Books every lainon should own

I usually get my books from libgen, but now I got a gift card for a local book store and want to use it to satisfy my consoomer instincts and get my hands on a physical copy of a nice book. The problem is, I don't know what to get. I originally thought I would just buy some book I already read and found great, for example Technological Slavery really impressed me so I considered buying it. But I don't want to end up on a list and I don't even know if I would reread it on paper. Next thought was I get something on self sufficiency and homesteading, but I already have a bunch of books on the topic and don't know what else to get. I also considered buying a book on weather forecasting as it probably is neat to have a good copy with large images, couldn't find a good one either. Tech books could be interesting, but getting a print of K&R is needlessly expensive and I don't know which other books would be good enough to buy on paper. Maybe some cultural stuff about arts or aesthetics could be interesting too, I don't know anything about that though. So, what are some iconic books I should own physically?

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas Freakonomics by Steven Levitt The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension by Matt Parker

Bronze Age Mindset Nietzsche meets internet body-building enthusiasts. You can't take everything it says at face value, but that seems to be the point. If you like Uncle Ted, you'll likely enjoy Bronze Age Mindset.

Steal rare books Digitize, OCR Upload to libgen Everything else is consumerist masturbation.

>>6662 Did you even read the OP?

>>6660 Deserves a s0yjack

Maybe you've already read him but books by Jorge Luis Borges are very good. I would recommend "The Aleph and Other Stories" as well as "Ficciones".

>neuromancer by william gibson (or really anything by this guy) >chaos: making a new science by james gleick >the marshmallow test by walter mischel >bullshit jobs by david graeber

>consoomerism >i specialize in avoiding consoomerism you are not a hacker, okay. please go back to 4chan. >K&R from the very first time i read this, i knew it was for hobbiest non-innovators

>>6669 >non-innovators you are not a hacker, okay. please go back to HN.

The Zibaldone, by Giacomo Leopardi. Long, beautifully written, melancholic hodgepodge of thoughts by one of modernity's greatest analysts. He sure understood the sadness of societies built around abstract reason. The book is vast and feels like a Bible too - it is majestic to hold.

>>6671 It sure looks interesting, but damn more than 100€ is a lot for a single book

The folio society has great hard copies, but prints are very non-cyberpunk matey. Read your tech books on a 3 inch broken touch screen, with semi-transparent glasses or not at all if you want to embrace the high tech low life aesthetic.

Owning books physically is unnecessary imo, some recommendations to read: The Struggle for Greece- Herodotus, much more accurate than was thought until modern archaeology and literary cross examination confirmed a lot of it, also a really, really good read and endlessly referenced in classical literature, imo a foundational text for historical books in general and its so old and continually examined that you can learn a lot about how to read historical books and what to be mindful of when reading them by reading this and the notes that are included with it in most editions. (one note, Herodotus wasn't a military man and his understanding of the actual logistics and process of military campaigns makes that apparent) Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!- Fredy Perlman, again really interesting and fun to read, I don't necessarily agree with some of the implications the book pushes but its a really good one to read if you're trying to get used to thinking outside your current frame of reference and being more conscious about how you view the world, its also just plain enjoyable, Perlman really knows how to write to engross the reader. The Fairie Queen -Edmund Spenser, Great book, one of the primary texts in the English cannon and one the best longform poems in English ever, really fun and approachable to read for an introduction to the classics, another book that is referenced a lot in the classics and in modern media that most people haven't read, there's a ton of cross text contextual information in here that comes up again and again as you read other stuff. Soldaten, On fighting, killing and Dying- Sonke Nietzel, Hard history book covering the actual unedited thoughts and feelings of German Servicemen from every branch during world war two, based off of transcripts of secretly recorded conversations from thousands of German & Italian POWs made by British and American intelligence, can be genuinely upsetting to read in places, deals a lot in the real nature of violence and how people actually go about making decisions and justifying their actions in real life rather than trying to view it through an ideological lens, the bit that got me was the argument put forth about the role of autotelic violence in society and in warfare, which is a concept most people will be familiar with in some form but is rarely articulated and elaborated upon.

>>6679 Also, lost lives, seminal work on the troubles in Northern Ireland, super depressing, essential reading for anyone interested in Modern Warfare magnet:?xt=urn:btih:4948815a58a8aae3520e228d217e582275b16b6a&dn=d11db86a8430d9981073e0fa4a4ef418&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fbz.tracker.bz%2Fannounce

>>6659 The Individual Eleven. I, for one, thought the last essay was particularly moving. The metaphors with traditional japanese noh theatre are exquisite.

