1) Understanding Power - Noam Chomsky(considered one of the leading intellects in the world today, this book is a good read just to understand his world views and opinions on many things like US foreign policies and politics)

2) The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins(most of you must have heard or read this)

3) The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein(http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/the-book)


In fact, I think they should be compulsory reading in schools. Now list yours

I personally like
1. Joe Dominguez's Your Money or Your Life.
2. N.N.Taleb's Fooled by Randomness
3. P.Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect

Them books change me a lot :-)

agreed on the chomsky and naomi klein books they should have those compulsory in schools!


as for me, the must reads are :

1. Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
2. Das Kapital - Karl Marx
3. The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald


loads more to list, but you want only 3 here. so there

Paradox of Choice - Barry Schwartz
Happier - Tal Ben Sharar
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

the 7 habits of highly effective teens
who moved my cheese?

what the heck u readh das kapital. u should go for mein kapf also

you're an idiot.

Indeed, reading does not mean agreeing. And FYI, Das Kapital is one of the most influential economic books of all time.

My three:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger
(sorry, can't stop at three)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the brilliant Douglas Adams
The Double Helix by James D. Watson
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer


This list only include books I have read so far. I'm sure there are many great books to be read.

i cant believe i never realised lowyat had forums for readers...

my three would probably become 1000 if i dont stop... but i think when u say three must reads... it depends on the genre... rite? i mean if you are a fan of fantasies... i'd list harry potter right on top of the list... but there are those who are completely against books like that...
so...
for general fiction i'd say:

1. the curious incident of the dog in the night time
2. the catcher in the rye
3. the alchemist
4. a thousand splendid suns

(sorry cant help but list another one... coz i couldnt decide which to reject from the list)

my top three

1-Kite runner
2-Thousand splendid sun

Both are written by Khaled Houseini.

3-The whole Saga of Darren Shan.

Cheesy, but passable to read. Might get boring with few of obvious loopholes

1. Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird
2. William Golding's Lord of the Flies
3. Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns (I love Kite Runner but this one's better)

Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell
A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
Good To Great by Jim Collins

I'd go with Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World all tough personally I prefer Pale Blue Dot.

The Alchemist
A Story about a goat herder who travel around europe to search for a treasure. found an alchemist that thought him about life and whatnot. really deep and intriguing storyline.

Kite Runner
what can you say about kite runner? great storytelling from a great author. i cant wait for his next book.

The Life of Pi
A story about a boy who is stuck in the middle of an ocean with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and bengal tiger after a shipwreck. the ending is just mind boggling!

honorable mention:

How Black Was Our Sabbath
A biography about Black Sabbath. How they spend their time on tour, how they take their time off each other, in the eye of their crew, who is also their close friend. Funny stuff. Ozzy is damn crazy!

I've read that but not the other one.

1984, George Orwell
Animal Farm, George Orwell
To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee Harper

hi i'm new here. very excited to find an interesting section in lowyat forum. this is my first post. my top 3,

silence of the lambs (thomas harris)
the bell jar (sylvia plath)
to kill a mockingbird (harper lee)

if i could add one more, it'd be she's come undone by wally lamb

He already has another book out, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

1)How to Win Friends and Influence People
2)Ph miracle
3)The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

The Alchemist
Horton Hears a Who
Pride and Prejudice

1.Joe Dominguez's Your Money or Your Life.

2.The Alchemist (can't remember who wrote it..)

3.Thousand splendid sun by Khaled Houseini.

never get tired of these...

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Added on April 7, 2010, 7:08 pm many of you have same preference as me

This post has been edited by yzarcemina: Apr 7 2010, 07:08 PM

try this
1.Master of the Game...by Sydney Sheldon

one of my favs.........

fav malay novel, Projek 238 (this one is OOP ........)




This post has been edited by enJiNer: Apr 12 2010, 03:16 PM

Nicholas Spark anyone?

the lucky one?

1. The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
2. Dune – Frank Herbert
3. Q & A – Vikas Swarup

Cool! Just found out abt this section of LYN.

1. 1984 - George Orwell (I can't believe only one other person has mentioned this book.)
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

I totally agree with you about TKAM! Amazing book I like Animal Farm, also written by George Orwell

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Sum - David Eagleman
Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

1. little brother - cory doctorow
2. animal farm - george orwell
3. al-Quran/god delusion (seriously)

The Hunger Games trilogy
Superfreakonomics
Animal Farm!

Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
Secret of Millionaire Mind - T. Harv Eker
Double Your Dating - David DeAngelo

for now: to kill a mockingbird, old man & the sea, a civil action

btw, whats so nice about catcher in the rye and 1984? did i miss something that the author wants to tell?

