Best world literature books according to redditors
We found 1,239 Reddit comments discussing the best world literature books. We ranked the 361 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 1,239 Reddit comments discussing the best world literature books. We ranked the 361 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Try the other books of Walter Moers, if you haven't yet!
Rumo is my favourite:
https://www.amazon.com/Rumo-Miraculous-Adventures-Walter-Moers/dp/1585679364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481039638&sr=8-1&keywords=rumo
That's fine, a lot of us here are western converts, and we all know what it is like at the beginning to be overwhelmed by the number of schools, traditions, texts, etc... You're in good company.
Here's my standard set of recommendations for Theravada Buddhism. If you are interested in other traditions, then other people will recommend more suitable books.
I think the classic book What the Buddha Taught is one of the best starting points there is. It's a rather basic text, but at the same time it covers a lot of ground. Definately a must read. There are other more comprehensive introductory books, but they are a bit more technical.
Another amazing book is the Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi's book In the Buddha's Words which is an anthology of just a few of the Suttas along with some excellent introductory essays. This book is probably the best introduction to Buddhist scripture out there. This book is the only one on this list that isn't available for free on the internet, but for a little over ten dollars, I'd say it is definitely worth it.
The Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi also gave an introductory summary of Buddhism in the early 80's called The Buddha's Teaching As It Is which is quite good.
His Systematic Study of the Majjhima Nikaya is one of the best lecture series there is in my opinion.
You can find some articles he wrote here. I especially recommend the article "The Buddha and his Dhamma" and "The Noble Eightfold Path".
Sutta Central is probably the go to place for translations from the Pali Canon.
Here's a pdf of Mindfulness of Plain English, a very popular and general text on meditation.
Also one of the best books on meditation (although it is a bit more technical) is the book Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization
If you want to practice meditation according to the Mahasi Sawadaw tradition, then read this pdf of Practical Vipassana Exercises is a very good book. Also, if you are interested in the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition I highly recommend the youtube videos of the Ven. Yuttadhammo
Here's a good meditation manual from Ajahn Thanissaro about Mindfulness of Breathing.
Why is nobody mentioning the sci-fi Three Body Problem?
For me, personally, I started with the 'Basics' section on the sidebar. It contains, amongst other things:
I myself started with Walpola Rahula's book, as recommended in those links, and the https://bswa.org/ resources including those on Youtube. I then progressed onto In the Buddha's Words.
I also find Thanissaro Bhikkhu's talks to be informative. They can be found at https://www.dhammatalks.org/ -- note there is a 'For Beginners' tab -- and also on Youtube. I think the former is kept more up-to-date but there are many valuable talks on both, about all kinds of topics.
 
I am very thankful that you have come out of this situation with so much physical and mental strength. I hope this means that you can find peace, happiness and health. I hope you do not mind me also saying that I extend this too to your attacker, as their actions are clearly not helpful for them or the living beings around them.
Michel Houellebecq wrote a pretty funny novel called Submission about how France becomes a Muslim controlled country in 2022. Parts of it seem incredibly likely, such as the Islamic party partnering with the Socialist to seize political power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submission_(novel)
>Ben-Abbes wins the election, and becomes President of France. He pacifies the country and enacts sweeping changes to French laws, privatizing the Sorbonne, thereby making François redundant with full pension as only Muslims are now allowed to teach there. He also ends gender equality, allowing polygamy. Several of François' intellectually-inferior colleagues, having converted to Islam, get good jobs and make arranged marriages with attractive young wives. The new president campaigns to enlarge the European Union to include North Africa, with the aim of making it a new Roman Empire, with France at its lead.
https://www.amazon.com/Submission-Novel-Michel-Houellebecq/dp/0374271577
A controversial, intelligent, and mordantly funny new novel from France's most famous living literary figure
It's 2022. François is bored. He's a middle-aged lecturer at the New Sorbonne University and an expert on J. K. Huysmans, the famous nineteenth-century Decadent author. But François's own decadence is considerably smaller in scale. He sleeps with his students, eats microwave dinners, rereads Huysmans, queues up YouPorn.
Meanwhile, it's election season. And although Francois feels "about as political as a bath towel," things are getting pretty interesting. In an alliance with the Socialists, France's new Islamic party sweeps to power. Islamic law comes into force. Women are veiled, polygamy is encouraged, and François is offered an irresistible academic advancement--on the condition that he convert to Islam.
Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker has said of Submission that "Houellebecq is not merely a satirist but--more unusually--a sincere satirist, genuinely saddened by the absurdities of history and the madnesses of mankind." Michel Houellebecq's new book may be satirical and melancholic, but it is also hilarious, a comic masterpiece by one of France's great novelists.
Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It's a strange one, but I enjoy strange books. Wonderfully vivid characters, too.
[Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World] (http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Boiled-Wonderland-End-World-International/dp/0679743464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372998994&sr=8-1&keywords=hard+boiled+wonderland+and+the+end+of+the+world) is probably his most sci-fi, as well a great starting point.
Physicalism was just what I was left with when I stopped believing in magic. We physicalists do acknowledge the existence of mathematics, language, emotion, hopes, dreams, etc. For us they're qualities of, or relationships between, or phenomena arising out of or dependent on physical processes, physical reality. "Physical" isn't relegated to what you can poke with a stick.
>If you believe that "you are your brain"
I am not my brain, no more than I am my foot. My sense of "I" comes from processes in my brain, yes, but that's a different statement.
>what happens if I create using some advanced technology a perfect copy of your brain in a different location ?
Then that copy too would have a sense of self. He would be an individual unto himself, and would feel the need for self-preservation and all the rest. We might start off as identical, but since our experiences would be different then we would quickly diverge.
As an aside, I'd recommend the great book Permutation City, which explores these ideas in great depth. Many of Greg Egan's other novels and short stories also explore the same territory.
>Which brain are you ?
"I" is a first-person experience. The other instantiation of "my" brain pattern (which would quickly diverge from the original) would be its own "I".
