A friend of mine had saved up a library of 5000 books to read ‘when I retire’. I pointed out that at one per week, that’d take 100 years. We don’t speak much any more.
Most of those books can be knocked out in a sitting or two, to be honest. I've never taken more than a day to read a Philip K Dick novel, they grab you and then before you have a chance to breathe they're done.
You have a few bricks there that will take some time. The advice I once got about reading the Bible was something like, "Read three chapters of the Old Testament in the morning and one chapter of the New Testament before bed, and you'll be done in a year" so you can do that while reading other books. This list shouldn't take you longer than 5 years.
I force myself to reread books on my shelf and I'm an idiot overly attracted to doorstoppers so the result is that I only have about 40 unread books on my shelf and yet just those 40 will probably take me five or more years. During which, of course, I suspect I'll acquire more........
You're a fast reader! Unless I absolutely love a book, it takes me a minimum of two weeks to read (although this could be shortened to a little under a week when I'm off from work during the summer).
Good advice about reading the Bible. Makes it seem far more manageable.
Yea unfortunately I’m with Melissa. I wish i could read that fast. I’ll try to chip away at this list as best I can, but new books will be added and others will be read instead, so I’m not sure how much of a dent I can make on it within the next 5 years… hopefully a decent amount though!
That was fun browsing, Iv read 12 of them. I don’t know why but I’m reflecting a lot on this post. I read Lolita when I was young, I think it would creep me out now, but Nabokov’s style of phrasing was so unique and fresh. Nothing he wrote was a cliche. Dostoevsky I also read in my early 20’s, intense introspective dialogue … not his content but the fact that someone thought deeply was a great confirmation for my own inner thoughts. James Joyce pissed me off to no end, his chapter with no periods was fucking annoying and pretentious beyond belief. I also reread many books by authors I like, which I think is a kind of studying what exactly is appealing to me. I like to like the characters as people. Raymond Chandler is interesting but the whiskey breadth is tangible. Your post is making me ponder what I’d like to read. A fun book I read, don’t remember the title, was an anthology of short stories about vampires by some famous authors like Oscar Wilde. I found them fascinating snapshots of good writers, and I went on to read all of Wilde.
I had no idea Oscar Wilde wrote a vampire story. That's awesome! I'm assuming since you got through his whole bibliography that Wilde is worth a read? I bought his collected works on a whim years ago and have never once opened it.
Isn't this exercise strange? Before John wrote this, I'd always assumed that I had the time to read everything. Seeing how finite it is really makes me question what I'm choosing to pay attention to.
I know, right?! The vampire anthology was wonderful. Yeah, Wilde is a genius, but it is too bad his personal life landed him in prison and destroyed his career--fascinating story: his lover was a homme fatale he got Wilde to sue the lover's father. I suspect that it was an incestuous relationship, which makes sense in light of all the inflamed circumstances. He wrote stingers and mastered the big picture. Wilde is the king of one-liners: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." But he also structured his works to have surprising and meaningful denouements. Fascinatingly, he wrote a truly pathetic 100 +-pages ranting letter to his ex. 99% is bitching about all the things Wilde sacrificed for him ad nauseum, and the last bit asking for his ex to comeback and live in obscurity in a forsaken European village! WTF! : ) Don't do that! Ever! I can safely say Wilde is unique on world stage.
In regards to Joyce, i can relate to your frustration. I forced myself to read Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake because I thought they were important books and an important part of my education. Ulysses was very difficult, Finnegan's Wake was impossible, but with one caveat - I did find that just reading the prose in Finnegan's Wake as a stream of consciousness type of poetry made it not only an easier go, but at times it was downright inspiring just to see the way Joyce played with the words. My approach to really difficult material like that is to read it and hope that my subconscious is somehow smart enough to process it in some way.
@Frater Seamus I approached it reading it for the same reason, as “important” works. In visual art I can dive deeper into postmodern works, understanding the nuance of the nihilism. In writing I am not a fictional writer, so my reaction is more blunt. : )
I read through the first 110 pages of Jerusalem on my train rides to work like 7ish years ago, and didn’t retain any of it. It was tough to get through, but a hot subway isn’t the premiere reading location. I want to give it a shot again.
If on a winter’s night has been on my priority reading list, and I still havent gotten to it. Might pick it up next! Unless I should save it for the winter?
