profound book full of
wisdom.

4. Buddhism for busy people, by David Michie

A wonderful introduction by Australian writer David Michie, this book explains David's
journey into Buddhism. Along the way, he explains the philosophy's principles (Karma,
Samsara, and Mindfulness, amongst many others) in ways that are very easy to
understand.

5. "El hueco, and other books by German Castro Caycedo.

This Colombian reporter has written a litany of incredibly gripping, non fictional
accounts of some amazing stories. To read a short synopsis of my favorite ones, head
over to my blog (link)

Ok, I said '5 most memorable' non fiction, but this one falls somewhere between fiction
and non-fiction, so I will add it as number six:

6. Way of the Peaceful warrior, by Dan Millman

An incredible story; much like The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, it has layers upon layers
of meaning woven throughout its storyline. A must read for anyone interested in finding
some impactful lessons about life. -- D.J
My offer is as follows: Kurt Vonnegut

-- K.T.

Ulysses by J ames J oyce

--- J .S.

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

--- V.O.

I read the 10 best books, and I'd like to recommend to you "The Power of One" by Bryce
Courtnay and even though you've probably read it, A Confederacy of Dunces.

If you've really got a pair of balls try reading "blindness" by J ose Saramago. He and
Gabriel Garcia Marquez seem to be in a competition for 'most insane spaniard' award.

Love your shit.

-- ATX

Thanks for this list! I love reading, and I'm a novelist myself. I'll have to check these
out.

Along the lines of Haruki Murakami, if you haven't read "Norwegian Wood," you truly
must seek it out. Beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time, it transports us into the
memory of a man's first love. It's incredibly tragic, but left me feeling alive by the end of
it. The characters feel real, and it's a book I plan on revisiting again and again at different
times of my life.

--- T.C.

I met this guy on the train when I was doing the Stylelife challenge, and just trying to talk
to as many people as possible. He's the author of a book that I'm recommending to you.

He's a 70-something year old barber who lives in Queens, NY. He grew up in Nazi-
occupied France, and he has the primary sign of being an amazing writer: when reading
his memoir, you feel what he feels.

That's why I'm recommending A Garden of Thorns by Roger de Anfrasio. It's the story
of a gutsy, adventurous, often impulsive boy in Nazi-occupied France. He befriends
German soldiers, stands up to bullies who disapprove of his Italian heritage, and runs into
adventures that you can read about after he takes a long trek to meet up with his
schoolyard crush.

All in all, I highly recommend this book, which I would not have encountered if it
weren't for you.

-- N.L.

Any time that I go traveling I re-read "The Beach" by Alex Garland.

-- A.Z.

I recommend North to the Night. Heres the description: In J une 1994 Alvah Simon and
his wife, Diana, set off in their 36-foot sailboat to explore the hauntingly beautiful world
of icebergs, tundra, and fjords lying high above the Arctic Circle. Four months later,
unexpected events would trap Simon alone on his boat, frozen in ice 100 miles from the
nearest settlement, with the long polar night stretching into darkness for months to
come.

-- B.A.

If you liked Scoop have a look at Waugh's Vile Bodies, it has the same fantastic humor.

-- M.D.

Neil thanks for the list. I also recommend a short bit by Henry Rollins called "the Iron"
which can be found in "the portable Henry Rollins" it's about his transformation from a
skinny wimpy kid in school to someone who takes very good care of himself and never
stops moving forward. It only takes about 20 minutes to read and I try to read it every so
often to keep motivated. Again, thanks for the list.

-- D.K.

I'd like to recommend to you a book that's short and sweet and yet quite interesting called
"Illusions" by Richard Back.

-- A.V.

I would recommend The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, two novels
which have influenced me and millions of others. Rand is not the only one to teach not to
feel guilty about putting yourself first, but she does so in a very powerful and unusual
way.

-- H.S.






