A book in hand is better than two on the shelf!
March 10, 2009 3:55 PM Subscribe
Meta Book Recommendation Filter: Since I have a tendency to give my books away; my shelves are getting bare now. So please recommend books to refill my bare shelves, conditions inside!
1. Books that are every shelf must have.
2. Books that people will actually want to borrow.
3. Books that will make me look intelligent, sophisticated and fun (super cheesy of me).
4. Favorite book in your collection.
5. Books that intrigued/impressed you when you saw them on someone's shelf!
Thanks for putting up with this question.
1. Books that are every shelf must have.
2. Books that people will actually want to borrow.
3. Books that will make me look intelligent, sophisticated and fun (super cheesy of me).
4. Favorite book in your collection.
5. Books that intrigued/impressed you when you saw them on someone's shelf!
Thanks for putting up with this question.
From glancing off to the side at my bookshelf:
A Heartbreaking work of staggering genius
The unbearable lightness of being
Dune
1984
Anything by Mark Twain
Most of Vonnegut's work
Ender's Game
Night
Really, you might be better off just going through one of the many, many top 100 book lists.
posted by chrisamiller at 3:59 PM on March 10, 2009
A Heartbreaking work of staggering genius
The unbearable lightness of being
Dune
1984
Anything by Mark Twain
Most of Vonnegut's work
Ender's Game
Night
Really, you might be better off just going through one of the many, many top 100 book lists.
posted by chrisamiller at 3:59 PM on March 10, 2009
My recommendation would be Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
posted by nam3d at 4:10 PM on March 10, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by nam3d at 4:10 PM on March 10, 2009 [2 favorites]
These qualify for all of your criteria 1-5:
Non-fiction: Thomas Metzinger, Being No One
Short stories: Gary Lutz, Stories in the Worst Way
Short stories, runner-up: A.M. Homes, The Safety of Objects
Novel: David Wallace, Infinite Jest
Also note that when you lend out a book you will never see it again.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 4:12 PM on March 10, 2009
Non-fiction: Thomas Metzinger, Being No One
Short stories: Gary Lutz, Stories in the Worst Way
Short stories, runner-up: A.M. Homes, The Safety of Objects
Novel: David Wallace, Infinite Jest
Also note that when you lend out a book you will never see it again.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 4:12 PM on March 10, 2009
I assume that you've already seen this:
http://ask.metafilter.com/71101/What-single-book-is-the-best-introduction-to-your-field-or-specialization-within-your-field-for-laypeople
And here are a few of my favourite works of fiction:
The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks
Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser (for a laugh)
London Fields, by Martin Amis and
The Cunning Man, by Robertson Davis
Happy reading!
G.
posted by gwpcasey at 4:16 PM on March 10, 2009
http://ask.metafilter.com/71101/What-single-book-is-the-best-introduction-to-your-field-or-specialization-within-your-field-for-laypeople
And here are a few of my favourite works of fiction:
The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks
Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser (for a laugh)
London Fields, by Martin Amis and
The Cunning Man, by Robertson Davis
Happy reading!
G.
posted by gwpcasey at 4:16 PM on March 10, 2009
3. This won't work. Just limiting it to the books that people have already mentioned in response to these question, here are some of my reactions: "That's not even the best book that dude wrote, and he's not a very good writer." "Well, I see that the last time this person bought a book was sometime around the millennium." "Why would you hang on to your old textbooks?"
posted by box at 5:00 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 5:00 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
Some of my favorites:
The Master Butchers Singing Club
Kafka on the Shore
1984
posted by cachondeo45 at 5:11 PM on March 10, 2009
The Master Butchers Singing Club
Kafka on the Shore
1984
posted by cachondeo45 at 5:11 PM on March 10, 2009
Issues of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern make good conversation starters, with their colourful and sometimes unconventional designs and mix of art and literature. The McSweeney's Store has a lot of back issues on sale right now, too.
Used books are also awesome for this as they sometimes come with interesting wear and tear or stories of where you found them. Artist's books are small treasures. My bookshelves are also littered with board games and other odds and ends.