Phillip Roth has you covered
Aching God sounds like it's for you.
Edit* If you are into anime/games then I hesitantly suggest this japanese light novel. I don't really think it's going to be what you're looking for though.
Worth the Candle seems sort of like half story and half critique of dnd storytelling. My experience was that it's interesting but also frustrating for that same reason.
I always loved Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. That book is some of his best work; I became entraced, just utterly enamored with this book the moment I picked it up in the "New and Noteworthy" section of Barnes and Nobles.
Here is the cover- Even it is evocative of the entire mood of the book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143034901?cache=4d86abfaae77a4a6df90f3ab8702937a&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1408808620&sr=1-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
>I'd love to do the Vedas or the Tripiṭaka, but from what I'm reading, these are almost impossible to understand without the formal training and would take more than a year to complete (if you can even find English translations of them).
The Tripitaka actually has a lot of very accessible parts -- reading the entire thing would be a massive undertaking (this would be thousands and thousands of pages), but the Majjhima Nikaya (the middle length discourses of the Buddha) and the Digha Nikaya (the long length discourses of the Buddha) are IMO extremely accessible and cover most of the non-Mahayana Buddhist teachings. Both come with very good forwards which serve as a good introduction for understanding the rest of the text.
For Mahayana Buddhism, there are a number of sutras translated, but probably the most foundational/important would be the Bodhicharyavatara (the way of the Bodhisattvas) which is amazing, but really needs more unpacking to fully appreciate. For that I'd recommend The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech which is an excellent and detailed commentary on it.
Why not just read the word of the Buddha himself? I really recommend In The Buddha's Words by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Basically, it's a selection of the Buddha's discourses. There's a bunch of discourses that the Buddha gave to householders, these are easy to understand and to the point.
A lot of the Buddha's teaching are actually very straight forward and easy to understand.
From what I've read of Thick Nhat Hanh, he tends to be more on the poetic side, which can be very inspiring, but also hard to understand some times.
People should read this book, by a French author. I can actually see this story line playing out now.
It's a novel about the total Islamic takeover of France. Pretty good book, in a sad, sardonic kind of way.
https://www.amazon.com/Submission-Novel-Michel-Houellebecq/dp/0374271577
This book - it's pretty wild.
Volume 1:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 2:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 3:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 4:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Here's all the guides you'll ever need!
Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World is precisely what you're looking for.
My recommendations from books I read in the last year or so (yes, these are all VERY STRONG recommends curated from ~100 books in the last year) -
​
Science fiction-
Derek Kunsken's The Quantum Magician (I would describe it as a cross between Oceans Eleven with some not-too-Hard Science Fiction. Apparently will be a series, but is perfectly fine as a standalone novel).
Cixin Lu's very popular Three Body Problem series (Mixes cleverly politics, sociology, psychology and science fiction)
James A Corey's The Expanse Series (which has been made into the best sci fi tv series ever!)
Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief series (Hard science fiction. WARNING - A lot of the early stuff is intentionally mystifying with endless terminology that’s only slowly explained since the main character himself has lost his memories. Put piecing it all together is part of the charm.)
​
Fantasy-
James Islington's Shadow of What was Lost series (a deep series which makes you think - deep magic, politics, religion all intertwined)
Will Wight's Cradle series (has my vote for one of the best fantasy series ever written)
Brandon Sanderson Legion series (Brandon Sanderson. Nuff said. Creative as always)
​
Manga -
Yukito Kishiro's Alita, Battle Angel series (the manga on what the movie was based)
​
Non-Fiction-
Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind - Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (and how we are not as rational as we believe we are, and how passion works in tandem with rationality in decision making and is actually required for good decisionmaking)
Rothery's Geology - A Complete Introduction (as per title)
Joseph Krauskopf's A Rabbi's Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play, available to read online for free, including a fabulous supplementary of Talmud Parallels to the NT (a Rabbi in 1901 explains why he is not a Christian)
​
Audiobooks -
Bob Brier's The History of Ancient Egypt (as per title - 25 hrs of the best audiobook lectures. Incredible)
​
Academic biblical studies-
Richard Elliot Friedman's Who Wrote The Bible and The Exodus (best academic biblical introductory books into the Documentary Hypothesis and Qenite/Midian hypothesis)
Israel Finkelstein's The Bible Unearthed (how archaelogy relates to the bible)
E.P. Sander's Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63BCE-66CE (most detailed book of what Judaism is and their beliefs, and one can see from this balanced [Christian] scholar how Christianity has colored our perspectives of what Jews and Pharisees were really like)
Avigdor Shinan's From gods to God (how Israel transitioned from polytheism to monotheism)
Mark S Smith's The Early History of God (early history of Israel, Canaanites, and YHWH)
James D Tabor's Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity (as per title)
Tom Dykstra's Mark Canonizer of Paul (engrossing - will make you view the gospel of Mark with new eyes)
Jacob L Wright's King David and His Reign Revisited (enhanced ibook - most readable book ever on King David)
Jacob Dunn's thesis on the Midianite/Kenite hypothesis (free pdf download - warning - highly technical but also extremely well referenced)
Rupert Gethin's Foundations of Buddhism is a thorough introduction to Buddhism. For starting reading the Pāli discourses, there's Bhikkhu Bodhi's In the Buddha's Words - this is a selection of discourses serving as an entry point.
Then you can start with the discourses directly: start with the Majjima Nikāya and then you can also go through The Dīgha Nikāya and the Samyutta Nikāya. And then the last but not least: Aṇguttara Nikāya and the Khuddhaka Nikāya (search on Amazon). These texts would be important references for the rest of your life if you seriously pursue Buddhism.
Regarding insight meditation, Bhikkhu Anālayo's Satipaṭṭāna book is the best modern day commentary available. Highly recommend it. His "Excursions into the Pāli Discourses" Part 1 and Part 2 are also very useful since they summarize many of the topics discusses in the discourses.