These are all books I have read and have changed my life

It's Too Late to Say I'm Sorry
by J oey Comeau

Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky (really brilliant author)

1984
by George Orwell

Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley

A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking

Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury

The Gods Themselves and
I, Robot (nothing like the movie)
By Isaac Asimov

and at the moment I am reading:
The Surgeon of Crowthorne
by Simon Winchester
It's about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. brilliant book. It was first quoted
to take 10 years to compile the Oxford dictionary, it took 7 years just to do 'A'. The whole
dictionary took 44 years.

-- M.C.


Your dedication to promoting books and reading is most admirable sir.
I would like to suggest 'The Buddha of Suburbia' by Hanif Kureishi.

-- J .O.

I don't see "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand in your list.
Have you not read it, or did it not get to you like the other books you list up did?

--- E.O.H.

Remembrance of Things Past literally changed my life, providing me the intellectual and
emotional resources to turn things around at a time when I was on the losing end of a
relationship. it says more about what we're interested in when we study game than
anything else I've seen, though of course it doesn't really deal with opening as I recall and
it's a bit long... it was my favorite work of fiction (with Ulysses in second, mostly for
sentimental reasons which sound similar to yours) until I recently read 'sacred hunger' by
Barry Unsworth. Its staggeringly beautiful, with a deft moral complexity and richly
textured realness. It's extremely accessible, but filled with passages that will make you
immediately reread, not because you slept through them but because you want to savor
them again. I know the world is complex, but there are some forces I have felt I
understood more or less well, and it's made me think a bit more deeply about a few of the
things Id thought I had a pretty good grasp of. I sound like a jacket blurb, I know, but I
assume you haven't read it simply because it's not on your list...

--- B.O.

Tip: The secret history, Donna Tartt. But you've probably already read this.

Have fun!

-- J .N.

Thank you for the great list of books. I think I am going to read If on a winters Night a
Traveler by Italo Calvino.

I am glad that you advise us to read books. I also think it is very important to read. It
educates you and it also prevents you from to dumbing down by the television.

You also asked us to share our favorite must-read book. I would recommend you The
Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch. It is a very voluminous book, but it is
worthwhile. Or a book I nearly read, Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

-- M.F.


Anyway, may I recommend a book called The Lost Diary of Don J uan. Its by far the best
book I've ever read. I've already read Life Is Elsewhere. I bought it just about the same
time I got The Lost Diary of Don J uan but I found myself devoting my nights and free
time to read Lost Diary instead of Life Is Elsewhere. Needless to say, I finished Lost
Diary a lot faster and a little later I got around to finishing Life Is Elsewhere. But the
whole time I was reading Life Is Elsewhere, my mind kept drifting off to Lost Diary's
characters and story. Really though, its a must-read.

-- J .K.

among the books I would recommend are another Kundera book, The Unbearable
Lightness of Being, which explores themes relating to sexual fidelity, loyalty, truth,
honesty, and the different forms of love. It's touching, eloquently written, and I think
speaks to the longings many people have to resolve the tension between our desires, our
ideals, the pain of failing others, and of trying to be true to ourselves. A second
recommendation is Everything is Illuminated by J onathan Saffran Foer, which I admire
for the virtuosic writing, comedic flair, and the poetic exploration of sorrow and
redemption. It was the type of book that it was sad to finish. Like saying goodbye to a
friend.

-- M.S.

American Gods By Neil Gaiman.
This is a book worth reading. Won the Hugo award...you should check it out.
And thanks for your recommendations.

-- C.R.

Have you checked out Road Dahl's 'Switch Bitch' or 'The Inner Game of Tennis'?

-- M.C.

My favorite must-read book is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Its a great quick-read
about our paths in life, and listening to and reacting to queues in order to make it happen.
It opened my eyes at a time when I was slipping deeply into the everyday grind.

-- R.L.

I was pleased to see Murakami on the list -- his "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of
the World" is my favorite, and his "Norwegian Wood" is also deeply moving. You might
also like "Never Let Me Go" but Kazuo Ishiguro, who also wrote "The Remains of the
Day". It has a sweet, sad current that runs through it from end to end.

