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Safferz

What books have changed your life?

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Safferz   

Allyourbase;991300 wrote:
I would say the books that have really altered my thinking or have made a strong impression on me I read when I was younger so expect some cheese in my list:

 

The Alchemist

alchemist.jpg

 

100 Years of Solitude

gabriel-garcia-marquez-one-hundred-years

 

Flowers for Algernon

algernon.jpg

 

The Art Spirit

The-Art-Spirit-B0010NY9JO-L.jpg

 

The Little Prince

 

Littleprince.JPG

 

Outliers

 

outliers_gladwell.jpg

Not cheesy at all! All the books I listed I first read around ages 17-19 (except The Creative Habit, which I read earlier this year and helped me work through my grown up procrastination habits :P), and I'm sure most people similarly encountered the books on their lists at a young age for it to have an impact on their formation.

 

Forgot to add one more, to this day one of the best history books I've ever read and one of the reasons I wanted to become a historian:

 

black_jacobins_jpg-CONVERT-resize400.jpg

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Apophis;991433 wrote:
It's what separates the sheep (those who cannot generate any ideas originally) and the idea/s generators (who write it in book format for the sheep).

 

If you wrote a book, I would buy it. (If it fits into my budget, of course).

 

 

Saff, have you read Fanon's Wretched of the Earth? Black Skins White Masks? Qutb's Milestones?

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Geography - Hildegaard Johnson (intro) David Lanegran - Urban Geography

Leakey - Progress and Evolution of Man in Africa

Nasr - Plight of Modern Man

"Subliminal Seduction" (title)

Black Rednecks and White Liberals - Thomas Sowell (also his books on Economics and Culture)

"Future Shock" (title)

How To Win Friends and Influence People (Carnegie)

Greatest Salesman in the World (Mandino)

Botany of Desire (Pollen) - also, his "Omnivores Dilemma

Social Class Influences Upon Learning - Allison Davis

Rituals of Blood - Orlando Patterson

Omni-Americans - Al Murray

Autobiography - Malcolm X

Power Elite - C.Wright Mills

Western Canon - Harold Bloom

Howl - Alan Ginsberg

Black Fire - Larry Neal

Clinton Tapes - Taylor Branch

Asian Drama - Segal

Merchants of Grain - Morgan

Myth of Sisyphus - Camus

Walker's Appeal - David Walker

Anything by John Hope Franklin

History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell also "Principia Mathematica"

Simple (stories) - Langston Hughes

Clash of Civilizations - Huntington

Muntu - Jahneiz (?)

The Power Broker - Robert Caro

Anything by E.Franklin Frazier, especially "Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World"

Way of Zen - Watts

Anacalypsis - Higgins

Man and His Symbols - Jung

City of God - Augustine

The Prince - Machievelli

Art of War - Sun Tzu

Analects of Confucius

I Ching

Alice in Wonderland - Carroll

Buddha Dharma

Siddhartha

1984

Animal Farm

Mysticism of Sound and Music - Hazrat Khan

Cultural Unity of Africa - Diop

Introduction to African Civilizations - Jackson

The World and Africa - DuBois

Africa, the Triple Heritage - Mazrui

History of the Upper Guinea Coast - Rodney

Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race - Blyden

Capitalism and Slavery - Williams

Black Jacobins - James

Peoples History of the US - Zinn

Documentary History of the Negro in the US - Aptheker

Signs in the Heavens - Ahmad

Lost History - Morgan

Canon - Ibn Sina

Natural Theology - William James

Aesop's Fables

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Muqaddimah - Ibn Khaldun

Story of Civilization - Durant

Poems of Rumi and Saadi

Critical Path (?) - Buckminster Fuller

The Prophet - Gibran

Whole Earth Catalog

Search for Common Ground/Jesus and the Disinherited - Thurman

Remembering Malcolm - Benjamin Karim, also Death of White Supremacy

World's Great Men of Color - J.A. Rogers

Cultural Forces in World Politics - Mazrui

American Dilemma - Myrdal

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Brown

The Fire Next Time - Baldwin

Notes of a Native Son - Baldwin

Africa Must Unite - Nkrumah, also Neo-Colonialism

Wretched of the Earth; Black Skins, White Masks; A Dying Colonialism - Fanon

Innocents Abroad; Autobiography - Mark Twain

As The Light Shineth From The East - Muhammad, also African American Genesis

Walden - Thoreau

Suppession of the African Slave Trade; The Philadelphia Negro - DuBois (anything by him)

Up From Slavery - B.T. Washington

Man Who Talked to Flowers - G.W.Carter

Narrative of the Life - Frederick Douglass

Women, Race and Class - Angela Davis

Democracy in America - de Toqueville

Savage War of Peace - Home

Things Fall Apart - Achebe

American Religion - Bloom

Cultural Literacy - Hirsch

Where Do We Go From Here - MLK, Jr.

