What is the best book you've ever read?

Self-help? Dale Carnegie, "How To Win Friends And Influence People"

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time by Mark Haddon

'but self help books for young men and books about investing are interesting'

How to Be Less Boring in 1,560 Easy Steps

Bible.

Keeps me going and STRONG every single day. The one thing I have in common with Bryan Hall.

Only that I am a lot more BUFF and SHREDDED.

In Defense of Elitism by William A. Henry III is seriously one of the best books I have ever read. Absolutely required reading....http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Elitism-William-Henry-III/dp/0385479433

Black Med Student wrote:

Figure I might as well do a little reading before school starts back. I'm not into romance or fantasy, but self help books for young men and books about investing are interesting. Any suggestions?

Easy Tiger wrote:

Easy there... Most of Hemingway's novels are based on a central romance, including The Sun Also Rises, which was mentioned earlier in this thread.

As for the best book I've ever read, I'd say it is either Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath or Wallace's Infinite Jest. I'd have put Moby Dick up there if it weren't for the lazy conclusion. It's like Hemmingway spent 20 years perfecting the novel and right at the end, someone knocked his door and said, "Cmon! Time to go!" And he just threw a hastily-written epilogue on the end.

No one called me on it, but I just realized that I inadvertently said Hemingway instead of Melville when referring to Moby Dick. And I spelled Hemingway wrong.

Comanches - The history of a people by T R Fehrenbach, is an eye opening portrayal of life amongst the American Indians before contact with the white colonists.

I don't know about 'best'. However I would recommend:

The God Delusion

The Age of Reason

Fat Boy wrote:

I don't know about 'best'. However I would recommend:

The God Delusion

The Age of Reason

A bunch of faux intellectualism for the simple-minded buffoon.

The Bible. EOT.

Open Society and Its Enemies

Sir Karl Popper

Perfume, by Patrick Suskind

The Prince, by Machiavelli

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, by Yukio Mishima

-I can't help but laugh at all the people who keep bringing up the bible. Just to stir the pot, I'm going to suggest;

The Qur'an, by God, Muhammad, and the Angel Gabriel

:)

A misanthrope wrote:

-I can't help but laugh at all the people who keep bringing up the bible. Just to stir the pot, I'm going to suggest;

The Qur'an, by God, Muhammad, and the Angel Gabriel

:)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha You're funny and original!

And your books suck!

I agree Atlas Shrugged is the greatest polemical and philosophicalnovel I have read--the greatest exposition of libertarian ideals and perhaps the novel that saved capitalism after World War II when socialism was ascendant everywhere.It is not a "self-help" book, but John Allison, who built the assets of BB&T bank from 4B to 152B in twenty years and thrived through the banking crisis in 2007-2010, mandated that all his new hires and employees read it.

Not even a libertarian wrote:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Hands down the greatest novel ever

ggilder wrote:

I agree Atlas Shrugged is the greatest polemical and philosophicalnovel I have read--the greatest exposition of libertarian ideals and perhaps the novel that saved capitalism after World War II when socialism was ascendant everywhere.

It is not a "self-help" book, but John Allison, who built the assets of BB&T bank from 4B to 152B in twenty years and thrived through the banking crisis in 2007-2010, mandated that all his new hires and employees read it.

Not even a libertarian wrote:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Hands down the greatest novel ever

He also makes them all wear name tags. Every single day.

Black Med Student wrote:

but self help books for young men and books about investing are interesting. Any suggestions?

Read good fiction and develop a personality.

Many mentioned Brothers K by Dostoevsky. I prefer Notes from the Underground (the first part). Less a novel than a philosophical essay or treatise on free will vs determinism. It might sound boring, but it's both extremely funny (in a dark way) and painful to read at the same time. It hits at some uncomfortable truths, and is brilliantly constructed. Fairly easy reading but heavy in meaning.

I also enjoyed Candide (Voltaire) and Rasselas (Samuel Johnson) (which contain many similarities, and were both published in 1759).

Black Med Student wrote:

Figure I might as well do a little reading before school starts back. I'm not into romance or fantasy, but self help books for young men and books about investing are interesting. Any suggestions?

I don't read these type of books, but my favorite Fiction books are "Catcher In The Rye", "On The Road" and "Last of the Mohicans"

I've really been getting into Dickens lately!