You might also enjoy "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren. RPW was the first
poet laureate of the United States and it shows in his writing. This particular book is
deeply psychological and some of his trains of thought are almost mystically subtle.

Without rambling too much further, I just finished Chuck Palahnuik's "Rant".
Uhh...wow? (Also written from multiple perspectives, as in Faulkner's "As I Lay
Dying".) And J erzy Kozinski's "Being There".

I've read about half the books on your list below and I'll seek out the others. What a treat.

-- T.B.

When I was a kid I loved the Hardy Boys, Tarzan, Black Beauty, etc. And I think the first
adult short stories I read were Hemingway's Nick Adams Stories and the novella The Old
Man And The Sea. I've always read Hemingway for some reason. Although he's a little
out of fashion now, I love his stuff to this day.

When I was in my teens, my sister handed me J oyce's A Portrait of The Artist and said,
'this is you'. She was a little off the mark (nice compliment, though), but that was a big
book for me as was Dubliners. I also admired A Catcher In The Rye, David Copperfield,
The Great Gatsby, A Farewell To Arms, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy ... the usual, I
suppose.

As a young adult I read and admired Anna Karenin by Tolstoy, Crime And Punishment
by Doesteyovski, Bel Ami by Maupassant, A Sportsman's Sketches by Turgenev, A
Moveable Feast and For Whom The Bell Tolls (more Hemingway), lots of others. I don't
know - around this time I started telling my friends that literature was "just another
mirror" and that I was looking for something deeper. I started reading religious and
philosophical books and then eventually fell into reading J . Krishnamurti almost
exclusively for about the next ten years. I became a strict vegetarian and was a very
passionate student of that kind of Buddhist thought during this time. Then everything
changed.

I don't read a lot of fiction lately. I enjoy non-fiction books such as The Game, Travels by
Michael Crichton or A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle, and various skill-building
books related to my interests and hobbies. But I'd love to sink my teeth into a really
involving novel again. Maybe I'll start with Life Is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera or
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. I loved Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book, too. Have you read
The Lorax?

-- D.T.

"A Song of Fire and Ice" by George R.R. Martin is really good, it's placed in a medieval
low fantasy political environment with very interesting ways of telling the story; by
following different characters from all different "camps" you don't get any real feeling of
who's bad and who is not, it's all a matter of circumstances.
That's my tip for you!

-- J .F.

The book thats had the most powerful impact on me is Wayne Dryer's "Pulling Your
Own Strings". In my opinion, this book is where it's at. Hands down, the ultimate inner
game transformation. If you haven't read it, do yourself the favor. As a person of your
stature, with a mass following of young adolescents to elderly men looking for their own
identity, this is a book worth recommending J ust thought I'd throw in my two cents.

-- D.S.

I have a fantastic book for you! It connects in fundamentally to mystery's slightly dubious
"S and R value" theories. The book is about sexual selection from the perspective of
evolutionary psychology.

"The Red Queen; Sex and The Evolution of Human Nature" by Matt Ridley

-- M.R.

I read "The Game" quite a while ago, and I hadn't thought about it much in recent times.
The other day I picked up a book called, "The Sales Bible," which is a book on how to be
a good salesman. Anyhow, I was laughing as I read it as I noticed how similar the sales
advice and tips were to pick-up advice and tips. It makes sense, though, as pick-up is the
art of generating interest in yourself, just as sales is the art of generating interest in a
product or service. What I really like overall is that both books contain the message that
we are not out to deceive, and that our transactions should make all parties involved feel
good the next day.

-- V.U.

So my favorite book is House of Spirits, by Isabelle Allende. If you haven't read it, it's
mindblowing, it really is one of the richest books I've ever read. I just started reading A
Long Time Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (J on Stewart interviewed
him a couple months ago about it), I'm about 50 pages in, and it's pretty shocking and
brutal, but so far it's a hell of a story. Enjoy!