Read:

1)The Lord of the Rings for a epic story.
2)Wheel of Time for epic story telling.
3)Discworld to make you laugh

To Kill A Mockingbird
Life of Pi
The Wealth of Nations

1984
to kill a mockingbird
animal farm

1) Only Time Will Tell
2) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Harry Potter - JK Rowling (Haha XD)
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen

I've read all his novels Love them.
Great romance writer but I wouldn't really list them as must-read.

---

Added on June 22, 2012, 10:04 pmI would say his best novel would be either The Notebook or Message In A Bottle. Read them years ago before The Notebook was made into movie.

---

Added on June 22, 2012, 10:06 pmI love this thread. A lot of ideas about what to read next

This post has been edited by TzeThon: Jun 22 2012, 10:06 PM

Milan Kundera <Unbearable Lightness of Being>

Mitch Albom <Five People You Meet In Heaven>

Carlos Ruiz Zafon <The Shadow Of The Wind> or
Frank Schätzing <The Swarm>

cool !

Hi,

Just found this post. Below are my top 3 books that I like most:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
2. Startup Nation - Dan Senor and Saul Singer
3. Battle Hymn of the tiger mother - Amy Chua

"Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger" is the most sophisticated book on investment psyche that I have ever come across. I highly recommend this title to anyone who is inclined towards understanding the human factor in market dynamics.

"Lat: Kampung Boy" should you have the need to be reminded to stay grounded.

Seth Klarman's "Margin of Safety".

3 books from 3 different genres...

1. A Song of Ice and Fire series (Fantasy) - 1st book is "A Game of Thrones".

2. Inverting the Pyramid (Sports) - History of football tactics.

3. Freakonomics (Non-Fiction) - Random facts on life.

Animal Farm
Ender's Game
To Kill A mockingbird

Kingkiller Chronicles Book 1 , 2 and 3?

Does that count?

If not, then

The Wheels Of Times
KingKiller Chronicles
The Stormlight Archive

Love that list. Surprised a fantasy fan doesn't list a Song of Ice and Fire. Stormlight Archive only has 1 book so far right? What do you think of B. Sanderson's other series Mistborn? Heard its quite good.

didnt wanna step into another Fantasy world yet. lol, thats y i didnt start on Song of Ice n Fire. That said, I did watch their series and again, would hate to spoil the surprise in the series by reading the book. The series has a pretty good show.

As for Stormlight Archive, yap, B. Sanderson is workin on Stormlight 2. As for Mistborn series, it is full of plot twist and is one of the BEST book i have read. Keep me going back for more. You should really get all 3 book and start on book one ASAP.

As great as the TV show is, the books are 10 times better. The TV show does not give enough screen time to the minor characters that tend to make the book great. In fact, the author George RR Martin already said that the TV show might write themselves into a wall as some minor characters will become major but the show didn't give enough screen time (or in some cases removed the character altogether) to the minor characters.

I just bought The Way of Kings. Once I'm done with that and if I'm impressed by Sanderson's writing style I might get Mistborn.

While we're on the topic of epic fantasies we're reluctant to get into, mine is Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Just don't have the drive to start an adventure that will take me through 14/15 books. Gonna stick to trilogies after using up all my energy finishing the Song of Ice and Fire within 6 months.

Speaking of trilogies, are you a fan of the "Trilogy of Five" aka Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

You are opening a new can of worm with The Way of Kings. That in it self is a set of epic fantasy in work
As for Song of Fire and Ice, I am looking to start on that, but AFTER i am done with Robert Jordan WoT series. I am now up to book 11. 4 more to go . Phew...
As for Douglas Adams, I have entertained thoughts of touching that series but not yet. not yet... Its going to be a heck of a reading. I liked the first book, its quirky, weird and funny.
I did just finish Brewn Weeks. The blinding knife, its pretty good in the middle part, the whole thing started slow but at the center of the book, he picked up quite a momentum and threw lots of plot twist into the story. NICE.

I am now eagerly awaiting COLD DAYS by Jim butcher. Its supposed to be good. Very good.

Lastly, I would urge you to read Patrick Rothfuss books if you have not done so. It is Harry potter for the adults. Epic stuff. Loved it more than Brandon Sanderson's book.

Kingkiller Chronicles? Tunggu budget.

Yeah! King killer ! It's an epic book. Seriously. Worth the money to buy it

nothing wrong in reading das kapital, although its really heavy stuff there. Or even mein kampf for that matter.
As for my must read list:
1) The catcher in the rye- J. D. Salinger
2) Cosmos- Carl Sagan
3) V for vendetta (yes I know its a comic book, but what the heck, its a flippin good comic book)
also
4) To kill a mockingbird- Harper Lee

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Added on October 25, 2012, 4:04 amThe catcher in the rye was brilliant, no?
you should check out james joyce's "a portrait of the artist as a young man"
It was pretty good as well

This post has been edited by -PraV-: Oct 25 2012, 04:04 AM

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Secret
Eat Pray Love

**personal likes**

1, lord of the rings
2,a song of ice and fire
3,leo tolstoy war and peace (come on guys .give the dead russian writer a chance..he's only like one of the most influential writer of our time)

Just jk..no flame the new guy in the forum.ty

yep! i've read projek 238 when i was 15 yo back in 94. one of the very few melei super spy novel in the market. there's sex story between a girl name Naemah i think. She's the hero's Fiance. She have sex with an Italian guy named Bruno or something.