I've read 4 on that list (maybe 5 but for some reason I'm hazy on whether I read Scanner Darkly, or not.) 2 of the others, The King James Bible... ✔️ Back in '92 and '93 And then Foundation... Though in the case of Foundation I wish I hadn't just because the people that like that series are on the level of those that shower LotR in high praise. I read the first 2 books in Foundation in 2020 and I couldn't get into it because all the action happens off page and then it gets talked about on page. It's very different than writing I'm used to, almost like reading a play. I wholeheartedly endorse Silence of the Lambs and every book in that series.
A Scanner Darkly is probably going to be my next PDK book after we finish Man in the High Castle for the book club. The Bible is one of the ones I feel like I need to read but may never. I contemplated putting LotR on there, glad I didn’t.
Your critique of Foundation is actually the exact same criticism I had for Dune… interesting
The movie version of A Scanner Darkly is amazing, has Keanu, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr, and Wynona Rider, one of the best book adaptations out there. LOTR is a truly amazing epic that has a lot of parallels to our current world, recently reread it and had forgotten how amazing Tolkien's writing is, the sense of dread he builds when Frodo and Sam are going through Minas Morgul is truly a work of art.
I assume you would read the Richard Wilhelm translation of the I Ching. It will take some moving about the text because it is really three books in one, consisting of I. The Text, II. The Material and III. The Commentaries. I would suggest reading The Text in small bites (hexagram by hexagram) and in parallel with The Commentaries (breaking down the trigrams, you will see what I mean when you get into it) and then going to The Material after. The symbolism is a bit inaccessible at first which is where the analysis and philosophy helps. I first came across it in a library when I was about 14 and deeply interested in Chinese philosophy. I bought my own copy shortly after and nearly 50 years later it is well worn, much of it has been read hundreds of times - there are parts of Book II I am yet to read. You may beat me to it.
Yes and no. I went through an early phase of using it as a decision-making oracle, first with coins and then later with yarrow stalks (or it may have been toothpicks - can't remember). I was open to that in childhood out of desperation.
What I came to realise is that we are pattern-seeking mammals and so it is possible to map quite obscure analogies to any situation and convince ourselves it means something.
Where I still find it useful is as a meditation because I don't really think it matters which hexagram and moving lines you are looking at, they will usually help you tap something in yourself to help you understand the situation in a different way.
I am not sure if this will make sense but for me it is a tool to look inward rather than outward. The imagery, once you get to understand it, starts to make intuitive sense with practice. However I don't think there is anything out there to consult.
To answer your question John, what it enabled me to do was train myself to look at things from many different perspectives. This impacted my approach to most things including (this is not a misprint) engineering. So yes it can indirectly help you to make better decisions but it won't make them for you. Would be interested to find out how you get on. Good luck.
Thanks for sharing! I’ll need to start reading to get a better understanding of it. I’m sure we’ll end up writing a post on it. The book is a prominent part of The Man in the High Castle, which we’re currently reading for the Thinking Man book club here on Substack. So that book has really gotten me interested in the I Ching.
I have not read any PKD and have not seen The Man in the High Castle so now I'm curious how he references it. I just had a ferret about and found that it was published in 1962 so he was referring to the Wilhelm translation. Also from what I have just seen, it looks like there is a character called Baynes. This is significant because Wilhelm translated from Chinese to German but Cary F. Baynes famously translated from it from the German to English in 1951.
Try Nikos Kazantakis, “The Last Temptation of Christ.” And “His Dark Materials” (3 vols) Phillip Pullman. Suggestions for your consideration. These four books could replace Dostoevsky as christianity examinations. If you want Dostoevsky read “The Grand Inquisitor” and “Crime and Punishment.”
Wow, great list! I recognize many of the author names and title, and have read quit a few of these books. I’d like to re read a few. In college we were given a list, which I could never finish while in school, but I continued working on the it for years. Reading Ulysses back in college took me sometime to finish! Thank you for sharing and inspiring John! ✨💜 📚
Ulysses is worth reading for most people provided they chose to be patient and enjoy puzzling over it, or want to read with annotations / help (not required, but if you want to get all the literary allusions and stuff).
Finnegans Wake is the one where it's not always clear whether it can be recommended or not. Most people just won't find it fun / funny, or want to engage in it at the level it demands.
