I recommend the following books in no particular order though I have enjoyed all of them…each for a different set of reasons.
DEMIAN
By Herman Hesse
One of those little books that every young person should read. I myself read it in bed when I was 18 from 1-3 in the morning. Never regretted it. Buy Now.
ATLAS SHRUGGED
By Ayn Rand
An unputdownable novel, and full statement of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy. Provocative and exciting. If you fall in love with Ayn Rand, you might also read “The Fountainhead,” and “Anthem.” Buy Now.
LOLITA
By Herman Hesse
Nabokov’s best-known work, and a brilliant and provocative novel. Read it for all the right reasons.
PASSAGES
By Gail Sheehey
Your future life developmentally, an eye opener.
ADVENTURES OF A MATHEMATICIAN
By Stanislas Ulam
A brilliant mathematician’s life in mathematics and friendship with John Von Neumann, an even more brilliant mathematician if possible. Buy Now.
ORIENTALISM
By Edward Said
An important book by a passionate and important thinker.
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES
By Ray Bradbury
Science fiction at its best by a contemporary giant.
THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND
By Robert Ludlum
One of Ludlum’s early thrillers …steeped in paranoia.
MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR
By Herman Wouk
A beautiful coming-of-age story, poignant and full of youthful angst.
SWITCH BITCH
By Roald Dahl
Brilliant, impish and erotic short stories by a master storyteller.
Buy Now.
THE LOGOPHILE’S ORGY
By Lewis Burke Frumkes
Hard to find, but worthwhile to read. After identifying “cumquat” and “eggplant” as two words that cropped up more often than they should in my writing, I wondered if they were favorite words. Then I began to wonder what John Updike’s favorite words were, and Norman Mailer’s etc. Eventually I wrote to the most gifted people I could think of at the time asking about their favorite words. . . and to my delight they wrote back with hilarious, sometimes brilliant, and often fascinating answers. Read it and you’ll see what I mean. A fuller exposition of this book, containing the best of the original with many exciting new additions and a new intro will be published by Marion Street Press in trade paperback under the title Favorite Words of Famous People in May of 2011.
FRAMES OF MIND
By Howard Gardner
Again a book to make you think in which Gardner first proposes his theory of multiple intelligences.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP
By John Irving
Irving’s blockbuster that put him on the map. Extremely inventive and funny.
POLITICAL POWER AND PERSONAL FREEDOM
By Sidney Hook
A seminal book by a clear thinking political philosopher.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
By Lewis Carroll
The classic children’s book. . . still charms and amazes. If you escaped childhood without having read it, read it now. Buy Now.
PETER PAN
By James M. Barrie
Another children’s classic that shouldn’t be missed.
FLATLAND
By Abbott
One of the books that had a profound influence on me early. Dazzling in it’s originality. Everyone should read it. It may change your perspective on life and the world. Buy Now.
THE GREAT GATSBY
By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Who could not be enchanted by The Great Gatsby? The ease with which Fitzgerald cobbles together a romantic thriller using language as seductive as Gatsby himself makes almost everyone who reads it wish he had written it. Buy Now.
DUBIN’S LIVES
By Bernard Malamud
Malamud who wrote “The Natural,” and taught at Bennington College gives us a superior version of the Professor falls for student story, with all its attendant pains and pleasures. Buy Now.
KINGSBLOOD ROYAL
By Sinclair Lewis
Not one of Lewis’s best-known novels. Set in the pre-civil rights South, Kingsblood Royal deals with bigotry and loyalties in straight-forward, powerful language. Buy Now.
SOPHIE’S CHOICE
By William Styron
Wonderful story full of mind-bending surprises. Stretches one’s understanding of human nature, and human values. Styron at his best. Buy Now.
TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC
By James Michener
The opening is written with such surpassing beauty that you will be unable to stop yourself from finishing this book in a sitting. Yes, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942 and became the basis for the musical show, South Pacific. Buy Now.
A PRINCESS OF MARS
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
Maybe one of the most original and spellbinding tales ever told albeit through the lens of fantasy and science fiction. Burroughs, who wrote Tarzan, creates a magnificent love/adventure story which becomes the first of an entire series of John Carter stories set on Barsoom or Mars. Buy Now.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
by Edmond Rostand
Yes, I am a romantic, but I cannot even get to the fifth act of Cyrano before I break out in tears. If you don’t read, rent the old Jose Ferrer film in black and white. It will have the same effect on you. Buy Now.
WHOM THE GODS LOVE
by Leopold Infeld
The story of Evariste Galois, one of the most prodigiously gifted mathematicians who ever lived. He didn’t live long, but he lived fully.
CHILD OF MY HEART
by Alice McDermott
Another entrancing story by Alice McDermott who I believe is one of our finest writers. If you don’t read “Child Of My Heart”, then read “Charming Billy.” Buy Now.
THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO
by Charles Finney
Tough to find, but one of the most original and devilish fantasies ever written. Published in 1935 I believe, Finney also died young. It was actually made into a film called “The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao,” in which Tony Randall stars. Buy Now.
DEATH BY BLACK HOLE AND OTHER COSMIC QUANDARIES
by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Neil is one of those gifted human beings who is not only a first rate scientist, but also a first rate educator and writer. He writes with clarity and style. If you don’t read Death By Black Hole, read any of his other books. You will be better for it. Buy Now.
THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE
by Edward O. Wilson
Another gifted writer who makes science come alive. His description of encountering Wolf Spiders at night in the Amazon Basin is not only brilliant but takes you inside the mind of a truly great scientist who communicates the passion he feels for what he does. Buy Now.
THE GARGOYLE
by Andrew Davidson
The opening lines of The Gargoyle may well be the most horrifying description in all of literature. If you wish to go on proceed at your own pace. Buy Now.
GOD IS NOT GREAT
by Christopher Hitchens
This is the case against organized religion, argued with an acid tongue and angry voice. Whether or not you agree with Hitchens is beside the point. Hitchens does make you think, and opens philosophical questions you may not have have asked yourself before. He also writes with scholarly authority and dares you to dispute him. In a filmed TV debate with Hitchens, the Reverend Al Sharpton arguing the other side actually gave as good as he got. Buy Now.
DAMAGE
by Josephine Hart
He who reads this book will never forget it. See the film version with Jeremy Irons. Buy Now.
THE POETRY OF T.S. ELLIOT
by T.S. Elliot
The Wasteland, The Quartets, Prufrock …surely Elliot is one of our greatest poets, if not our greatest. Language just doesn’t get any better than some of the lines he has penned. If you’ve never read Elliot, now is the time to do so. Buy Now.
