<p>Hey i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on a good, inspiring, intellectual, and philisophical book to read. Thank you.</p>
<p>Are you looking for a good story or hardcore philosophy? Are you interested in epistemology, theology, logic...?</p>
<p>C.S. Lewis: "The Screwtape Letters" for both great personal examination and thought, any of his better Christian books for philosophy ("Mere Christianity" and "The Problem of Pain" especially)
J.D. Salinger: "Franny and Zooey"
Hermann Hesse: "Demian"
Fyodor Dostoevsky: "The Brothers Karamazov" this is my favourite book</p>
<p>Also, if they're your sort of thing: George Orwell, William Gerald Golding, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Aldous Huxley...</p>
<p>Extra Ordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds, by Charles Mackay</p>
<p>Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder.</p>
<p>It will seriously change the way you think and maybe even your life.</p>
<p>My problem with Sophie's World is the same as with most commentaries and summaries in general - you only get a taste of the real philosophy. The story isn't great enough to stand on its own without the philosophy, and the philosophy isn't complete enough to give you more than a short introduction.</p>
<p>notes from the underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky</p>
<p>Kant- "On Education"</p>
<p>That's what I'm reading right now...</p>
<p>I second the Dostoevsky. I love ol' Fyodor. Good guy, good guy.</p>
<p>Anything written by Kafka.</p>
<p>"On the Road" and "Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac. They aren't philosophical stories, they are stories based on philosophies.</p>
<p>Ishmael by Daniel Quinn</p>
<p>I'm a Dostoevsky fan. I'd slug through about 900-1000 pages of The Brothers Karamazov just to read "The Grand Inquisitor." It's beautiful.</p>
<p>And as for philosophy, you can't go wrong with the Greeks. Plato's "The Republic" is a must-read.</p>
<p>the fountainhead-i like</p>
<p>-call me traditional, but I like Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
ALSO:
-Interpreter of Maladies (My favorite book. It's a collection of short stories with related themes), by Jhumpa Lahiri</p>
<p>Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Anthem by Ayn Rand
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Choke by Chuck Palahnuik (maybe not, but still a great book)
The Giver by Lois Lowry (kid book, but still good)</p>
<p>Sophie's World</p>
<p>Itll make you think. :)</p>
<p>My favorite most recently read book is "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones. It won this year's Pulitzer for Fiction, and Jones won the McArthur "genius" Award a few weeks ago. It's about the little known fact that before the Civil War many freed black slaves in the South also had slaves of their own. It's a very well-written novel. I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>I second "Sophie's World", but the ultimate must-read book:</p>
<p>Dave Eggers' "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius". I promise you that you will be heartbroken and staggered by his genius. And I'm serious about that. It doesn't hurt that it's one of the funniest books I've ever read either.</p>
<p>"The Wars" by Timothy Findley. You'll never regret it.</p>
<p>Try the book Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden</p>
<p>A brief history of Everything by Ken Wilber</p>