I read a whole hell of a lot of fiction.

I'm also very opinionated about my political beliefs. But its has occured to me that most of my political ramblings come from biased media outlets and crap like The Daily Show and Bill Maher.

I need some recomendations of books to enlighten me and allow me to have informed discussions about life and politics.

I am currently reading a Naom Chomsky book.

All you smart mother fuckers need to recommend more books like this for me.

And don't give me a link to another thread, i already searched.

The Daily Show is not crap.

Which Noam Chomsky book are you reading? I've read 911 and Hegemony or Survival, and they are both excellent.

No, the Daily Show is not crap. I didn't really mean it that way. But even Jon Stewart has said that it is a comedy show and people should not be using it as a news outlet.

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project) is the Chomsky book i just picked up. Haven't started it yet.

I almost got a Howard Zinn book, too. The only one they had, though was like The Essential Zinn or something and was like the size of the Bible. I can't do that for the first book of his i read.

Here's a few I've read in the past year.

*Lies My Teacher Told Me - James Loewen
*Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
*Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
*The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching - Thich Nhat Nanh
*Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

Thank you very much. Keep 'em coming.

I should also add that i don't want everything to be completely liberally biased (although i do lean pretty far to the left). I just kind of feel like if i don't hear both sides of the story, that i can never really tell what I believe to be the truth.

But don't start suggesting Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity books.

i, for one, didn't particularly enjoy ishmael. not that it is a bad book, but i found it covered a lot of ground i had already considered myself and didn't help me see things in a new way, nor did i finish the book thinking "i'm convinced, i should do such-and-such."
perhaps that speaks to my desire for someone to save the world more than any shortcomings in the book, but i just didn't find it worthy of all the praise heaped upon it.

it is, however, a short, easy read.

Ishmael is one of my favorite books. I say give it a shot.

The best nonfiction book I've read recently is What's the Matter With Kansas by Thomas Frank - this is excellent.

Are there any books that actually directly refute republican talking points. Like "if a conservative says this, they are wrong because of this"?

Or vice versa.

I know this makes me sound really lazy, but i am.

"No God, but God" I forget the author, but it's a fairly balanced book about Islam's beginnings and beliefs. Good read and interesting especially in these times.

Oh that sounds like a good one. I defiintely need to read more about Islam. I don't know shit about it other than some of them say it's ok to blow everyone up and other one's say it aint.

Definitely check this book out then. The author goes into all the different sects of Islam and tries to explain Islam in a cultural context, specifically the culture when Islam first began. Good stuff. I'll think of some more when I get home from work.

Essentials:

1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
2. Ishmael
3. Globalization on Trial
4. Clash of Civilizations
5. The World is Flat


Those last three will all address modern global politics from different perspectives, and with different philosophies. Combined, they make for an interesting internal debate.

Hey Gimme.

I suggest that you pick up a book of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays. If nothing else, check out "Self-Reliance". I re-read it at least twice a year.

You won't regret it.

Right on!!

Keep 'em coming. I will bump this thread continuously until i am the most well read person in Evil Bunny Land.

I like the "Popular Culture and Philosophy" series:

Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing
The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'Oh! of Homer
The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy
Baseball and Philosophy
The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am
Woody Allen and Philosophy
Harry Potter and Philosophy
Mel Gibson's Passion and Philosophy
More Matrix and Philosophy
Star Wars and Philosophy
Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way
The Atkins Diet and Philosophy
The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy
Hip-Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason

I hope you are shitting me.

Althought that Buffy one sounds intriguing.

I have Buffy and the Simpsons. I didn't find the Simpsons one as interesting. Each one is a collection of essays. I think I'll pick up Seinfeld and Superheroes at the library.

I forgot a link, sorry ... here's the Seinfeld one ... the others are all linked on the right.

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0812694090

Noam Chomsky is wonderful - great start on your trek!

I've read all of Thomas Friedman's books, and I think they're worth every word. He's brilliant. He's very knowledgeable as well as well-written, as you'd know from his New York Times columns. He wrote a couple on globalization, and there was one called From Beirut to Jerusalem, which was basically his collected thoughts on his time in the Middle East, and there's one that actually lists his New York Times columns since September 11 with commentary: Longitudes and Attitudes. Very intriguing non-fiction writer.

I just saw that MC recommended The World is Flat, that's a Friedman book on globalization. Good call, man!

Ralph Nader has also written some good books. He's so much more compelling when he doesn't try to be a politician.

Energystar, good call on Thich Nhat Hanh! He's a great writer on religion, as he has studied in various cultures and considers himself both Catholic and Buddhist. There's another one called Living Buddha, Living Christ that I've read a couple of times through. It's enlightening stuff.

Also, very good call on Siddhartha. Everyone should read that.

I read Man's Search for Meaning last year, and I thought it was very simple and brief and it was appropriate of Frankl to write as a person instead of as a psychiatrist. Anything surrounding such intensity as the Holocaust needs no decorative language or lengthy arguments. He just talked about his disillusionment from his experiences in the Holocaust and how he found meaning from that point on.


For more conservative views, I read a couple of Pat Buchanan's books... You can't find researched opinions or anything of value in an Ann Coulter book - she's not an activist, she's a media darling. Plus, I think she might be insane. I'm not just saying that because I lean very far to the left either, hahaha. I think a lot of Republicans know she makes them look bad.

You could get a lot worse than Buchanan, no fooling. I've read a lot of books from both sides of the fence politically, and I've been interested in every religion and have probably taken from most of the major faiths for my own beliefs. I've always thought it was better to read from every possible source and decipher the truth from all of the knowledge I've collected for myself.

My study of Islam has been one of the more intriguing ventures, so definitely take leftofcenter's advice on No God, but God. I'll have to go through my book collection to see about more religious-geared books, and I'll come back for that. This is what came to mind for now though.

the seven storey mountain, by thomas merton is a nice little retreat if you like your christianity with a side of almost budhhist devotion. it's basically an autobiography highlighting merton's early atheistic life and how he intellectually grew out of it.

Very good read, I love the writing style of Emerson, throw in some Henry David Thoreau. A couple that I would suggest would be Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke, this is a work largely focused on individual rights and civil liberties and also the various writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, specifically the Social Contract.