Are you "too tech" for physcial books eh? I wouldn't call the purchase of a good books that can give you pleasure and knowledge, or material for rumination, throughout your life something as "consoomerism". Now I know which part of the internet I am writing this, it's just sad how disconnected so many seemingly are of the tradition of owning some or even a small library of books :( There is that scene in Fallout 2 I recall where the MC gets to Vault City and talks with this librarian into giving MC physical books that would otherwise be thrown away. There is a difference in paper and a screen. To follow on what I mean with a good book. I grant you that a "good book" is highly subjective, for the most part; but I believe in the attempts of a Western Canon, at least in a loose sense because some books are outright essential for our historical intellectual progress. Like visiting the sturdy buildings that can serve as model for future buildings. Some books are ever giving inspiration sources. Having it in a physical form have several boons according to me. Such as having it on display for your own personal delight :) Like having a sticker on your laptop or a certain wallpaper as an identifier of you for others. Supporting the industry of printing "good books", or if you don't want to feed the beast you can always go secondhand. Buying a book puts some pressure on you to read it! There are also a lot of very interesting books just not available digitally and going in (the right) book stores can make you find hidden gems. Plus you can resell it, if know how. I guess most of you lainons are interested in tech, most people liking tech lives in cities. Therefore a portion of lainons likely lives in cities, excuse the flawed logic. In most cities (at least in Europe) there are antiquarian book shops (search or explore, we live in the IT age after all) that usually know their stuff better than usual Barnes & Nobles or equivalents. Going secondhand is like watching what is viable to sell again and again, usually the goodies and classics survive the filter of death to enter those shelves endlessly. For actual books I can recommend pre-socratics(Oxford), Plato(Complete or Oxford), the Iliad. Anthologies on poetry (like from a foreign country or a certain exciting era). Tolstoy, Dostojevsky. Borges. Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness!) Montaigne's Essays. To challenge your ideas of causality: "Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande." Bhagavad GIta etc. For more interesting white men and some women: http://sonic.net/~rteeter/grtbloom.html I hope this is coherent enough to be understood. Bonne lecture!

>>6682 The reality is that physical books are expensive, no used books sale beats the price and availability of a pirated PDF.

>>6692 Be it as it may, you can't concentrate on an e-book the same way that you do on a physical one. It has something to do with the fact that your interface (be it a phone, laptop, tablet or PC screen) is a multi-purpose one, which blurs the borders between recreational and work-related pursuits, hence decreasing the quality of your focus on the task that you're focusing on. It's the same phenomenon as when you read, eat and engage in highly demanding cognitive tasks on your bed, and these habits start negatively affecting the quality of your sleep. Youtuber CGP Grey had a corona-related video about this a while back (that is, that you need to establish separate areas for exercising, reading, sleeping and eating, for instance), but I don't really know the term for the concept of a negative habit indirectly affecting or disrupting another one.

>>6692 At the same time the tech you're reading this on is not too cheap either I would guess. Also I thought the thread was meant for some selected books, not a whole library. One or a couple of used books will not make your wallet empty if you look around. >>6695 I agree to some extent. Could you not create a positive reading habit with an e-reader for both recreational and work? Reading on usual LED can be tough though, specially in the long run. Still, I think it's inferior to paper just because you can't quickly turn pages and annotate that well digitally.

>>6659 IMO the best ones to go for are things that you've read reread multiple times and want a nice version of, and things with really nice maps or inserts that don't translate well to eink or a monitor. I have some books on the world wars that included some really nice facsimile maps for example and while you can get the same information by simply opening an image up on a monitor alongside the text you don't get the same experience as looking at and being able to draw onto a piece of paper as you read

>>6697 >Could you not create a positive reading habit with an e-reader for both recreational and work? Can't really say, as I haven't tried reading on one before. I've heard some good about them, so maybe if you devoted one single room or place to specifically reading an e-book, and you muted and cut off your internet access from your e-reader (assuming it has both audio and internet capabilities, and isn't dependent on some sort of cloud service for you to maintain your access to an e-book) for the duration that you're reading, so as to limit the amount of possible distractions, then it might encourage the positive kind of reading habits, instead of diffusing your attention to all kinds of possible outlets and occupations through dopamine cravings, like Youtube, social media and gaming. But there's still the electronic light that you're being exposed to during evenings. From time to time, before I go to sleep, I like to take a book with me to bed in order to tire myself out if the day hasn't been exhausting enough, but with an e-reader, I think the electronic light might actually just reactivate my brain and keep me up longer than with a physical book. Perhaps they've taken this into account by installing f.lux or something similar to the e-readers, but, like I said before, I have no experience whatsoever on e-readers, so I simply don't know. In short, by being mindful about your habits, I think you can keep the quality of your valued habits about the same even if the external circumstances tend to mix and blend working and recreational attitudes into and under one other. I for one simply do not have enough willpower anymore to keep these two tendencies separate on the same medium (sooner or later I start drifting from online dictionaries towards Youtube or something else as cancerous), which is why physical books have become so essential for me. >One or a couple of used books will not make your wallet empty if you look around. I'd like to add to that that, at some public libraries, they have these free-to-all bookshelves where they dump their old or redundant editions or where people can drop off their used and/or already-read books which they haven't got the need for anymore. It's basically a free meal as far as books are concerned. Mostly it's just a bunch of yesteryear's literal who's what of "book of the month" winners, but occasionally you might stumble upon a real classic or a highly technical, but seldom borrowed book that some people just can't seem to appreciate enough despite how insightful it can be.

Notes from Underground would probably appeal to lainon.