This post has been edited by MrUbikeledek: Mar 14 2013, 02:56 PM

1. God Never Blink
2. Go-Giver
3. Start Something Matters

My taste more on motivation

Btw, do check out my new online bookstore, Bookurve.com. We are competing with BookDepository

Below are my top three

1) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
2) An Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie
3) Jack Reacher : One Shot - Lee Child

Actually there are many others also that could easily be my top 3, especially those from Agatha Christie, John Grisham and R.L Stine.

men are from mars, women are from venus - john grey
paul arden's book

narrowing down books to be listed here is hard :/
anyway..

1- Light by Justin Cronin
2- Rusty's Story by Carol Gino
3- Room by Emma Donoghue

1. The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco
2. The 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferriss
3. Influence by Robert Cialdini

Be Happy
Making Friends
Follow Your Heart

all by Andrew Matthews

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

No, I am not old, I'm only 18 this year. |: |

Personally feel inspired after reading:

1. Life Without Limits - Nick Vujicic

2. A Stolen Life: A Memoir - Jaycee Dugard

3. Who Moved My Cheese - Spencer Johnson

1.1984 - orwell
2.slaughterhouse five-kurt vonnegut
3.anything by dostoevsky!!!

1. Curious Incident of the dog in the night time - Mark Haddon

2. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

3. Yes Man - Danny Wallace (still reading)

1. In death series by JD Robb
2. The Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer
3. The Ring by Danielle Steel

Wow, so many Paulo Coelho fans in this thread. I haven't yet read his Alchemist, but I've read reviews criticising his spiritual sententiousness. But I'm in no position to judge, so I'll still read it when I have the time.

Not a list of three, BUT I BEG EVERYONE to drop everything and read all of Ted Chiang's speculative fiction RIGHT NOW. PLEASE. They're all short, very short, and yet, they are impeccable works of art. Each of them create a world so remarkable and with a set of rigid rules which leave you hankering for more. You will not regret it.

The absolute best science fiction I've yet to come across.

1) Story of Your Life and Others- Ted Chiang

I beg to differ. I have read Ted Chiang's short stories; while some of them are novel, they are certainly not ground-breaking. In fact, I always take sci-fi recommendation with more doubts than other genre because most of them were rated based on their novelty. For instance, both the "Quantum Thief" and "Embassy Town" were Locus nomination, but I find myself struggling to finish them. Maybe it's just me because I love sci-fi with not only great ideas, but it must have at least some interesting characters, as well as good amount of mystery to keep the readers motivated to read on. Something like the Expanse series i.e Leviathan Wakes where there is soap opera as well as intriguing plots. The other recent sci-fi which is absolutely well-written, intriguing, full of mysteries, good characterisation is Blind Sight by Peter Watts.

Thank you everyone for contributing to this thread, will definitely refer back here when stumped on what to read next!

Im a big darren shan fan and i love all his works. The cirque du freak series was my first series under mr shan and up to date, ive read them 3x already, loved the twist and turns of the plot and ofcos author's humour.

Dune -Frank Herbert
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Speaker For The Dead - Orson Scott Card

angela's ashes - frank mc court
les miserables - victor hugo
crime and punishment - fyodor dostoevsky

I guess it's a question of taste, but I (as you can tell) really enjoy Ted Chiang's novellas. It's a fair point you make, but perhaps it works to my favour. He does often dispense with his character's personal lives and focus more on the world-binding mechanics of his fictional universes. Like you say, there is very little intimacy or "soap opera" in any of his works. Instead, I really enjoy learning about how each of these worlds function as a rule. I'd like to label his works as a kind of expanded flash-fiction, a building of distinct games with rules within a quick, short amount of pages, thus negating it of any actual drama (in the ordinary sci-fi/fantasy sense).

To each his own, I guess. Nice to see how other people view them. I'll look at the books you mentioned though, thanks.

a child called it -dave pelzer
a walk to remember-nicholas sparks
*spot reserved*

1. Animal Farm by George Orwell
Timeless and very apt allegory

2. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
Comprehensive philosophy 101 centred around a very engrossing fiction

3. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (in fact, all his other sequel of memoirs as well)
heartbreakingly funny recollection. read it over and over again

My top 3 books of all time for non fiction

1. Millennium trilogy - Stieg Larsson (Highly recommended)

2. Prisoner of Birth - Jeffrey Archer

3. Master of the Game - Sidney Sheldon

Don't read much of fiction so can't really say haha