-- D.S.

Books:

Geoff Dyer - 'The Ongoing Moment'. (2005)
(Winner of the ICP Infinity Award for Writing on Photography and the E.M. Forster
Prize)
It's about photography, but foremost a study of the imagination of some big American
photographers throughout the last century.
Makes you understand the roots of our visual (photographic) culture(s).

Same author:
-Yoga for People who can't be bothered to do it. (2003)
-But Beautiful. A Book about J azz. (1991)

And of course 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet' - Salman Rushdie.

-- B.D.

If you have never read the first chapter of Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore, that'd be my
recommendation. And if you can track down a copy of Slow J ams by David Choe, that's
worthwhile too.

-- N.T.






Books I recommend:
Anything by Scott Fitzgerald, particularly 'The Beautiful and Damned'
Anything by Nathanial West, particularly 'The Day of the Locust' also 'A Cool Million'
I liked Olsen's 'They Shoot Horses - don't they?

I'm not all that well read, come to think of it, I like all those Weird Tales' writers
Robert Howard, H P Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Henry S Whithead.

-- S.E.

A River Runs Through It (and other stories). Short, but wonderful
stories about the American west in the 1920s. Don't judge it by the
movie that shares its name.

-- D.C.

The Dice man - Luke Rhinehart the best book Ive ever read. Its about a man who
destroys his personality with the use of a die to create "the random man". Every choice in
his life is decided by the die an therefore a choice of chance.

-- B.S.

favorite novel: CROSS OF IRON by Willi Heinrich

-- N.E.

This is the first mail I think is useful until now. And it's really great (also because Ulysses
is my favorite character since fiction exists). Thanks a lot dude!

-- F.M.

At any rate, I stumbled across a new Kundera book in the airport a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Curtain-Essay-Seven-
Parts/dp/0060841958/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211663388&sr=8-3.
Based on your literary breadth, I think you would enjoy it immensely... Kundera's
insights not just on the novel, but on storytelling and life in general are priceless.

-- S.M.

I've also read "Life Is Elsewhere" and I find myself thinking about it's message almost
daily.

-- A.M.



W. Somerset Maugham: The Razors Edge (T he Bill Murray film is pretty good) and
Cakes and Ale.

-- N.P.

The Kite Runner.

-- B.G.

Po Bronson is also a writer I admire, he uses the fiction novel format to educate readers
about the world and mechanics of junk bonding trading in "Bombardiers" and tech
entrepreneurship and start-up principles in "The First $20m is always the hardest". I've
always looked at "The Game" in a similar light and it's a matter of using some lit crit
skills to read between the lines and extract the gems that lie beneath.

-- A.W.

...and lets not forget the ever powerful "atlas shrugged", "east of eden", and the best as of
late..."a man in full"!!! Have you read "the radical leap"...? Changed my life!

-- J .S.

1. The adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2. To kill a mocking bird. Harper Lee
3. Catcher in the rye. J D Salinger
4. 1984. George Orwell
5. A Connecticut Yankee in king authors court. Mark Twain
6. any Hardy Boys Book (great read for kids, or adults who want to be kids again)
7. Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury
8. Lord of the flies. William Golding
9. The cat in the hat. Dr. Seuss
10. The patriot +act. Bush Administration (lol)

-- D.B.

Have you gotten a chance to read J onathan Livingston Seagull? Its an interesting book
that has to do with Identity mostly. At least thats what I got out of it last time I read it.
Every time I read it I get something different. It's my mom's book and I left it with her so
I haven't had a chance to read it again. Its by Richard Bach.

I also just read a short novella by Graham Green called the Tenth Man. They made it into
a movie which I didn't think compared near with reading the book. Its about a man who
was a POW from France. He gives up everything he possesses for his life. Then he
returns to where his "home" was because though he no longer posses it he is still
attached. I really try not to give too much away about book because I don't want to ruin
it. I used to read a lot of fantasy by Mercedes Lackey but again most of the books were
with my mothers and stayed there when I left. I also just ordered Narcissus and
Goldmund by Herman Hesse. A friend told me I might enjoy it.