>>6659 The only four physical books I own and would be sad about losing are >the catcher in the rye >fear and loathing in Las Vegas >Ulysses >Moby Dick >FLCL That’s really it lmao

>>6666 neuromancer is honestly poorly written trash. the book was undeniably influential and had some cool ideas in it of course, but it's really not a good book or even worthy of reading in current year. >>6794 i've been reading crime and punishment the last few days and it's excellent. might try that next to be honest

>Books every lainon should own hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, by Murakami >>6832 i dont think the writing in neuromancer is that bad, but then again i really like gibson's terse style. i do think the bridge trilogy is better though, both in terms of the writing and the speculative aspects of the setting. its much more grounded in a dotcom-era post-cyberpunk kind of way.

>>6837 >but then again i really like gibson's terse style i guess maybe you could boil it down to preference maybe, i really don't enjoy his style is all. i do like murakami though, haven't read hard boiled yet though only 1Q/wind up bird/kafka

>>6837 Why Hard-Boiled Wonderland over other Murakami works? Is it because it specifically has a connection to tech while remaining fantastical? I personally preferred Norwegian Wood + Kafka on the Shore to it.

Here's an image I saved from somewhere a while back. Not sure if it's applicable here, though.

>>6844 Forgot to mention that I highly recommend 'Cyberia.' Very comfy book.

>>6844 Delete that image and burn every machine it has touched. Seriously, Wienerian cybernetics over Deleuze? Mark Fisher but no Nick Land?!?!!! What was the creator even fuarrrking thinking?!?!!!

>>6660 LOL >>6679 Perlman in against his-story is a wonderful read. I personally prefer the redacted version, with the political and philosophical suppositions. He is a bit long winded in his historical explanations. The second chapter of Alan Ginsberg's Howl fits in nicely with this read. As an un-troduxory read, check out Ishmael. It is very enlightening. A story told by Koko the gorilla.

>>6855 I can see Deleuze but Land... lol

>>6662 Rare to EPUB/PDF, sure, but youll have to know what those are first before acquisition, rare books in actuality are behind a paywall or only accessible to Library staff. "Digitize, OCR"... thats proof youve never done it, throw down some Links if youre gonna bark orders. We all dont got time. Also to note, Library Genesis is Russian, Library power is country power and the Russians have 4,960,000 books there. >>6679 Book Prints are books, either way as a backup to digital with a different array of vulnerabilities, or as a precedent resource to be digitized. Owning them is fine. Absolutism about book ownership, yeah, don't. >>6695 "You can't concentrate on an e-book." That is indeed true, its refreshing to see Anons refer to themselves instead of projecting. I would prefer if people farted openly instead of talking out of their ass. >>6845 Musings from the dial-up age. Authors an interviewer. Aint even an animal that wants to do the thing, just an outside spectator. Probably a jew, can't be gonzo. Old.

>>6664 I wonder what soy turns to.

Capital by Carl Marx. All three volumes.

>>6665 Borges is one of the best authors I've read. Love the Aleph.

>>7211 I disagree.. All one should read is Vol. 1 and the Falling Rate of Profit chapters of Vol. 3. Vol. 2 and most of Vol. 3 are useless and are massive wastes of time unless you're going to be a Marxist academic. t. fell for the read all three volumes of Capital meme

>>7213 Is it pure bullshit or is there anything worth reading?

>>7214 iIt's boring, abstruse, and I'm not sure how pratical the "scientific" parts of Capital are for regular people like you and me. You have to keep in mind that Marx died before Vol. II and III so Engels had to pick up the pieces, organize them, and sometimes extrapolate them. The result is that parts of Vol. II and III make for awful reading with no tangible benefit from grinding through the pages. If you treat Capital like a textbook and selectively read pertinent chapters, then you'll get a lot more bang for your buck.

>>6679 It's the first time I see someone mentioning Soldaten. I read it alongside Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder. The transcripts are the essence of the book and are sufficiently well arranged to make the author's points and render the psychological commentary unnecessary, to the point that it feels like an excuse to publish this book that probably would not have been published in Gernany otherwise (one author is a germanophone Briton, the other a German if I remember correctly). If you're into history The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides is also wonderful because of the logic behind political and strategic decisions. How do you read books ? I've always had trouble reading non-technical stuff on my computer. Is a e-ink reader something to recommend ? On another note I'd recommend Heart of Darkness. >>6659 The paper books I read the most are poetry anthologies (if someone can recommend a good English-Language one, it'd be great), poetry books (Keats, Dickinson, Yeats for the English ones, Nerval and Heredia inmode French and formerly beaudelaire and Hugo, der ewige Brunne), and Art History books with beautiful paintings. I'm also keeping the Iliad near my desk and I read a passage from time to time. Also old fairy tales compilations, that you can go back to from time to time or that a guest could read for a few minutes.

Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning

The City and The Stars, Rendevous with Rama, 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke

Complete works of William Shakespeare The Art of Shen Ku: The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe, by Zeek The Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu Be Here Now, by Ram Dass The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, by Alan Watts

The Bible, multiple authors

>>7520 I've been considering picking up hebrew/aramaic and greek and reading the original source writing

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 1984 by Orwell

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson.