The Definitive Book List of Discordia

[Phox]

This is an attempt to collect a number of books that have influenced the way you view Discordia and the world in relation to it. This is NOT a "Best Of", "Discordian Literature", "I'm A Discordian And Kind Of Liked This" Book List. The idea is to share what books are important to you, and WHY they should be important to your fellow Discordians. We aren't shooting for a number.

Criteria for submissions:

Fuck, who needs criteria? If you want a book added to it, write up a brief description of what the book is about and how it shaped your view. It will then be open for discussion, but if one person gives it a thumbs up it's ON THE LIST 4 LIFE.

Have at it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Warren Ellis:

Transmetropolitan
Crooked Little Vein
Planetary
Frankenstien's Womb

Hunter S Thompson:

Everything he ever wrote.

Ivan Stang & Philo Drummond:

The Book of the Subgenius
Revelation X
The Bobliophon

RAW/Robert Shea:

Illuminatus
The Schroedinger's Cat trilogy

Terry Pratchett:

The entire Sam Vimes collection (his other stuff is good, but not nearly as important).

Also, a nod to old school science fiction:
Jerry Pournelle (Codominuim series, about 40 books).
David Drake (Redliners, Hammer's Slammers, etc).
Harry Turtledove (Alternate Civil War series).

ETA:  I refer to these as important because they shaped the way I think, at least to some degree.  Specifics would take all day and wouldn't be constructive in any case.

[Phox]

The list itself is good enough for me, Roger, since you have stated that they shaped the way you think. The discussion should cover the rest of what I ask.

Thanks. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The list itself is good enough for me, Roger, since you have stated that they shaped the way you think. The discussion should cover the rest of what I ask.

Thanks. 

Yeah, well, none of what I've read was like a light coming on in my head.  It's mostly been a long process of reading people who know how to think, and taking from them the bits that matter.

For example, none of Transmet really stands out in my head as OMFG GENIUS, but the overall messages of the series have stuck with me.  Same with Pratchett and Pournelle.

[Phox]

The list itself is good enough for me, Roger, since you have stated that they shaped the way you think. The discussion should cover the rest of what I ask.

Thanks. 

Yeah, well, none of what I've read was like a light coming on in my head.  It's mostly been a long process of reading people who know how to think, and taking from them the bits that matter.

For example, none of Transmet really stands out in my head as OMFG GENIUS, but the overall messages of the series have stuck with me.  Same with Pratchett and Pournelle.

I think that's what a good book does. It's not a specific part of the book that makes you think "Oh, that's brilliant", rather the whole book, over time. Settling in amongst the cobwebs, giving your thoughts a gentle nudge when they need it.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Good list Rev!

I'd include

Robert Anton Wilson:

Cosmic Trigger
Quantum Psychology

Edwin Abbott Abbott:

Flatland

Richard Bach:

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Douglas Hofstadter:

The Mind's I
Escher Godel Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
I Am A Strange Loop

Aldous Huxley:

The Doors of Perception


All of these have heavily influenced the way I see the world today, specifically around topics like Perception, Reality Tunnels, Thinking about Thinking etc

ETA:
Antero Alli:

AngelTech

[Adios]

The Call of the Wild
Jack London.

His perspective of that life came through the eyes of someone who was a part of it. No sugar coating and it helped me at that point realize that cruelty and compassion can exist together. Certainly not in perfect harmony but as offsetting counterpoints. His simplistic writing style allowed me to see much of the story in my mind very clearly.

[Richter]

Any introductory text on statistical analysis as used in the sciences, particularly psychology. - Get a grasp on what statics are, how they behave, and why a bell curve can't prove ANYTHING about sanity vs. insanity.

Prometheus Rising - by RAW.  Intro into common levels people think on, common things they get hung up on, and intro into metacognition and working past those.

Black Swan - by N. Taleb.  How unforseeable events shape history more than foreseeable ones.  Not really that simple, easier to read and get the idea.

Dune - Frank Herbert.  Sci-fi about resource control, two interacting flavors of hydraulic despotism, humans trying to be more than animals, alternative warfare, how to strongarm an empire, why it's a BAD idea to start a holy war, and more reasons to always carry a knife.  Very relevant to the middle east of the last 60 years.

[Adios]

The Lord of the Rings.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Age old story of good vs. evil, but very well put together in a great fantasy setting.

[AFK]

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

I haven't read all that many books.  I have to read enough for work as it is.  When I'm home I like to, not, read.  But I read The Martian Chronicles back when I was in college.  It became an annual ritual, mostly.  It's a sci-fi book that really isn't all that sci-fi.  Sure, it takes place on Mars, mostly.  It, initially anyway, involves Martians.  But it really gets at narratives around culture clashes, isolation, xenophobia, and the threat of nuclear war. 

The part that always sticks with me most, however, is the bit that describes the automated house on Mars that basically eats itself after it was abandoned when the humans went back to Earth for WWIII.  It really tied everything together nicely, in a horrormirth kind of way. 

[Richter]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Mental Asylum gone wrong.  Scarily accurate personality archetypes.

Animal Farm - Orwell - How governments learn to hate their people, among other things.

[Juana]

The Language Police by Diane Ravitch
I second the Night Watch/Sam Vimes series
Animal Farm is also seconded
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mocking Bird
The Scarlet Letter
The Search for the Golden Moon Bear by Sy Montgomery


There's more, but I should be doing a final and studying, so I'll come back later.

[hooplala]

Schrodinger's Cat
Illuminatus
Cosmic Trigger
Masks of the Illuminati
The Widow's Son
Slaughterhouse Five
Flatland
Consider Her Ways
The Gunslinger
The Third Policeman
VALIS
Promethea
Animal Farm
1984
Nausea
The Trial

[Adios]

All creatures Great and Small
James Herriot

[Adios]

See LMNO, my stupid list killed the thread.