-- K.H.

If there ever was a book that has changed my views towards life, it had to be
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD by Neale Donald Walsch.

-- I.

Here are my favorites:

The Brother's Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Ulysses by J ames J oyce
The Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Any book by J ohn Steinbeck
The Sea Wolf by J ack London
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

-- R.J .

Being well read is definitely important, and I know I'm going to be going through a few
of the books on here. As soon as I finish Slaughterhouse Five.

-- P.M.

Hey Style, I go by Prophecy out in the field and I noticed you read The Wind-Up Bird
Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. I'm just wondering, have you ever read A Wild Sheep
Chase by him? It's supposed to be I think the 2nd book in a 3 book series.

~P.

I think you left out Hopscotch (La Rayuela) by J ulio Cortazar. It is the only book I know
of where you can start on any chapter. Don't know about the English translation, but the
original Spanish is written in a very poetic language.

-- H.

Curves and Angles, Brad Leithauser
Travels, Yehuda Amichai
The Whitsun Weddings, Philip Larkin
Potscrubber Lullabies, Eric McHenry (yes, I know, extraordinary title)
any book, ee cummings
Google, J ack Gilbert, Howard Nemerov, and Robert Frost

-- C.

I like Hemingway, the style of his writing short to the point.
As a boy I read a lot of the pulps Edgar Rice Burroughs. Ian Fleming and later Harold
Robins his first book "A stone for Danny Fisher" was not bad. I like good fiction if it is
not pretentious. Almost all of the current fiction today as you know is of the naturalistic
school. I prefer the romantic school but for that as you know you have to go back to the
1800s.

-- S.

One of my favorites (and I'm sure you're at least heard of it from the pictures I've seen of
you with Dave Lakhani) was Poker Without Cards by Ben Mack. You can download a
copy of it from freebookworthreading.com. Its a wild ride, and I re-read it every so often.
I remember you referencing Ulysses in The Game, I'll pick that one up, read it and let you
know what I think.

-- M.


About one of my favorite reads. FIRE by Sebastian J unger. Stories range from front lines
in the Cold War in Afghanistan to Sierra Leone conflicts...absolutely shattered my reality
of the things in history books and on CNN

-- K.

The book is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, now you may have already read this
book, but if you have not you should definitely pick it up.

-- A.

My recommendation is a Pat Conroy book called the Lords of Discipline

-- P.

It's a fine list, as lists go... But my God, man, you forgot the classics:
The Art of War (Sun-tzu)
The Aeneid (Virgil)
Metamorphoses (Ovid)
Beowulf
The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Don Quixote (Cervantes)
Paradise Lost (Milton)
Frankenstein (Shelley)
Don J uan (Byron)
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
+all of Shakespeare

As for moderns, okay, but surely:
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (J oyce)
Lolita (Nabokov)
Slowness (Kundera)
Orlando (Woolf)
+many plays
+science fiction

-- N.

I literally just finished the best book I have ever read- It is a non-fiction book, and Im
sure youve heard of it. "A New Earth" By Eckhart Tolle.

-- B.J ., B.C., Canada

Very strong Pale Fire recommendation: Brian Boyd's "Nabokov's Pale
Fire" - I'd thought I'd "understood" the book till I read this - it
reveals much humor, wordplay, and a secret ghost story in the Nabokov
book that I'd never knew existed - incredibly enriching and funny and
well, well, well worth reading.

-- M.

I'm currently towards the end of "The Three Musketeers" (unexpectedly, I had to read
this one with a dictionary on hand) with "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Count of Monte
Cristo" on the list.

-- L.B.

Must reads! Power of Now/The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.
Simply amazing!

