Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2025 Poal.co

801

I'm nearly 60. Genuine old fart.
I was reading the ABC's (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke) when I was in the fifth or sixth grade.
I've loved to read my entire life. I've covered a lot of ground over a lot of genres since then, and it was nice to be able to find such a huge collection to fill in some gaps. I'm curious to know what the community would recommend as "bucket list" level books (or SHTF books.)

I'll weed out the ones I've just read to save you the time to post... or maybe this will spark some comments.

I just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (for the 4th time.) I always loan out my copies and then never get them back. I'm glad my reader lets me bookmark and quote passages pretty easily. I'm kinda new to reading digitally rather than paperback!

I'm currently in the middle of Starship Troopers. Brave New World is next. Recently finished the complete Sherlock Holmes I jumped through the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe... I guess he leaves me a little cold.

On my TODO list, mostly read-agains: House of Stairs - William Sleator. An easy read, and a fascinating story. Written for a teenage audience, but a great story regardless. Asimov's Foundation series, because I don't think I've ever read them is chronological order. (And that includes beginning with End of Eternity.) The Iliad and The Odyssey, that's been since high school. I'm also considering looking at some Socrates or Plato, but I always say that after reading Zen... and then I never do.

Other than those, please let me know what I need to read that I may have missed.

I'm nearly 60. Genuine old fart. I was reading the ABC's (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke) when I was in the fifth or sixth grade. I've loved to read my entire life. I've covered a lot of ground over a lot of genres since then, and it was nice to be able to find such a huge collection to fill in some gaps. I'm curious to know what the community would recommend as "bucket list" level books (or SHTF books.) I'll weed out the ones I've just read to save you the time to post... or maybe this will spark some comments. I just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (for the 4th time.) I always loan out my copies and then never get them back. I'm glad my reader lets me bookmark and quote passages pretty easily. I'm kinda new to reading digitally rather than paperback! I'm currently in the middle of Starship Troopers. Brave New World is next. Recently finished the complete Sherlock Holmes I jumped through the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe... I guess he leaves me a little cold. On my TODO list, mostly read-agains: House of Stairs - William Sleator. An easy read, and a fascinating story. Written for a teenage audience, but a great story regardless. Asimov's *Foundation* series, because I don't think I've ever read them is chronological order. (And that includes beginning with *End of Eternity*.) The Iliad and The Odyssey, that's been since high school. I'm also considering looking at some Socrates or Plato, but I always say that after reading Zen... and then I never do. Other than those, please let me know what I need to read that I may have missed.

(post is archived)

[–] • 2 pts

Race Evolution and Behavior - A Life History Perspective - John Philippe Rushton The International jew - Henry Ford Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler

[–] • 2 pts

May be obvious but 1984?

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Literally 2 feet away from me on my nightstand, directly under Andromeda Strain - Michael Chrichton.

I keep about 4 or 5 old favorites nearby if I need a break from something heavy. Zen was like that for me the first couple of times through... I had to step away for a while and mull over some of the concepts he wrote on. Great suggestion, though!

[–] • 0 pt

I figured it would be common staple for everyone here..

[–] • 1 pt

Gets better every time I read it. It's almost time to read it again.

[–] • 1 pt

written before the Bolshevik revolution yet describes life under communism perfectly.

Also available in the Mises Austrian economics library

Ebooks: - the classics https://gutenberg.org/ - economics and politics at https://mises.org/library

Also interesting: diary of a communist schoolboy: https://archive.org/details/diaryofcommunist0000unse

[–] • 1 pt

There's a rolling banner of new stuff put into the archive. Let that take you places. Today I see

Sagas of the Norsemen : : Viking and German myth Possession and exorcism in the New Testament and early Christianity Stalin and War, 1918–1953: Patterns of Repression, Mobilization, and External Threat The vision of Rome in late Renaissance France

[–] • 0 pt

What is the archive of new stuff? I am interested. I haven't read ebooks before but I would like to browse them.

[–] • 1 pt

I can't find a 'today's new downloads' on the site, maybe there is somewhere else, but there is a rolling banner that has new downloads. The ones I listed above are gone from the banner and replaced with newer downloads. https://annas-archive.org

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Thank you, dear! I see it! I would have never thought to search those.

[–] • 1 pt

https://mises.org/library/books

Anything here is probably worth reading...

[–] • 1 pt

I just browsed this and what an amazing resource! This is good!

[–] • 1 pt

Take some time and read some poetry aloud to another person.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Paradise Lost.

Poetry is better when it is spoken aloud. Especially when the person you are reading it to does not want to listen to it because they are 'just trying to get to work' and 'please the subway is already unpleasant enough'

[–] • 1 pt

Lol read some poetry aloud to another

[suggests Paradise Lost]

Congratulations if you can read this fluently, but this is ANOTHER LEVEL of complexity that for me, needed private study

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Over The Edge of the World by Lance Bergreen.

It is basically the journal of Antonio Pigafetta, who sailed with Magellan and documented the voyage (some other first hand sources were consumed as well, but really just to clarify) written in contemporary English.

A tale of adventure, when men were men, women and lands were to be conquered, and savages were regarded as such.

Quite a read.

The Pigafetta journal is great too (as are Columbus's and James Cooks' journals in the same vein) but they're tough reads.

For adventure in the age of exporation Over the Edge is the most enjoyable read.

[–] • 1 pt

Here's a few: obligitory Steinbeck & Hemingway. Musashi- Yoshikawa, Shogun- Clavell The Mummy- Mika Walteri Pillars of the Earth- Follet Hard Times- Studs Terkel The Foxfire books are on my G.O.O.D. list of books to grab. Jean Auels Clan of the Cave Bear was initially ridiculed by "learned" groups, but she hung in there and did solid research to weave a story around in her subsequent books.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Thanks! (I forgot about the Foxfire books!)

[–] • 1 pt

I meant to add Hesse to my list as well.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

Ernst Jünger - Eumeswil, Storm Of Steel Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Notes From The Underground Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spake Zarathustra Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian Erich Neumann - The Origins and History of Consciousness Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - The Leopard JRR Tolkien - The Lord of The Rings Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comdey

[–] • 0 pt

You have read some great books. Thanks for sharing this. It reminded me to read Sherlock Holmes. I like some of the same titles you've mentioned. There is a book series that has been out for a while that I actually throughly enjoyed and would recommend. It seems we enjoy similar reads but I am a lady and don't know if this recommendation would fancy you the way it did me. It is called Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. It is the second book Valley of the Horses where the writing is beautifully magical, in my opinion. I also enjoyed an easy read by Tom Robbins called, Jitterbug Perfume.