Community of Self; Natural Psychology and Human Transformation - Akbar

Travels - Ibn Battutah

They Came Before Columbus - Sertima

Stolen Legacy - James

Grey - Anatomy of the Human Body

Physicians Desk Reference

DSM - Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Psych

The Merck Manual

Back To Eden - Kloss

How To Eat To Live - Muhammad

Power Faith and Fantasy - Oren

Cultural Roots of American Islamicism - Marr

Journey Into America - Akbar Ahmed

Devil's Game - Dreyfuss

Great War for Civilization - Fisk

Treasury of African Folklore - Courlander, also Treasury of African American Folklore

Souls of Black Folk - DuBois

MisEducation of the Negro - Woodson

Plays - Ed Bullins

Collected Works - Ishmael Reed

The New Negro - Locke

Black Fire - Neal

Blues People; Black Music - Jones (Baraka)

Black Music, Four Lives - Spellman

American Hunger - Wright

Crisis of the Negro Intellectual - Cruse

Spook Who Sat By The Door - Greenlee

Man Who Cried I Am - Williams

Code of the Street - Anderson

Black Family - Blasingame

Message to the Blackman - Muhammad

American Jihad - Barboza

Parting the Waters; Pillar of Fire; Toward Canaan - Taylor Branch

Red Book - Mao Tse Tung

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Safferz;991491 wrote:
Not cheesy at all! All the books I listed I first read around ages 17-19 (except The Creative Habit, which I read earlier this year and helped me work through my grown up procrastination habits
:P
), and I'm sure most people similarly encountered the books on their lists at a young age for it to have an impact on their formation.

 

Forgot to add one more, to this day one of the best history books I've ever read and one of the reasons I wanted to become a historian:

 

black_jacobins_jpg-CONVERT-resize400.jpg

Tell me more about the Creative Habit, why would you say it altered your thinking? I ask this because I myself have a bad procrastination habit that I need to kick.

 

If you like history then stop everything you're doing now and go check a podcast called Hardcore History, its by Dan Carling, he describe himself as a hobbyist but he consistently churns out some of the best commentary and analysis of history that I have seen. Check out the WWII episodes in particular, and the Mongol ones too, fantastic stuff.

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Safferz   

Wow, huge list there thefuturenow :P

 

Allyourbase;991524 wrote:
Tell me more about the Creative Habit, why would you say it altered your thinking? I ask this because I myself have a bad procrastination habit that I need to kick.

 

If you like history then stop everything you're doing now and go check a podcast called Hardcore History, its by Dan Carling, he describe himself as a hobbyist but he consistently churns out some of the best commentary and analysis of history that I have seen. Check out the WWII episodes in particular, and the Mongol ones too, fantastic stuff.

I'll check the podcast out, but admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of amateur historians, very few pull it off well.

 

Oddly enough the Creative Habit is written by a famous ballet choreographer, who draws from her own experience and that of other artists to talk about the idea that creative work requires discipline and routine above all else, and how you can't simply wait for inspiration but have to actively create the conditions and daily habits to do your work. I'm fascinated by the daily routines of successful people (writers in particular, since that's closest to my work), so I found the book quite insightful and inspiring. I made a thread on procrastination that you be interested in checking out :)

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the single book that has sparked my love of literature was the great expectations by Charles Dickens. More recently it was the outliers by mr gladwell and freakonomics. not sure how anyone can read those two books, actually, every book changes you a little...silly question

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Cheers, will have a look.

 

Do check out Hardcore History, I am doing him a disservice by describing him as a hobbiest. The Creative Habit seems like a good shout actually. Have you read Outliers? Because reading through your post it seems right up your street. Malcolm Gladwell goes through the working habits of those working at world-class level. It has become a little cliched recently with the 10000 hour rule and all but its a good read!

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Safferz   

Allyourbase;991532 wrote:
Cheers, will have a look.

 

Do check out Hardcore History, I am doing him a disservice by describing him as a hobbiest. The Creative Habit seems like a good shout actually. Have you read Outliers? Because reading through your post it seems right up your street. Malcolm Gladwell goes through the working habits of those working at world-class level. It has become a little cliched recently with the 10000 hour rule and all but its a good read!

I have! He's a really interesting and engaging writer and speaker, plus he's Canadian so what's not to love :)

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Kulmiye   

Malcom X Biography

Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom

Tears of a Tiger

Say You're One of Them- Uwem Akpan

Sista Souljah- No Disrespect.

The Tipping Point- Malcom Gladwell.

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Guje   

most peoples reading lists are terribly cliched and unimaginative : malcolm x, fanon, gladwell etc. who reads such crap ?

 

myself i can't read books nor watch movies.

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