-- OK

Hmmm...have you read any of Fitzgerald's books other than the Great Gatsby? I highly
recommend "This Side of Paradise." It's witty, poignant, and fun. It even has a hint of the
20's pickup in it!

-- A.Y.

I dont have a list of book to share right now, but I have 3 amazing books: "The Game",
by a great writer ;). "Veronika Decides to Die", and "The Fifth Mountain", by Paulo
Coelho.

-- D.F.

Until your book, I read Physics text books and chemistry 101 books for fun. I find the
interaction of our universe to be amazing. After reading "The Game", I found myself
CONSUMING books like never before.

The format and subject changed. I started first with self-help books. I am studying Tai
Chi (after learning 3 martial arts from master instructors) by book. I am learning
J apanese, in prep for a trip next year. I am learning to get through divorce. I am reading
and taking the Rules Challenge.

In the past month, I have also started reading fiction. My first book, which I was
disappointed about it not being in your list, is "Midnight In The Garden of Good and
Evil". I will put your list to the test by reading them as I finish Good and Evil. I will start
with Ulysses as it has been mentioned by many whom I respect, counting you among
them.

-- S.E.

I feel the need to add a book to your list, one that I felt sure would be there, it is the book
that was voted as book of the century and that book is J .R.R Tolkien's The Lord Of The
Rings.

--D.P.

Papillon by Henry Charriere

-- 99, Los Angeles

I have read a few biographies, the best one being on J oseph Schumpeter written by
Harvard Prof. Thomas McCraw.

I recommend you investigate the works of Ludwig von Mises (Human Action is to me
the most influential book I've ever read) and F.A. von Hayek. These guys were two of the
top social philosophers and economists of the last 120 years. I have spent many hours
enjoying their books and marveling at the incredible accomplishments and potential of
humanity. Their works are truly that which imbue one with a sense of optimism. You
really get a sense that they are telling what is truly the greatest story of all: The Human
Story.

--- R.








So on to my recommendations...

1. House of Leaves
Amazing. Created a new genre of writing all-together. This book is one that you should
take time to read, not to be read through quickly.

2. Stranger in a Strange Land
I typically don't like science fiction, but I believe this is a must read to be fully grokked ;)

3. Mostly any Bukowski book, but my favorite is Dirty Old Man. A collection of short
stories that absolutely make you think of life beyond just you.

-- K.C.

For the darker side of the human soul:

The Metamorphoses, Franz Kafka
The Trial, Franz Kafka
Notes from the Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky

For understanding meaning of life in a modern age:

Walden, Henry David Thoreau
The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus

For the rebel in all of us:

The Rebel, Albert Camus
Che Guevara, J on Lee Anderson
GONZO, Hunter S. Thompson

For a history lesson of seducers:

Erotica: An Illustrated Anthology of Sexual Art and Literature, Three Volumes,
Charlotte Hill and William Wallace

For colorful fictional characters:

Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon

For culture and perspective:

Freedom or Death, Nikos Kazantzakis

And finally, because everyone should be familiar with EROS, THANATOS, and
HUBRIS (and because the Greeks did it all before anyone else :P ) the major works by:

Euripides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Aristophanes

-- E.

Shogun (J apan is amazingly described)
David Copperfield (The up and downs of David tied me)

-- K.J .F.

Mark Haddon's, 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time' is brilliant. Its about
an autistic teenager who understands maths and has a photographic memory but doesnt
understand human beings.
well worth a read.

-- S., London

In my personal opinion, the reading experience won't be complete unless people read the
original Homer's "Odyssey" first. My favorite translation is Robert Fagles, though some
people think Fitzgerald does a better job.

-- S.H.


Shibumi by Trevanian. A thinking man's action novel....
Particles and Luck by Louis B. J ones.... J ust a fun.
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, because we are all on a quest.

-- D.

I'm surprised you didn't mention ZAMM (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance). This book was my first introduction to philosophy.

-- A.

I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as
I can

-Stephen Daedalus, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

-- J .C.