Your favorite books?

[roughdraft]

roughdraft has good taste. The Air-Conditioned Nightmare and Colossus of Maroussi are better though.

Escape from Freedom by Fromm
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
Blood Meridian by McCarthy

thenx yo... i havent read either of those from Miller >_< nor any of the other three.. you have any other favorites?

 

[BusGypsy]

A Song of Ice and Fire series
I've read every book at least once, most twice. I'm obsessed with the intricacies of the storylines.

 

[Oddy]

Just for enjoyable reading, the entire discworld series by Terry Pratchett. All his characters could be someone you will meet/ have met on the road.

 

[Mj23]

In chronological order

Aldous Huxley's doors of perception, William Blake's marriage of heaven and hell, Goeth's faust, Fredrich Nietzsche's birth of tragedy, Robert Anton Wilson's prometheus rising, Ramon Sender's seven red sundays, Barbara Meyhoff's peyote hunt, Herman Melville's moby dick, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's legacy of cain, Walt Whitman's leaves of grass, Celine's journey to the end of the night, Isabel Fonseca's bury me standing, Octavio Paz's labyrinth of solitude, Dominique Lapierre's or I'll clothe you in mourning, William Bateson's ecology of mind, Eric Fromm's selected works of karl marx, PKD's we can build you, Bukowski's women, Jorge Borges' collected nonfictions, Lawrence Durrell's black book, Henry Miller's black spring and both tropics, Ernest Hemmingway's for whom the bell tolls, old man and the sea and a sun also rises, Fernando Pessoa's book of disquiet, Cormac McCarthy's blood meridian and suttree, William Faulkner's the sound and the fury and as I lay dying, Kahlil Gibran's the prophet, Kurt Vonneguts cat's cradle, Garcia Marquez's autumn of the patriarch.

Forgot Ed Abbey's desert solitaire, Terry Mort's reasonable art of fly fishing, and of course all of Poe's short stories.

Sartre's no exit was good, too. And Dostoyevsky of course, but then georg lucaks or bifo berardi or nokolai golgol and pushkin's works would have to be brought up as well as a host of others... not so lifechanging as the above, though.

Was very surprising to see Henry Miller already mentioned here, browsing up after posting. Almost nobody I bump into has even heard of him, and yes black spring was terrific, and would totally recommend his greece travelogue as well 'collussus'.

 

[Chazten]

The alchemist
Zhuangzi chapters
Fear and loathing in vegas
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

 

[Older Than Dirt]

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner, amazing '60s science fiction about future eco-disaster, and resistance- the Trainites are like if dirty kids or Philly MOVE had actual political traction. Pretty much describes modern America, except overoptimistic about humanity's chances of survival (& it is not an optimistic book)

You Can't Win by "Jack Black", 1920s autiobiography of crime and riding the rails on the lam from the law. Anyone on this site will LOVE this book.

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault- somewhat hard to read but amazing history of how and why we all live in prison in the modern world. Reading this book led me, at the time a bike messenger and weed dealer, to get a PhD and have a career as a scientist studying drugs and crime (that i'm now retired from).

And also, like others here, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, Down And Out In Paris And London, Naked Lunch (and Junkie by burroughs)

 

[Deleted member 24782]

RFK Funeral Train, Paul Fusco

American Pictures, Jacob Holdt

In the American West, Richard Avedon

Cocaine True Cocaine Blue, Eugene Richards

 

[Deleted member 24782]

You Can't Win by "Jack Black", 1920s autiobiography of crime and riding the rails on the lam from the law. Anyone on this site will LOVE this book.

10 or so years ago, there was talk of this being made into a movie, big actors too. Producer was actually trying to cast some real hobo/street kid types, some of my friends actually, I don't know what happened, the movie didn't go anywhere as far as I know.

 

[SaltyCrew]

Ya'll got a great list going here! It's awesome to see we all read similar literature, to be expected here of course. I have read tons of the books/authors here, and I highly recommend anyone want to geek out on a great selection, go to the Lizzard Tree Library. I will try highlighting some of my more memorable reads, the ones that had something to say worth while, IMO;
Great Classic Stuff
-Vonnegut, Orwell, Stienbeck, Huxley, Kessel, "A clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess
Anti-war stuff
- Jonny got his gun, A day in the life of Ivan Dennisovich, We the living, Slaughterhouse Five,
Inspiring adventure biography type?
- Indian Creek Chronicles, into the wild, The man who quit money (Daniel Suelo story) , the tarnished shooter, to be frank Diego ,
My personal favorite
- Ayn Rand is probably my favorite author. I didn't see any of her work listed here. So I will;
- Atlas Shrugged (1957)
-Fountainhead (1943)
- Anthem (1937)
- We the Living (1936)

I tried listing some I didn't see already listed, I hope this continues to grow!

 

[ResistMuchObeyLittle]

 

[T Paradise]

10 or so years ago, there was talk of this being made into a movie, big actors too. Producer was actually trying to cast some real hobo/street kid types, some of my friends actually, I don't know what happened, the movie didn't go anywhere as far as I know.

It was made into a movie, said to be released this year.

 

[tchavers]

Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilgunas is the book that got me excited about hitting the road while sleeping in the van and looking in to "alternative" styles of travel.

Into the Wild and A Walk in the Woods, both are common re-reads from me too.

 

[AwakenedAdele]

I'm not sure about life changing, but the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver are awesome fictional reads if you're into primitive skills like me

 

[dingo dave]

the monkey wrench gang, we like it wild, and the last season have all inspired me

 

[ResistMuchObeyLittle]

I just finished reading Peace Pilgrim. WOW. She is one of the most inspiring people I've ever read about. Totally makes me want to do more for people. Daniel Suelo is another amazing human being who writes some very thought provoking material.

 

[SmokinToes]

Favorite book might be a short but good one: I am Legend. Far surpasses the movie (although I think the movie was good in its own right.)

Life changing? A little thick book (one of many but the most common) called The Wiccan Bible. I'm not Wiccan but its got a lot of good practices and eye opening entries.

 

[WyldLyfe]

AMI CHILD OF THE STARS
FULL BOOK PDF: https://www.infiniteunknown.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/amibook.pdf

AGHORA AT THE LEFT HAND OF GOD
FULL BOOK PDF: http://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Robert Svoboda - Aghora.pdf

 

[BradKajukenbo]

I think my favorite book was the one I read while I was in Jail in Missouri.

Nathan's Run by John Gilstrap

Its about a 12 year old who escapes Juvenile Hall but has a hitman after him.

 

[xjamestravisx]

Not sure what I’d consider to be my life changing books. When I was younger, Sartre’s writing got my brain working with Philosophy. I tend to read fiction, though. Anne Rice’s Memnoch the Devil definitely impacted the way I look at/feel about religion. Watchmen was highly influential to me. Early-mid 20th Century Weird Fiction is my favorite thing to read.

I think the best book I’ve read as an adult was Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. It’s essentially about moral isolation in a deep southern town in the 30s. Lots of talk on labor and race issues, loss and growth.

 

[scutellaria]

Mutant Message Down Under - marlo morgan
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe
The Way of Zen - Allan Watts
-- these three books i read when i was like 17 and 18 and were kinda like the first exposure i had to ideas about living and consciousness, etc that were different from what i grew up with as the norm. definitely are reasons my life went the way it did. i started travelling within the year.

Decolonizing Transgender 101 - b. binaohan
this is a book i read a few years ago when my understanding of white supremacy and colonialism were kinda cementing with the basic anarchism id been exposed to while also going through ""transitioning"" or whatever and really tied everything together for me

also super stoked to hear about the you can't win movie. gonna have to keep an eye out for it.