"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
"One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
“The other, of course, involves orcs.”
[John Rogers, Kung Fu Monkey – Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]
George Orwell - 1984
Was offered this in high school. I read Brave New World and Island by Aldous Huxley instead. I’d say those.
I love Brave New World, but couldn’t get into Island at all. I still have it though, I should give it another go.
The way into Island is really buying into the paradise that it would be and being willing to learn the ways of the Palanese. Oh, and a healthy disdain for the world you’d leave behind.
I figure that’s only gotten easier with time.
Ha, yes, certainly got plenty of disdain for the world. I’ll give it another go 👍
The novel that never stops being relevant.
The Jungle - Upton Sinclaire
Book changed my life in college, but for reasons lemmy will hate.
Never had a shred of work ethic. Reading that book stunned me. “If this man can persevere through that, why am I such a wuss?”
Worked hard at every job since, moved up if there was the opportunity to do so. I soon realized that if you kick ass at your job, you can write your own ticket. Even if it’s not much more money, or a fat promotion, the least you get is a better schedule, acceptance of fuck ups, or whatever it is you want out of the place.
Gain skills and experience, quit, acquire new job, rinse and repeat.
When we moved to Florida 20-years ago, my two friends and I had no family, no jobs, no other friends. One guy started at an oil change place, way below his skill set. He’d work at a place for 6-months or a year, quit when they quit giving him more money, got a better job, rinse and repeat. He finally chilled after 10-years or so and settled into a job as a service manager for a major car dealership, $100K+, probably $150K today.
Going against the grain here a little, I don’t like required reading in schools.
I really loved reading growing up, always had a book (sometimes more than one) that I was reading, read well above my grade level, chose books that challenged myself, etc.
My high school really pushed reading, lots of classes assigned books for us to read, I think even some of the math classes had novels they were supposed to read. For our homeroom period once a week we had to do mandatory SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) where we had to be reading something, we couldn’t do homework or go see our teachers for help, or anything of the sort, we had to be seated at our desks reading silently. I often was juggling 2 or 3 assigned books along with my other school work, activities, and hobbies, which didn’t really leave me much time for the books that I chose to read for myself.
And the pacing was terrible, we’d often spend weeks on a book, analyzing it to death, doing packets of worksheets, writing reports, doing that accursed “popcorn reading” in class, etc. for books that I could have read in a matter of days if not hours.
I think we spent nearly a month on Of Mice and Men, it’s only around 100 pages, it can be read in an afternoon.
The whole experience really killed my love of reading. I resented a lot of the books I was made to read, and now almost 2 decades later I’ve never quite been able to get back into the same kind of reading habit I used to have.
I’ve made an effort since then to go back and reread some of those assigned books I hated back in school, and the wild thing is that, overall, they were really good books, strong stories, well-written, solid lessons to teach, different points of view to consider, etc. I totally understand why they were assigned reading.
But when I first read them I was just going through the motions, I just wanted to get the damn books out of the way so that I could read what I wanted to read.
And I think the key is to make kids want to seek out those books. Don’t assign them 1984 (for example,) make them want to go out and read 1984 for themselves.
I don’t know what the best way to do that is, but it’s not just telling them to read those books. If anything, it might be telling them not to read them. I can only speak for myself, but I know that personally seeing a display on “banned books” at a book store or library always made me way more interested in those books than any amount of recommendations from friends or reviews online or any other form of marketing.
Dungeon Crawler Carl. Young people need to learn that all books don’t have to be boring and peachy. Sometimes a book can be fun and bat shit insane and that’s an ok use of your time. Learn to love reading first, then discover philosophy.
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
Animal farm
Personally one of my favorite books
Passion and Reason, by Richard and Bernice Lazarus. It’s a very accessible book about the connections between thoughts and emotions. Understanding what’s covered in it would save a lot of people a ton of confusion and social hardship in life.
Margeret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale. Presuming that To Kill a Mockingbird is already part of the curriculum.
Perfectly Legal
The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291700/perfectly-legal-by-david-cay-johnston/
Can non-fiction be a trilogy? 🤔
Free Lunch
How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300246/free-lunch-by-david-cay-johnston/
The Fine Print
How Big Companies Use “Plain English” to Rob You Blind
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305192/the-fine-print-by-david-cay-johnston/
Adding to this, I really thought Bad Science was a great book that more people should read. It explores alternative medicine, where it comes from and its efficacy (or lack thereof). It helps that Ben Goldacre is equally critical of the medical industry and their practices.
I wouldn’t want to make it required so people don’t resent it, but I strongly recommend Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (https://hpmor.com/). Aside from having an entertaining story, it also teaches important critical thinking, epistemological, and scientific skills in the course of the story.
1984
How To Be Perfect by Michael Schur (of The Good Place). I’m kinda sad how little ethics we teach these days and this book is a very good approachable overview of contemporary ethics that would make a huge difference for our society as a whole.
“Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F. Saad.
I think this is especially relevant if you are white in north america.