But Ulysses "complexity" is exaggerated. You live 16 hours in the minds of a couple of dudes around Dublin fretting about life, spirit, and meaning. It's fine.
You can make it through this list. I can’t say I’m familiar with every title. I’ve read a few and heard of many. It seems to be a great list. My advice is to start with the one you want to read most. Best of luck!
In the process of reading Blood Meridian right now. Had never read any Cormac McCarthy but it kept popping up as a recommendation and I had to give it a go. I usually have two or three books going at a time to read when I am in different frames of mind.
I also have a pile of books 'to get to' and I keep buying more, this has been a lifelong habit and addiction. I read at a very average pace and I have a limited attention span so I can only read a book a week on average - problem is, I can buy books faster than i can read them. Lol
If you had to pick only 2 books from your list choose Blood Meridian and A Confederacy of Dunces, absolute masterpieces of literature. If you want to see how the Woke movement got started you can look directly at the protagonist of Dunces, Ignatius Riley, though he is one of my all time favorite literary characters(as is the Judge in Blood Meridian).
As a born and raised New Orleanian, do yourself a favor and skip Confederacy of Dunces. It's one of the few books I've never finished and have no intention of doing so. Just my two cents.
A friend of mine had saved up a library of 5000 books to read ‘when I retire’. I pointed out that at one per week, that’d take 100 years. We don’t speak much any more.
Most of those books can be knocked out in a sitting or two, to be honest. I've never taken more than a day to read a Philip K Dick novel, they grab you and then before you have a chance to breathe they're done.
You have a few bricks there that will take some time. The advice I once got about reading the Bible was something like, "Read three chapters of the Old Testament in the morning and one chapter of the New Testament before bed, and you'll be done in a year" so you can do that while reading other books. This list shouldn't take you longer than 5 years.
I force myself to reread books on my shelf and I'm an idiot overly attracted to doorstoppers so the result is that I only have about 40 unread books on my shelf and yet just those 40 will probably take me five or more years. During which, of course, I suspect I'll acquire more........
You're a fast reader! Unless I absolutely love a book, it takes me a minimum of two weeks to read (although this could be shortened to a little under a week when I'm off from work during the summer).
Good advice about reading the Bible. Makes it seem far more manageable.
Yea unfortunately I’m with Melissa. I wish i could read that fast. I’ll try to chip away at this list as best I can, but new books will be added and others will be read instead, so I’m not sure how much of a dent I can make on it within the next 5 years… hopefully a decent amount though!
That was fun browsing, Iv read 12 of them. I don’t know why but I’m reflecting a lot on this post. I read Lolita when I was young, I think it would creep me out now, but Nabokov’s style of phrasing was so unique and fresh. Nothing he wrote was a cliche. Dostoevsky I also read in my early 20’s, intense introspective dialogue … not his content but the fact that someone thought deeply was a great confirmation for my own inner thoughts. James Joyce pissed me off to no end, his chapter with no periods was fucking annoying and pretentious beyond belief. I also reread many books by authors I like, which I think is a kind of studying what exactly is appealing to me. I like to like the characters as people. Raymond Chandler is interesting but the whiskey breadth is tangible. Your post is making me ponder what I’d like to read. A fun book I read, don’t remember the title, was an anthology of short stories about vampires by some famous authors like Oscar Wilde. I found them fascinating snapshots of good writers, and I went on to read all of Wilde.
I had no idea Oscar Wilde wrote a vampire story. That's awesome! I'm assuming since you got through his whole bibliography that Wilde is worth a read? I bought his collected works on a whim years ago and have never once opened it.
Isn't this exercise strange? Before John wrote this, I'd always assumed that I had the time to read everything. Seeing how finite it is really makes me question what I'm choosing to pay attention to.
I know, right?! The vampire anthology was wonderful. Yeah, Wilde is a genius, but it is too bad his personal life landed him in prison and destroyed his career--fascinating story: his lover was a homme fatale he got Wilde to sue the lover's father. I suspect that it was an incestuous relationship, which makes sense in light of all the inflamed circumstances. He wrote stingers and mastered the big picture. Wilde is the king of one-liners: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." But he also structured his works to have surprising and meaningful denouements. Fascinatingly, he wrote a truly pathetic 100 +-pages ranting letter to his ex. 99% is bitching about all the things Wilde sacrificed for him ad nauseum, and the last bit asking for his ex to comeback and live in obscurity in a forsaken European village! WTF! : ) Don't do that! Ever! I can safely say Wilde is unique on world stage.