Also, the answer to all your questions is the Codex Seraphinianus.
posted by oulipian at 5:47 PM on March 10, 2009
Used books are also awesome for this as they sometimes come with interesting wear and tear or stories of where you found them. Artist's books are small treasures. My bookshelves are also littered with board games and other odds and ends.
Also, the answer to all your questions is the Codex Seraphinianus.
posted by oulipian at 5:47 PM on March 10, 2009
Anything by John McPhee.
The Gulag Archipelago.
Lectures on Physics by Richard Feyneman.
Shards of Honor by Lois M. Bujold.
posted by Bruce H. at 5:53 PM on March 10, 2009
The Gulag Archipelago.
Lectures on Physics by Richard Feyneman.
Shards of Honor by Lois M. Bujold.
posted by Bruce H. at 5:53 PM on March 10, 2009
anything by Robert Anton Wilson, Manly P. Hall or Howard Phillips Lovecraft. And if you want people borrowing your books, get some Calvin and Hobbs collections!
posted by Redhush at 5:54 PM on March 10, 2009
posted by Redhush at 5:54 PM on March 10, 2009
I think everyone should read James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia
The last couple of books I read and liked were Christopher Priest's Inverted World and The Prestige
posted by tylerfulltilt at 5:58 PM on March 10, 2009
The last couple of books I read and liked were Christopher Priest's Inverted World and The Prestige
posted by tylerfulltilt at 5:58 PM on March 10, 2009
anything by gabriel garcia marquez
"fathers and sons" by ivan turgenev
"never let me go" by kazuo ishiguro
and... the complete Far Side Gallery collection :)
posted by skaye at 6:19 PM on March 10, 2009
"fathers and sons" by ivan turgenev
"never let me go" by kazuo ishiguro
and... the complete Far Side Gallery collection :)
posted by skaye at 6:19 PM on March 10, 2009
Two books by Victoria Finlay - Color: A Natural History of the Palette and Jewels - A Secret History. I have loaned and gifted both countless times (and replaced my own copies when they don't come back to me). They're both just fascinating takes on their respective subjects, full of all kinds of history and minutiae and smart stuff. The cool thing is that I've never given a copy of either to anyone who had heard of them before, but they're always terrifically received.
posted by ersatzkat at 7:23 PM on March 10, 2009
posted by ersatzkat at 7:23 PM on March 10, 2009
Anything by David Mitchell. Literary, interesting, and will intrigue your guests.
posted by Gotham at 7:29 PM on March 10, 2009
posted by Gotham at 7:29 PM on March 10, 2009
Milosz's ABCs, Czeslaw Milosz
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
Rashomon, Akutagawa
Go Down Moses, Faulkner
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown
A Gesture Life, Chang Rae-Lee
Shakespeare After All, Marjorie Garber
Paris Review Interviews
Staples:
One Norton Anthology
Pop-culture favorites, like Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, DFW non-fiction essays, Middlesex, Kavalier & Clay, etc.
Full spectrum of books favored by one gender over the other. Bukowski and Bronte, Woolf and Hunter S. Thompson, Philip K. Dick and Jane Austen.
posted by zoomorphic at 8:00 PM on March 10, 2009
Don't forget childrens' books written with adults in mind:
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
The Gashlycrum Tinies (or any Edward Gorey anthology)
posted by TDIpod at 8:34 PM on March 10, 2009
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
The Gashlycrum Tinies (or any Edward Gorey anthology)
posted by TDIpod at 8:34 PM on March 10, 2009
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
both by Richard Feynman
Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat? by Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Nixon and Kissenger by Robert Dallek
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Timeline by Michael Crichton
nthing Feynman's Lectures (in the red books) and most Vonnegut.
posted by thewestinggame at 9:06 PM on March 10, 2009
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
both by Richard Feynman
Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat? by Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Nixon and Kissenger by Robert Dallek
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Timeline by Michael Crichton
nthing Feynman's Lectures (in the red books) and most Vonnegut.
posted by thewestinggame at 9:06 PM on March 10, 2009
13 intelligent & fun picks from my eclectic bookshelf:
A Child's Machiavelli : A Primer on Power, Claudia Hart
Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived, Daniel H. Wilson
One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
What Would Buffy Do: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide, Jana Riess
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell (or anything else by him)
The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout
100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know
52 Projects: Random Acts of Everyday Creativity, Jeffrey Yamaguchi
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
So Yesterday, Scott Westerfeld
Courtney Crumrin & The Night Things, Ted Naifeh
How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills, Seth Grahame-Smith and Wes Craven
posted by CoralAmber at 9:34 PM on March 10, 2009
A Child's Machiavelli : A Primer on Power, Claudia Hart
Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived, Daniel H. Wilson
One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
What Would Buffy Do: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide, Jana Riess
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell (or anything else by him)
The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout
100 Words Every Word Lover Should Know
52 Projects: Random Acts of Everyday Creativity, Jeffrey Yamaguchi
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
So Yesterday, Scott Westerfeld
Courtney Crumrin & The Night Things, Ted Naifeh
How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills, Seth Grahame-Smith and Wes Craven
posted by CoralAmber at 9:34 PM on March 10, 2009
Robert Irwin the expert on the Middle East and novelist: Satan Wants Me, The Arabian Nightmare, The Limits of Vision, Mysteries of Algiers.
The other Robert Irwin (not the real-estate guru, the artist): Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
Borges
Paris Noir: The Secret History of a City, by Jacques Yonnet
You Can't Win, by Jack Black
Out of the Night, by Jan Valtin
The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin
Blake
Love, War and Fancy, by Sir Richard Burton
And in my opinion, A Child's Machiavelli is worth too much to let a friend walk off with. Although it certainly will disappear off your shelf in a hurry if that's what you want.
posted by BigSky at 11:48 PM on March 10, 2009
The other Robert Irwin (not the real-estate guru, the artist): Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
Borges
Paris Noir: The Secret History of a City, by Jacques Yonnet
You Can't Win, by Jack Black
Out of the Night, by Jan Valtin
The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin
Blake
Love, War and Fancy, by Sir Richard Burton
And in my opinion, A Child's Machiavelli is worth too much to let a friend walk off with. Although it certainly will disappear off your shelf in a hurry if that's what you want.
posted by BigSky at 11:48 PM on March 10, 2009
1. Books that are every shelf must have.
Books on living:
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
The Guide To Getting it On by Paul Joannides
Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson
Everyday Drinking by Kingsley Amis
Books on making art:
Notes on Directing by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner
On Writing by Stephen King
2. Books that people will actually want to borrow. From my shelf, folks always want to borrow The Time Traveler's Wife and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
3. Books that will make me look intelligent, sophisticated and fun. To a certain crowd, The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem will do just this.
4. Favorite book in your collection. My current favorites are The Irrational Season by Madeleine L'Engle and The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett. I'm also a big fan of anything written by Lawrence Weschler.
5. Books that intrigued/impressed you when you saw them on someone's shelf! My curiosity is generally piqued by well-designed book jackets I'm unfamiliar with. I can't think of ever being impressed by a particular book or set of books.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:17 AM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
Books on living:
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
The Guide To Getting it On by Paul Joannides
Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson
Everyday Drinking by Kingsley Amis
Books on making art:
Notes on Directing by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner
On Writing by Stephen King
2. Books that people will actually want to borrow. From my shelf, folks always want to borrow The Time Traveler's Wife and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
3. Books that will make me look intelligent, sophisticated and fun. To a certain crowd, The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem will do just this.
4. Favorite book in your collection. My current favorites are The Irrational Season by Madeleine L'Engle and The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett. I'm also a big fan of anything written by Lawrence Weschler.
5. Books that intrigued/impressed you when you saw them on someone's shelf! My curiosity is generally piqued by well-designed book jackets I'm unfamiliar with. I can't think of ever being impressed by a particular book or set of books.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:17 AM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
An addendum on my earlier post: no matter what your taste is, someone will have that exact opposite taste. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who think Metzinger, Lutz, Wallace, and Homes are all full of shit and further that I'm a bad person for liking them. So don't count on your bookshelf to make friends for you.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:25 AM on March 11, 2009
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:25 AM on March 11, 2009
Books are heavy and collect dust.
Collecting books with the aim of impressing others is both impossible and lame.
Lending books is just a way of giving them away, so don't collect books for this purpose, buy them (used if you want)
Therefore, you should collect books that you love and that you want to read over and over. This includes for me favorite fiction by classic American and Canadian authors, books I buy on impulse, and reference material (cookbooks, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.)
posted by Gor-ella at 9:39 AM on March 11, 2009
Collecting books with the aim of impressing others is both impossible and lame.
Lending books is just a way of giving them away, so don't collect books for this purpose, buy them (used if you want)
Therefore, you should collect books that you love and that you want to read over and over. This includes for me favorite fiction by classic American and Canadian authors, books I buy on impulse, and reference material (cookbooks, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.)
posted by Gor-ella at 9:39 AM on March 11, 2009
But ... Thanks for asking the questions. I will be referring to this list for reading ideas.
Personally, I also enjoy award winners and finalist. Your visitors may recognize and or be impressed by this. Also if it is still in hard cover and hard to get from the library, may be a hot commodity.
posted by Gor-ella at 9:42 AM on March 11, 2009
Personally, I also enjoy award winners and finalist. Your visitors may recognize and or be impressed by this. Also if it is still in hard cover and hard to get from the library, may be a hot commodity.
posted by Gor-ella at 9:42 AM on March 11, 2009
I cannot fathom giving my books away. I'm like the guy in Patriot Games: "Mah booooks! Mah booooks! What about mah booooks!"
posted by _Skull_ at 11:33 AM on March 11, 2009
posted by _Skull_ at 11:33 AM on March 11, 2009
Collecting books with the aim of impressing others is both impossible and lame.
Ditto on this. Filling a shelf with books of no particular interest to you for the sake of appearances really perverts the whole purpose of a personal collection.
But there are many ethical ways towards an aesthetically pleasing shelf. One possibility: choose a favorite minor press, imprint, or multi-volume series with an interesting and uniform design philosophy, then work towards gathering a complete run. If you like American history and literature, the old Sentry Editions are a viable choice. The original Anchor trades were beautifully curated, and the first couple hundred were designed by Edward Gorey. If you're a Patrick O'Brian fan, collect the entire 21-volume run of the Aubrey-Maturin novels. (Don't get the box set; the re-set text was hardly proofed.)
posted by Iridic at 1:23 PM on March 11, 2009
Ditto on this. Filling a shelf with books of no particular interest to you for the sake of appearances really perverts the whole purpose of a personal collection.
But there are many ethical ways towards an aesthetically pleasing shelf. One possibility: choose a favorite minor press, imprint, or multi-volume series with an interesting and uniform design philosophy, then work towards gathering a complete run. If you like American history and literature, the old Sentry Editions are a viable choice. The original Anchor trades were beautifully curated, and the first couple hundred were designed by Edward Gorey. If you're a Patrick O'Brian fan, collect the entire 21-volume run of the Aubrey-Maturin novels. (Don't get the box set; the re-set text was hardly proofed.)
posted by Iridic at 1:23 PM on March 11, 2009
Vintage Contemporaries! Don't those show up in American Psycho or something?
posted by box at 1:33 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by box at 1:33 PM on March 11, 2009
Where to begin...
Definitely lots of Dostoevsky (Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Demons, Crime and Punishment)
Bulgakov - Master and Margarita
Kundera - Unbearable Lightness of Being (and anthing else)
Capote - anything
Suskind - Perfume
Heller - Catch-22
Graham Greene
Nabokov - Lolita
Remarque
Kapuscinski
posted by barrakuda at 4:33 AM on March 12, 2009
Definitely lots of Dostoevsky (Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Demons, Crime and Punishment)
Bulgakov - Master and Margarita
Kundera - Unbearable Lightness of Being (and anthing else)
Capote - anything
Suskind - Perfume
Heller - Catch-22
Graham Greene
Nabokov - Lolita
Remarque
Kapuscinski
posted by barrakuda at 4:33 AM on March 12, 2009
1. The Iliad by Homer, Fagles tr.
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique-Bauby
3. The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
4. Me Write Book by Graham Roumieu
5. The Caretaker and the Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter
posted by Alex Voyd at 5:04 PM on March 12, 2009
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique-Bauby
3. The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
4. Me Write Book by Graham Roumieu
5. The Caretaker and the Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter
posted by Alex Voyd at 5:04 PM on March 12, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 3:59 PM on March 10, 2009