10 Books Every American NEEDS To Read

[hortysir]

1984
1776
John Adams
Rules for Radicals
Self Reliance

 

[Big Fitz]

I'm patiently looking forward to other USMB members lists. lol

Remember it's not your top ten books but the top ten books you think American's ought to read.

I don't think we should all read the same 10 books.

We're a diverse nation.

I think a list of 50 books that folks ought read at least 10 from would be better. People gain more insight from reading stuff they enjoy reading, its hard to force yourself through a list of books.

I had the fortune of having a high school senior english teacher who let us, the class, veto books that we thought we boring and sucked, so long as we gave them an honest go at it. Wuthering Heights got the fucking ax.

Wish I had that vote against Canterbury Tales

No shit. It's his 'best' work and took Chauceur in college so I had to learn to read it in the Middle English it was written in.

BOY does he suck as an author!!! About as great as a week old ham sandwich left on the counter. He'll make you sick for that forever.

 

[Peach]

The Crying of Lot 49: Pynchon
Yonnondio: Tillie Olson
The Second Wold War: Churchill
Apology: Plato
Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report On The Banality of Evil: Arendt
The Crucible: A. Miller
Howl: Ginsberg
A Coney Island of the Mind: Ferlinghetti

 

[hortysir]

I don't think we should all read the same 10 books.

We're a diverse nation.

I think a list of 50 books that folks ought read at least 10 from would be better. People gain more insight from reading stuff they enjoy reading, its hard to force yourself through a list of books.

I had the fortune of having a high school senior english teacher who let us, the class, veto books that we thought we boring and sucked, so long as we gave them an honest go at it. Wuthering Heights got the fucking ax.

Wish I had that vote against Canterbury Tales

No shit. It's his 'best' work and took Chauceur in college so I had to learn to read it in the Middle English it was written in.

BOY does he suck as an author!!! About as great as a week old ham sandwich left on the counter. He'll make you sick for that forever.

That's how we had to read it.
Senior English Lit. in HS.....we had a week to read it, then we took the next week reading it aloud in class and discussing it.

Good grief what some tangled shit.

 

[Polk]

If you're going to recommend some writings by the Anti-Federalists, I'd go with Storing's The Anti-Federalist. One thing I find really interesting about those essays is that they're far more accurate predictions about the course of the nation than the Federalist Papers are. Really makes me wonder if Madison, Hamilton, and Jay really believed what they were saying, or realized it was false but saw it as a necessary evil.

 

[Article 15]

Breakfast of Champions
The Wizard of OZ

 

[Montrovant]

I don't think there are any books that everyone needs to read. To be honest, I'd be happy just to see everyone read at all.

Reading for pleasure is far too uncommon.

 

[hortysir]

I don't think there are any books that everyone needs to read. To be honest, I'd be happy just to see everyone read at all.

Reading for pleasure is far too uncommon.

My dad used to hate it that I spent my weekly allowance on comic books and Mad or Cracked magazines.
Mom used to tell him, "At least he's reading".

Eventually the books grew in size and literal content, and I'm thankful for the experience.

 

[g5000]

Yep, it is hard. Moby Dick is one of the worst pieces of writing ever published, the only thing I ever read that was worse than that was Billy Budd.

Everyone should Read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, you will add it to your Top 10 list

I say the same about Atlas Shrugged.

Aaaaaaaaaaa-men! What an unbelievable piece of shit writing Atlas Shrugged is. If anyone had any doubts about how two-dimensional libertarians are, they only need to read the first 30 pages of that wreck to understand.

[I'd replace it with Road to Serfdom.

A good choice, but I would replace it with Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. That is the definitive political science book.

 

[g5000]

One Second After

Blech! A simplistic and shallow book.

 

[hjmick]

One Second After

Blech! A simplistic and shallow book.

You thought so? I found it kind of interesting. Don't get me wrong, it won't win any prizes but it did make me "what if..."