I’m glad you liked the list! Speaking of Wilde, I’d like to get to The Picture of Dorian Gray one day too. This list could have easily tripled lol
haha, it seems you wrote an SOS to manifest book titles by a thousand-fold! hahaha.
In regards to Joyce, i can relate to your frustration. I forced myself to read Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake because I thought they were important books and an important part of my education. Ulysses was very difficult, Finnegan's Wake was impossible, but with one caveat - I did find that just reading the prose in Finnegan's Wake as a stream of consciousness type of poetry made it not only an easier go, but at times it was downright inspiring just to see the way Joyce played with the words. My approach to really difficult material like that is to read it and hope that my subconscious is somehow smart enough to process it in some way.
@Frater Seamus I approached it reading it for the same reason, as “important” works. In visual art I can dive deeper into postmodern works, understanding the nuance of the nihilism. In writing I am not a fictional writer, so my reaction is more blunt. : )
Jerusalem is excellent. So is If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.
I don’t know how quickly you read, but if you set aside time to read every day, you could get through this list in 2-5 years, easily.
Some books are books that you live with. I’ve been dipping into Leaves of Grass for a couple decades now. Same with the I Ching.
I read through the first 110 pages of Jerusalem on my train rides to work like 7ish years ago, and didn’t retain any of it. It was tough to get through, but a hot subway isn’t the premiere reading location. I want to give it a shot again.
If on a winter’s night has been on my priority reading list, and I still havent gotten to it. Might pick it up next! Unless I should save it for the winter?
There’s no need to save that for winter! It’s an all-&-every season book if ever there was one…
Exceptional shelfie. Those Mariner editions of Philip K. Dick look so wonderful all lined up together.
It wasn’t easy collecting all of them. Glad the effort is appreciated 😂
I've read 4 on that list (maybe 5 but for some reason I'm hazy on whether I read Scanner Darkly, or not.) 2 of the others, The King James Bible... ✔️ Back in '92 and '93 And then Foundation... Though in the case of Foundation I wish I hadn't just because the people that like that series are on the level of those that shower LotR in high praise. I read the first 2 books in Foundation in 2020 and I couldn't get into it because all the action happens off page and then it gets talked about on page. It's very different than writing I'm used to, almost like reading a play. I wholeheartedly endorse Silence of the Lambs and every book in that series.
It's a good list that offers up a lot variety.
A Scanner Darkly is probably going to be my next PDK book after we finish Man in the High Castle for the book club. The Bible is one of the ones I feel like I need to read but may never. I contemplated putting LotR on there, glad I didn’t.
Your critique of Foundation is actually the exact same criticism I had for Dune… interesting
The movie version of A Scanner Darkly is amazing, has Keanu, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr, and Wynona Rider, one of the best book adaptations out there. LOTR is a truly amazing epic that has a lot of parallels to our current world, recently reread it and had forgotten how amazing Tolkien's writing is, the sense of dread he builds when Frodo and Sam are going through Minas Morgul is truly a work of art.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
I just want to tell you both that you have a wonderful Substack. Thanks so very much.
Meticulously titled - "105 Books I WANT to read Before I Die" Therein lies the struggle for all readers - So many books, so little time.
I assume you would read the Richard Wilhelm translation of the I Ching. It will take some moving about the text because it is really three books in one, consisting of I. The Text, II. The Material and III. The Commentaries. I would suggest reading The Text in small bites (hexagram by hexagram) and in parallel with The Commentaries (breaking down the trigrams, you will see what I mean when you get into it) and then going to The Material after. The symbolism is a bit inaccessible at first which is where the analysis and philosophy helps. I first came across it in a library when I was about 14 and deeply interested in Chinese philosophy. I bought my own copy shortly after and nearly 50 years later it is well worn, much of it has been read hundreds of times - there are parts of Book II I am yet to read. You may beat me to it.
It’s definitely something I want to get to. Has it had an impact on your decision making in life?
Yes and no. I went through an early phase of using it as a decision-making oracle, first with coins and then later with yarrow stalks (or it may have been toothpicks - can't remember). I was open to that in childhood out of desperation.
What I came to realise is that we are pattern-seeking mammals and so it is possible to map quite obscure analogies to any situation and convince ourselves it means something.
Where I still find it useful is as a meditation because I don't really think it matters which hexagram and moving lines you are looking at, they will usually help you tap something in yourself to help you understand the situation in a different way.
I am not sure if this will make sense but for me it is a tool to look inward rather than outward. The imagery, once you get to understand it, starts to make intuitive sense with practice. However I don't think there is anything out there to consult.
To answer your question John, what it enabled me to do was train myself to look at things from many different perspectives. This impacted my approach to most things including (this is not a misprint) engineering. So yes it can indirectly help you to make better decisions but it won't make them for you. Would be interested to find out how you get on. Good luck.
Thanks for sharing! I’ll need to start reading to get a better understanding of it. I’m sure we’ll end up writing a post on it. The book is a prominent part of The Man in the High Castle, which we’re currently reading for the Thinking Man book club here on Substack. So that book has really gotten me interested in the I Ching.
I have not read any PKD and have not seen The Man in the High Castle so now I'm curious how he references it. I just had a ferret about and found that it was published in 1962 so he was referring to the Wilhelm translation. Also from what I have just seen, it looks like there is a character called Baynes. This is significant because Wilhelm translated from Chinese to German but Cary F. Baynes famously translated from it from the German to English in 1951.
I saw that too. I’m sure Baynes was named after him. Join the book club!
Try Nikos Kazantakis, “The Last Temptation of Christ.” And “His Dark Materials” (3 vols) Phillip Pullman. Suggestions for your consideration. These four books could replace Dostoevsky as christianity examinations. If you want Dostoevsky read “The Grand Inquisitor” and “Crime and Punishment.”
I would recommend The Passover Plot by Hugh J. Schonfield.
Wow, great list! I recognize many of the author names and title, and have read quit a few of these books. I’d like to re read a few. In college we were given a list, which I could never finish while in school, but I continued working on the it for years. Reading Ulysses back in college took me sometime to finish! Thank you for sharing and inspiring John! ✨💜 📚
I’ve heard mostly negative things about Ulysses. Is it worth the read?
I’m glad you enjoyed the list!!
Ulysses is worth reading for most people provided they chose to be patient and enjoy puzzling over it, or want to read with annotations / help (not required, but if you want to get all the literary allusions and stuff).
Finnegans Wake is the one where it's not always clear whether it can be recommended or not. Most people just won't find it fun / funny, or want to engage in it at the level it demands.
But Ulysses "complexity" is exaggerated. You live 16 hours in the minds of a couple of dudes around Dublin fretting about life, spirit, and meaning. It's fine.
It takes some work. Definitely worth the read and even if you don't like it, finding that out for yourself, will be worth the effort.
You can make it through this list. I can’t say I’m familiar with every title. I’ve read a few and heard of many. It seems to be a great list. My advice is to start with the one you want to read most. Best of luck!
I only have 8 left.
In the process of reading Blood Meridian right now. Had never read any Cormac McCarthy but it kept popping up as a recommendation and I had to give it a go. I usually have two or three books going at a time to read when I am in different frames of mind.
I also have a pile of books 'to get to' and I keep buying more, this has been a lifelong habit and addiction. I read at a very average pace and I have a limited attention span so I can only read a book a week on average - problem is, I can buy books faster than i can read them. Lol
A book a week beats me by miles! I’ve read The Road and No Country for Old Men from McCarthy. Both were excellent. The Road is a tearjerker at the end. I actually have a post regarding him you might enjoy: https://thinkingman.substack.com/p/a-meaningful-cross-connection?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=650690&post_id=128657487&isFreemail=true&triedRedirect=true
The post was written before I figured out how to write a decent essay so it might suck. No pressure in reading it lol!
If you had to pick only 2 books from your list choose Blood Meridian and A Confederacy of Dunces, absolute masterpieces of literature. If you want to see how the Woke movement got started you can look directly at the protagonist of Dunces, Ignatius Riley, though he is one of my all time favorite literary characters(as is the Judge in Blood Meridian).
I’ll take that under consideration!
This is lit !
As a born and raised New Orleanian, do yourself a favor and skip Confederacy of Dunces. It's one of the few books I've never finished and have no intention of doing so. Just my two cents.
Otherwise, good list.