Books by Shaila Catherine or Ajāhn Brahmavaṃso would be good texts regarding samatha meditation.
There are the various texts written by the Ledi Sayādaw and Mahāsi Sayadaw - two Burmese scholar-practitioners who popularized insight meditation in the last century. You can go through Ven. Ledi Sayādaw's Vipassanā Dīpani (Manual of Insight) and you can find Ven. Mahāsi Sayadaw's books here.
Bhikkhu K. Ñānānanda has many books discussing deep questions about dependent arising, the nature of nirvāna, and so forth. You can find them here.
I'll let others recommend Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna and Zen material. In general, Reginald Rays books on Tibetan Buddhism are great entry points to Tibetan Buddhism, and then there's Gampopa's Jewel Ornament Of Liberation. There's also Shantidēva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, useful for any Mahāyāna practitioner. With Zen there's always Dōgen Zenji's Shōbōgenzō.
You should be able to find all of the above by googling if it's available for free or on Amazon (or a University library) otherwise.
Depends on what I want, study or practice. But my most recent have been...
Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silence-Power-Quiet-World-Noise/dp/1846044340/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453563033&sr=1-1&keywords=silence+thich+nhat+hanh
For daily living the books by Thich Nhat Hanh are fantastic, especially the power of silence. The book is aimed at all audiences but really goes in to depth showcasing how life in the west especially has become out of control, we are constantly imbued with noise, constantly thinking and never truly coming home to ourselves, so our suffering is always 'ours' carried by us everywhere until it begins to spill out in our actions and thoughts.
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453563240&sr=1-1&keywords=Bikkhu+bodhi
I really like both this book and the middle length discourses for when I desire to feel 'closer' to the teachings. This book in particular takes teachings from the the pali canon and presents those which bear the most relevance to life today. The teachings are very profound and each suttra is very powerful. Many of the questions here could be easily answered by reading these translations of the discourses by Bikkhu Bodhi.
Although I do feel these are books for the book shelf as the suttras are kept purposely intact but it means there is a lot of cumbersome repetition and one or two suttras a session are best I find.
Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: Majjhima-Nikaya: New Translation (Teachings of the Buddha)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Middle-Length-Discourses-Buddha-Majjhima-Nikaya/dp/086171072X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453564072&sr=1-1&keywords=bhikkhu+bodhi+the+middle+discourses
This book focuses more on the Buddha's time at jetta grove and a lot of the pages describe his dealings with the monastics, but also detail his meetings with all walks of life from princes to simple villagers. There is the classic hell suttra too, which is gruesome and had me in contemplation for a while! The teachings are profound though and any discerning Buddhist would benefit from reading the texts.
http://www.buddhanet.net/chin_bud.htm
'The translated teachings of Miao Yun'
This is not so much a book as a collection of teachings which have been translated for a western audience. The words however contain a lot of wisdom and really detail the framework of a path from human to buddha-hood and the importance of cultivating core values such as wisdom and compassion.
Here you go
It's sci-fi, not fantasy, but Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem seems pretty big and it even made President Obama's reading list.
I'm looking forward to The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, out in November. First in a trilogy, this is reputedly the shit in China, & has spawned an SF trend there.
It's interesting because Chinese fiction has to pass Chinese censorship, which often makes it unpalatable for readers outside the firewall. But this series has a western publisher and some impressive resources, so the hype is on.
I made a list based on where you can purchase them if you want to edit it onto your post:
This Month's Book
January:
by Iain Banks]
(https://www.amazon.com/Consider-Phlebas-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/031600538X)
by Aldous Huxley]
(https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060850523)
by Ray Bradbury
by Oscar Wilde
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
by Jordan B. Peterson]
(https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/B0797Y87JC)
February:
by Richard Matheson
by Frank Herbert
by Haruki Murakami
by Bret Easton Ellis
by Max Tegmark
by Friedrich Nietzsche
March:
by Ernest Hemingway
by Herman Melville
April:
(https://www.amazon.com/Dice-Man-Luke-Rhinehart/dp/0879518642)
https://www.amazon.com/Stoner-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590171993)
(https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishment-Fyodor-Dostoyevsky/dp/0486415872)
https://www.amazon.com/No-Longer-Human-Osamu-Dazai/dp/0811204812)
May:
https://www.amazon.com/Spring-Snow-Sea-Fertility-1/dp/0679722416)
(https://www.amazon.com/Runaway-Horses-Sea-Fertility-2/dp/0679722408)
November
Books Pewds suggested but hasn't talked about in any of the episodes yet:
linking pewds to see this u/pewpewpewPEWdie
Have you read the book Machine Man?
That's kind of how the book starts
It's the 90s edition of the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It normally has an ugly dust jacket on it. Back to the Future 2 lied. We still don't have dust repellent paper.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Douglas-Adams/dp/0517149257
Anyone who enjoys this comment; I highly recommend you read this:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765377063
The less spoilers you know about it, the better.
I just have to make another reply because the amount of ignorance in this post is just simply staggering.
More on Mao, many people do not worship Mao. Those who look at him favourably are also divided on the opinion. On one hand Mao is acknowledged as the person who liberated China from colonial meddling and division. He's the one who united a fragmented China.
On the other hand, the general consensus is that while he was a great general, he was a terrible ruler.
His great leap forward and cultural revolution were utter failures. Even the current government acknowledges it and moved on from Mao's policies.
Nowadays, it isn't a crime to criticise the cultural revolution, discuss or WRITE about it in a best selling novel. Case in point, in 2006, a chinese author by the name of Liu Cixin published a sci-fi novel named "Three body problem", in the first two chapters he unapologetically portrayed the failure and brutality of cultural revolution.
The book became the best selling sci-fi novel in China. In 2015 it was translated into English in the west and won the prestigious Hugo award for best novel. Obama read it and recommended it as his favourite book to read during his presidency.
Proof:
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500440486&sr=8-1&keywords=three+body+problem
You should obviously join Mikraite. You could be working for one of our businesses making millions legally screwing over humanity instead of wasting your time with the moronic scum on reddit. And our god killed more people than any other god, which is why we love him.
I also recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032/
Not quite new, and not quite yellow, but an amazing book nonetheless. The Shadow of the Wind
The Crafter by Outspan Foster. I haven't read this one yet, but I'm pretty pumped. Ordered the paperback. Set in a non-vr world.
Dante's Immortality. Highly recommended on this sub. Book 2 probably won't happen. Probably once a week asks about book 2. Still, so good that it's worth reading book 1 of an unfinished series. I think that's pretty high praise for it.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic. Another sub favorite. People argue whether or not it's LitRPG, most important thing is: it's dope.
Adventures on Brad. Nice slice of life in a non-vr fantasy world with game mechanics. Fun stuff.
A few others:
Adventurer Academy andIs It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon.
Enjoy!
The novel has been officially released in English by YenPress which is why it's been removed everywhere. Here are links for where to buy volume 1.
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 2 will be out in April (Look at side bar) and so forth every 4 months.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316553379/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316339156/
for a book that i thought was strage but also a pretty good read
Hard Boiled Wondeland and the End of the World
http://www.amazon.ca/Hard-Boiled-Wonderland-World-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0679743464/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/186-4979195-8807216
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.
Had to stop myself in multiple parts for different reasons. Either “I feel odd” or “that was oddly uncomfortable” or at one specific part “I might vomit holy shit” (but in a good way).
Haruki Murakami is like the Stephen King of being surreal as fuck. If you have never read one of his books I would recommend reading another one before you read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It's easily the most surreal thing I have ever read.
I recommend starting with either
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World
or
A Wild Sheep Chase
then follow with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
They are all very surreal and weird and fun to read.
Here are some quick recommendations from my list of favorites for those who are interested (I hope mods are OK with links to make looking easier, otherwise I'll happily remove them). These books engaged and inspired me and my imagination:
The Alchemist:
>The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho continues to change the lives of its readers forever. With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has established itself as a modern classic, universally admired.
>Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.
The Three Body Problem is a Chinese Science Fiction novel that has recently become popular in the West thanks to a good translation (I recommend reading my synopsis and not the Amazon one, to avoid spoilers):
>Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project looks for signals in space from alien civilizations. Meanwhile, in the present day, a physicist joins a grizzled detective to investigate why famous scientists are all committing suicide.
Fahrenheit 451:
>Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.
The Art of Happiness (by the Dalai Lama):
>Nearly every time you see him, he's laughing, or at least smiling. And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling. He's the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, a Nobel Prize winner, and a hugely sought-after speaker and statesman. Why is he so popular? Even after spending only a few minutes in his presence you can't help feeling happier.
Snow Crash:
>Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse.
Favorite series of all time is The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. It's extremely dense reading, but thought it was worth it for how the author handled the world.
I graze across everything without having a strong preference for anything other than quality of world-building. I generally cannot get into a universe that doesn't have well defined rules and frameworks that map back to the characters. I'm the type that will just throw down a book if there's a dues ex machina.
Really really like Asimov. I, Robot. Foundation Series (particularly the first book).
If you're interested in non-Western sci-fi, I'd recommend the Three Body Problem and its sequels. I'm reading the first book now and it's quite good.
WELCOME! Well I would:
(A) read up on what you can the 4 noble truths, the 8 fold path, dependent origination, the life of the Buddha. If you have the time I would highly recommend this book, as it is a great anthology taken right from the Suttas. I would then
(B) Read up on the 5 Precepts, try to keep to them, as they represent a firm moral foundation for practice, without this base the other facets become an issue.
(C) I would then learn a meditation technique. I recommend starting here. Start meditating daily, 20 minutes a day, work your way up as you feel you would like more.
You sound like you connected with Buddha's teachings, so if you want to take Refuge I would say make sure you've thought this through. It's basically a significant mental promise, but taking it is important and can really help practice. Here is the Refuge procedures. I would really recommend reading up more on it either here or here.
After you've taken Refuge, you are a Buddhist.
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha)
by Bhikkhu Bodhi
https://smile.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911
My favorite copypasta:
I highly recommend In the Buddha's Words, a curated presentation of the Pali Canon with guiding essays.
Here is an excerpt on the Buddhist definition of faith that you might find useful:
>It is not only theistic religions that teach doctrines beyond the range of immediate empirical confirmation. The Buddha too taught doctrines that an ordinary person cannot directly confirm by everyday experience, and these doctrines are fundamental to the structure of his teaching. We saw, for example, in the introduction to chapters I and II, that the Nikayas envisage a universe with many domains of sentient existence spread out in boundless space and time, a universe in which sentient beings roam and wander from life to life on account of their ignorance, craving, and kamma. The Nikayas presuppose that throughout beginningless time, Buddhas without number have arisen and turned the wheel of the Dhamma, and that each Buddha attains enlightenment after cultivating spiritual perfections over long periods of cosmic time. When we approach the Dhamma we are likely to resist such beliefs and feel that they make excessive demands on our capacity for trust. Thus we inevitably run up against the question whether, if we wish to follow the Buddha’s teaching, we must take on board the entire package of classical Buddhist doctrine.
>For Early Buddhism, all the problems we face in deciding how far we should go in placing faith can be disposed of at a single stroke. That single stroke involves reverting to direct experience as the ultimate basis for judgment. One of the distinctive features of the Buddha’s teaching is the respect it accords to direct experience. The texts of Early Buddhism do not teach a secret doctrine, nor do they leave scope for anything like an esoteric path reserved for an elite of initiates and withheld form others. According to Text III,1, secrecy in a religious teaching is the hallmark of wrong views and confused thinking. The teaching of the Buddha shines openly, as radiant and brilliant as the light of the sun and moon. Freedom from the cloak of secrecy is integral to a teaching that gives primacy to direct experience, inviting each individual to test its principles in the crucible of his or her own experience.
>This does not mean that an ordinary person can fully validate the Buddha’s doctrine by direct experience without special effort. To the contrary, the teaching can only be fully realized through the achievement of certain extraordinary types of experience that are far beyond the range of the ordinary person enmeshed in the concerns of mundane life. However, in sharp contrast to revealed religion, the Buddha does not demand that we begin our spiritual quest by placing faith in doctrines that lie beyond the range of our immediate experience. Rather than ask us to wrestle with issues that, for us in our present condition, no amount of experience can decide, he instead asks us to consider a few simple questions pertaining to our immediate welfare and happiness, questions that we can answer on the basis of personal experience. I highlight the expression “for us in our present condition,” because the fact that we cannot presently validate such matters does not constitute grounds for rejecting them as invalid or even as irrelevant. It only means that we should put them aside for the time being and concern ourselves with issues that come within the range of direct experience.
>The Buddha says that his teaching is about suffering and the cessation of suffering. This statement does not mean that the Dhamma is concerned only with our experience of suffering in the present life, but it does imply that we can use our present experience, backed by intelligent observation, as a criterion for determining what is beneficial and what detrimental to our spiritual progress. Our most insistent existential demand, springing up deep within us, is the need for freedom from harm, sorrow, and distress; or, positively stated, the need to achieve well-being and happiness. However, to avoid harm and to secure our well-being, it is not sufficient for us merely to hope. We first have to understand the conditions on which they depend. According to the Buddha, whatever arises arises through appropriate causes and conditions, and this applies with equal force to suffering and happiness. Thus we must ascertain the causes and conditions that lead to harm and suffering, and likewise the causes and conditions that lead to wellbeing and happiness. Once we have extracted these two principles - the conditions leading to well-being and happiness – we have at our disposal an outline of the entire process that leads to the ultimate goal, final liberation from suffering.
>One text offering an excellent example of this approach is a short discourse in the Anguttara Nikaya popularly known as the Kalama Sutta. The Kalamas were a people living in a remote area of the Ganges plain. Various religious teachers would come to visit them and each would extol his own doctrine and tear down the doctrines of his rivals. Confused and perplexed by this conflict of belief systems, the Kalamas did not know whom to trust. When the Buddha passed through their town, they approached him and asked him to clear away their doubts. Though the text does not specify what particular issues were troubling the Kalamas, the later part of the discourse makes it clear that their perplexities revolved around the questions of rebirth and kamma.
>The Buddha began by assuring the Kalamas that under such circumstances it was proper for them to doubt, for the issues that troubled them were indeed common sources of doubt and perplexity. He then told them not to rely on ten sources of belief. Four of these pertain to established scriptural authority (oral tradition, lineage of teaching, hearsay, and collections of texts); four to rational grounds (logic, inferential reasoning, reasoned cogitation, and the acceptance of a view after pondering it); and two to authoritative persons (impressive speakers and respected teachers). This advice is sometimes quoted to prove that the Buddha rejected all external authorities and invited each individual to fashion his or her own personal path to truth. Read in context, however, the message of the Kalama Sutta is quite different. The Buddha is not advising the Kalamas – who, it must be stressed, had at this point not yet become his own disciples – to reject all authoritative guides to spiritual understanding and fall back solely on their personal intuition. Rather, he is offering them a simple and pragmatic outlet from the morass of doubt and perplexity in which they are immersed. By the use of skillful methods of inquiry, he leads them to understand a number of basic principles that they can verify by their own experience and thereby acquire a sure starting point for further spiritual development…
>…The fact that such texts as this sutta and the Kalama Sutta do not dwell on the doctrines of kamma and rebirth does not mean, as is sometimes assumed, that such teachings are mere cultural accretions to the Dhamma that can be deleted or explained away without losing anything essential. It means only that, at the outset, the Dhamma can be approached in ways that do not require reference to past and future lives. The Buddha’s teaching has many sides, and thus, from certain angles, it can be directly evaluated against our concern for our present well-being and happiness. Once we see that the practice of the teaching does indeed bring peach, joy, and inner security in this very life, this will inspire our trust and confidence in the Dhamma as a whole, including those aspects that lie beyond our present capacity for personal verification. If we were to undertake certain practices – practices that require highly refined skills and determined effort – we would be able to acquire the faculties needed to validate those other aspects, such as the law of kamma, the reality of rebirth, and the existence of supersensible realms
-In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon The Dalai Lama and Bhikkhu Bodhi
Wasn't something like that a plot point in the book The Rosie Project? Of course that character had undiagnosised Asperger's sydrome and found out the person that worked for him was one that didn't fit into his checklist at all.
The Buddhist equivalent of the bible is called the "Nikayas." The Buddha taught orally, and these oral teachings were passed down and eventually written down in the Nikayas. It is the closest thing we have to a record of what the Buddha said while alive.
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The issue people have is that the Nikayas are long, and hard to read. You might not know where to start. Anthologies have been created, such as this one
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https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings-ebook/dp/B003XF1LIO
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But you don't need to buy a big book like this, you can just read individual suttas (passages from the Nikayas) in a website like accesstoinsight.org
For anyone that wants to read an awesome book largely about this topic, I highly recommend "Permutation City" by Greg Egan. It's really good.
Some of the ideas explored with this concept is shit like rich dudes utilizing this tech to basically become immortal and continue to run their corporations after their real world self dies with their digital clones taking over. Basically also as a way to wait until real word robotics and cyborg tech and whatnot is advanced enough to host their consciousness in the real world again.
Also how like digital clones can mentally crack from the realization that the real them is not them etc etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/1597805394#mediaMatrix_secondary_view_div_1562315580921
Walter Moers
Given the massive success of Adams, Pratchett and others, the rave reviews of everything in Moers' ever-expanding Zamonia series, the fantastic illustrations and the riotous and creative writing I cannot believe so few people have read these books.
These books have some deep social and psychological analysis alongside absurdity, humor, violence, love and adventure.
Reference books, chronologically:
Editorial reviews:
>“Cheerfully insane. . . . Remains lively and inventive right through the final heroic battle between good and evil.”
—The New York Times Book Review
>“Moers’s creative mind is like J.K. Rowling’s on ecstasy; his book reads like a collision between The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the Brothers Grimm…. What a delightful book.”
—Detroit News and Free Press
>“An overstuffed confection… Cross The Lord of the Rings with Yellow Submarine, throw in dashes of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Shrek, and The Princess Bride…That’s the sort of alchemy in which this sprawling novel trades.”
—Kirkus
Pevear and Volokhonsky are really excellent translators of Russian Lit.
I read their's, and it was excellent.
Try to avoid Constance Garnett.
Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfus (fantasy-ish)
[The Shadow of the Wind] (http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374006329&sr=1-1&keywords=shadow+of+the+wind) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (hard to describe, but really engaging)
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (cool historical fiction)
That was basically the plot of Submission.
Haibane Renmei is also one of my favorites. In a similar vein I really enjoyed
Also, have you read the novel on which Haibane Renmei is loosely based? It's good.
The Three Body Problem http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765377063
http://smile.amazon.com/The-Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765377063
Why don't you read the Pali Canon? Perhaps the Majjhima Nikaya or In the Buddha's Words which is an anthology of discourses from the Pali Canon are good places to start.
In the Buddha's Words, ed. Bhikku Bodhi
I'll second What the Buddha Taught and In the Buddha's Words. Access to Insight is also a good resource. And of course /r/buddhism!
Here is a list of monasteries where you will be able to practice meditation for an extended period of time and eventually ordain as a monk:
-Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Myanmar
-Panditarama Forest Meditation Center in Myanmar
-Wat Chom Tong in Thailand
-Wat Ram Poeng in Thailand
The monasteries below allow shorter stays for first-time visitors:
-Bhavana Society in West Virginia
-Metta Forest Monastery in California
-Sirimangalo International in Canada
-Bodhinyana in Australia
If you’re interested in learning how to meditate, the following books are excellent guides. Each of these authors has a novel approach to explaining meditation that complements the others.
-The Mind Illuminated by John Yates
-Shift Into Freedom by Loch Kelly
-With Each & Every Breath by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. This author has other great books available for free.
-In The Buddha’s Words by the Buddha (translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi)
I recommend that you check out /r/streamentry, an online community of laypeople (non-monks) pursuing awakening. You might also wish to contact /u/Bhikkhu_Jayasara, a fully ordained monk who often participates in /r/buddhism.
Best of luck to you on the path.
The three above-mentioned volumes on the Long Discourses (Dīgha Nikāya), the Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikāya), and the Connected Discourses (Saṃyutta Nikāya) are indeed real gems, and an excellent way to read the suttas as they were originally presented (albeit with the limitations of translation). However, the internal organization of the Pāli Canon is often quite haphazard, with only very general rules being applied to which texts go into which volume, but with little or no rules as to the placement of the suttas within those volumes.
I've already made this recommendation elsewhere, but it's also valuable here.
Bhikku Bodhi has made an easy-to-digest anthology of the Pāli Canon called In the Buddha's Words, in which he selects the most essential passages of the scripture and organizes them in a logical way (he also provides some commentary, but the bulk of the book is made up of the Buddha's own words).
Unfortunately I cannot testify as to which Mahayana books are commendable, I have very little experience in that.
One Dharma by Joseph Goldstein
The Buddha is Still Teaching by Jack Kornfield
The Dhammapada translated by Thomas Byrom You can find this free on-line, but the formatting isn't the best.
In the Buddha's Words by Bhikkhu Bodhi (mentioned below). If any book becomes the "Buddhist Bible" this one would be it.
Access To Insight has more of the original Buddhist texts and commentaries than anyone could read in a lifetime.
An important distinction as you go about learning. There are 2-3 main branches of Buddhsim. The Theravada (Hinayana) is the oldest, includes texts of the Pali Cannon, which are considered as close to the original teachings as possible. Then there is the Mahayana which includes Zen and countless other Asian forms of Buddhsim. The third branch--and some argue it is part of Mahayana, but I'd say it is a form all its own as it has its own set of texts and eminent contributors--is the Tibetan tradition which includes anyone with the title Lama or Rinpoche, among others.
My readings listed above all are from the Theravada tradition.
For two from Zen, consider
Riding the Ox Home: Stages on the Path of Enlightenment by John Daido Loori
The Blooming of a Lotus by Thich Nhat Hanh
For Tibetan, consider anything by HH The Dalai Lama and Lama Surya Dass, among others.
Enjoy your journey.
What the Buddha Taught is the best "intro to Buddhism" book I've read yet, I highly recommend it. This is a book you will constantly be coming back to, if you decide to keep pursuing Buddhism that is, for it contains all of the essentials (IMO). The author also includes several key suttas given by the Buddha (several especially directed towards lay people like ourselves), and a collection of key verses from the Dhammapada (a classic Buddhist scripture). The other "Intro to Buddhism" book I will recommend is Becoming Enlightened by His Holliness the Dalai Lama, which gives an overview of the Buddhist path to Enlightenment that emphasizes the role of compassion, altruism, and wisdom.
 
For learning to meditate and practice mindfulness, I recommend Mindfulness in Plain English. What the Buddha Taught also has a great chapter on meditation and mindfulness.
 
Once you feel more comfortable with the basic principles of Buddhism, if you'd like to start reading and studying key Buddhist scriptures, I'd recommend starting with the following: In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon and The Dhammapada. The Pali Cannon in the oldest complete Buddhist cannon of scriptures that survives today. The Dhammapada is a short collection of sayings within the Pali Cannon that is thought to summarize the essence of the Buddha's teachings.
A few good books:
Pali suttas:
http://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911
Overview of the Mahayana:
http://www.amazon.com/An-Open-Heart-Practicing-Compassion/dp/0316930938
Bodhicitta:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Expand-Love-Widening-Relationships/dp/0743269691
Shunyata:
http://www.amazon.com/How-See-Yourself-You-Really/dp/0743290461
Perfection of wisdom sutras: Heart Sutra:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Heart-Understanding-Commentaries-Prajnaparamita/dp/1888375922
Diamond Cutter sutra:
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-That-Cuts-Through-Illusion/dp/1935209442
3 principle aspects of the path:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Principal-Aspects-Path/dp/1559393505
Zen:
http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shunryu-Suzuki/dp/1590308492
The Pali Canon is the Buddhist "equivalent" of the Bible... though much, much larger (between 20 and 60 volumes depending on translation and tradition). Many of the Suttas ("chapters" for want of a better word) follow the pattern you are talking about - a disciple, layman, or challenger goes to either the Buddha or to one of his highly respected students and a discussion ensues about a particular aspect of the Dharma.
The Pali Canon is available on accesstoinsight.org
A nice, condensed, lay person translation is available as a book called In the Buddha's Words by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
American Theravada monk Bhikkhu Bodhi is a well read writer and has some of works available for free on this website.
I'd also pick up a book about Therevadan buddhism as its considered the least liberal and closer to the source material (yes, this is arguable). Bodhi has a book on this subject. Rahula's "What The Buddha Taught" I find to be very readable and an easy intro into the life and teachings of Buddha.
Per usual, the wikipedia entry on him is good too.
/atheist who likes to study religion, if you're interested in my criticisms please pm me
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0861714911
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
You're probably already familiar with it, but that description reminded me immediately of The Shadow of the Wind.
Different stories, for sure, but something of the feeling beyond the descriptions struck me as similar.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
Volume 1:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 2:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 3:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 4:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 5:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Preorder Volume 6:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
If you want to jump into well-recognized contemporary works of fantasy, I highly suggest you have a go at Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. This book earned him praise all over the world from those highbrows you speak of.
It's not technically "low fantasy", and it's more like one (thick) book than a series, which could be described as a mix of cyberpunk and high fantasy.
So yeah. Probably not what you're looking for. A pretty damn fine book nonetheless (the rest of his work is also awesome btw)
A few of my favorites from over the years...
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
The Secret History
The Shadow of the Wind
None of my suggestions will provide much in terms of facts. Other redditors have dealt with that admirably. Mine are artsy-fartsy items that paint a partial picture of the social fabric of Spain during and immediately after the Civil War.
Belle Epoque. Don't let the French name deter you. It's a weird, funny film about a Spanish youth falling in love with 3 sisters, set against the initial rumblings of the Spanish Civil War. Also, Penelope Cruz.
Pan's Labyrinth is an obligatory reference here, despite taking place just after the Civil War. Watch The Devil's Backbone first, as Slippy-Toad suggested. Both films were directed by Guillermo del Toro, who is from my hometown (Guadalajara, Mexico).
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is an excellent novel about Barcelona. The story spans several decades, but it begins just as the Civil War is beginning. I've read it in English and Spanish, and I must say that the English translation is one of the best I've ever encountered.
Finally, you should try to read translations of Federico Garcia Lorca's poems and plays. He was a Spanish poet who was the most famous member of the Generación del '27. His death in 1936 is still shrouded in a lot of mystery. He was gay, eccentric, and incredibly prolific. A lot of his plays deal with the plight of women in a rural, machista (misogynistic), Catholic society. They are darkly humorous, richly scathing and heartbreaking in their depiction of a people ruled by authoritarianism. I will recommend three.
Hope this helps.
It could be Shadow of the Wind. I read it around 2003 but I think I had a different cover image.
https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafón/dp/0143034901
Check out Drood by Dan Simmons. I picked it up on a whim, and couldn't be happier that I gave it a chance. It's a total trip, and suspenseful in a laid-back / behind-the-scenes sort of way.
Also, I find anything by Michael Chrichton to be utterly "un-put-downable". I'd recommend starting with Congo or Prey, but definitely give Sphere a shot before you move on.
Edit: Sorry I meant Micro instead of Prey. Prey was "meh" but Micro is great. Also definitely check out Timeline! (Sorry, I'm basically obsessed with Chrichton)
Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is another favorite of mine. But, it's been so long since I last read it that I can't really remember why. I'm going to be rereading that one again soon.
The Shadow of the Wind
back to the beginning
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That is one of the most inspiring videos I've watched. Why are companies and governments not throwing money at this guy !??!
(Also, reminds me vary much of a book called Machine Man - which is worth a read http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Man-Vintage-Contemporaries-Original/dp/0307476898)
here is Volume 1
Volumne 2
Volume 3
Volumne 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Volume 7
and Volume 8
the digital kindle copy is only 6USD compared to the physical version.
There's a local historical area I go to often with my family. There are always some morons out there preaching as this is a pretty big tourist spot. I am always tempted to take my copy of HHG2G and just start reading it.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami.
Sounds like they should just send people who are already insane
There's also an entire sci-fi trilogy based on that premise. Highly recommended.
As soon as I saw this post I immediately thought of this.
You might really enjoy The Three Body Problem, a Chinese sci-fi book that explores the hungry eyes situation brilliantly.
Bhikkhu Bodhi has released some amazing translations recently.
Amazon Link
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya (The Teachings of the Buddha) https://www.amazon.com/dp/086171072X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_oy.ozbVWT1KFM
Any of the books from the Sutta Pitaka would be appropriate. Amazon has some nice hardcover versions.
I recommend the Middle-Length Discourses, the Majjhima Nikaya. It is a colledtion of suttas, which are discourses, that is part of something called the Pali canon, which is the oldest surviving complete collection of Buddhist writings.
It's a long book, but one of the reasons why I would recommend it is because each of its discourses is not predicated on any other, and they're usueally only a few pages long each, so they're good for intermittent reading. They are also aimed at people of varying levels of understanding, so there will be something (hopefully several somethings) in there that speaks to you, from the start and as your understanding develops.
It's also quite a good way to familiarize yourself with the context of Buddhism and what most likely went on two and a half thousand years ago, as the discourses take place in many locations, from towns, meeting halls, and huts to forests, lake beds, and groves, and involve many people, from monks to contemplatives to "the Niganthans" (Jains) to laypeople and kings.
I hope you consider this, which is one of the books on which modern Theravada Buddhism is based, and if you have questions about the Pali canon in general, I may know the answer or how to find one as I have been reading them/about them for about a year. But know that they're probably a little more difficult to read than most of the suggestions out there, because they are very old and were translated from their original language.
Best of luck in finding a good book for you.
I agree with friend numserv about the pali cannon. This book by Bhikkhu Bodhi is also great in bringing together important suttas and bhante explaining the teachings: http://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911
I would add though that if she is looking for something less cannoical text wise id suggest any of the books from Ajahn Chah.
The books out contain his talks and teachings which are amazing for putting the deep teachings into basic understandable words.
Most of it can be found for free here : http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/index.php or on Amazon in paperback form.
If you want to go back to what the Buddha (reportedly) said, have a look at In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Bikkhu Bodhi does a fine job translating, and the result is an easily readable anthology of selections from the Tripitaka.
As others have said, meditation is probably the best way to really "get" Buddhism. But if you're just looking for some good books:
In The Buddha's Words - an anthology of short selections from the Theravada Buddhist canon. This is probably about as close as you can get to the Buddha's actual teachings.
What the Buddha Taught - no fluff, just the core teachings.
When Things Fall Apart - this is a little fluffier than the other two, but an absolute classic and must-read for all, Buddhist or non. The author explains the most complex and difficult to accept parts of the Buddhist worldview in a penetrating, easy-to-grasp way.
Others mentioned Alan Watts, Stephen Bachelor and Brad Warner. Their books might be worth checking out, but keep in mind that each author writes with a more personal and less traditional lean than the ones I mentioned. Not that there's anything wrong with that, obviously, but if you're trying to learn about Buddhism... starting with them would be a little like learning about Catholicism from a Protestant.
edit: Forgot to add links.
In terms of 'conversion':
This is not a conversion, but it is a commitment to studying Buddhism -- which is a religious system of education (towards the very eventual outcome of enlightenment) more than it is a "I go to church now" religion. Although in traditional settings there are temples, monasteries, almsgiving, ceremonies etc!
With great love and respect.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org
Has over 1,000 translated sutras available for free, with suggestions as to which to read / where to start - plus writings by contemporary teachers and practitioners.
A great book is In the Buddha's Words, an anthology of sutras edited by Bhikku Bodhi which seems to be widely praised as a great starting point (I own it and find it very useful).
http://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911
Top 3:
Runner ups cause they don't quite fit your list but they are mostly there:
It's always been suspected/assumed that Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathizer. You can read through his wiki page for quotes from him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh
There is a great book by Philip Roth called The Plot Against America which is a "what if" scenario if Lindbergh had defeated FDR in the 1940 election.
I think you would like Greg Egan's Permutation City
First contact is a whole subgenre of scifi, and it is one of my favorites!
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In regards to your request. I have, but haven't read Artemis because it doesn't look that interesting. Rendezvous with Rama, is good, albeit kinda boring. If you like it, but wish it had more action, read Ringworld by Larry Niven.
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Here are some of my favorite first contact books (with oversimplified plot summaries):
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The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - Humans discover an alien spaceship and set out to find the source.
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu - Chinese centric first book in a trilogy of aliens invading. One of the best I have read in recent years. Don't want to give away too much. Features alien aliens, like in The Gods Themselves!
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A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge - Humans discover an alien race and race to be the first to make contact with them.
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Damocles by S.G. Redling - Humans discover alien life and launch an expedition to make first contact. Follows the story from the point of the humans and the aliens. Very good hard scifi, but easy to read. The language barrier is a major plot piece.
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Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Humans are looking for a new home and stumble across a planet with alien life. Trouble ensues. No spoilers here. The sequel comes out in only a couple of weeks!
Is it Rumo - http://www.amazon.com/Rumo-And-His-Miraculous-Adventures/dp/1585679364
I have hundreds of books, all on an overly expensive device I bought to have when I am on the motorcycle and camping. I wanted a waterproof one that would be fine if it got damp. Kindle Oasis (9th Generation) 32GB Wifi w/ Cellular - much better overall for reading than my phone or iPad. Overspent on a simple device, but it has been wonderful.
There are two books I keep reading over and over.
I have also a bunch of Survival and Bushcrafting books and reference material. A lot I pulled from the Pathfinder School's FB page in their files list. If you are looking for something to cover a lot of topics, this one is a great collection: The Bushcraft Boxed Set: Bushcraft 101; Advanced Bushcraft; The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, & Cooking in the Wild; Bushcraft First Aid, Dave Canterbury & Jason A Hunt
And while I have listed the 2 books above, I have a ton of one of my favorite genres right now (it's a phase, I know) but I love reading Zombie stories in the woods!
As for keeping the Kindle charged up, that is easy. I pretty much leave it on Airplane mode unless I am getting a book pushed to it. It uses very little power if the screen backlighting is turned off. If it's low, I have a small solar charger I can use to charge it. I got the charger for my portable battery pack - 26000 mAH, charges in about 6 hours from 0 from the solar. OR, I take a few hours ride on the bike (go ahead, twist my arm) and recharge it from the charging USB plug on it. Same with phone.
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu-ebook/dp/B00IQO403K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416202375&sr=1-1
In the Buddha's Words
A great translation that is well organized to highlight the core of the Buddha's teachings from the oldest records we have, the Pali Canon
I liked the book Thinking In Pictures , the movie Temple Grandin , the documentary Dad's in Heaven with Nixon and this novel The Rosie Progect . I don't recommend the books Socially Curious and Curiously Social or Look Me in the Eye .
Most Suttas (discourses) consist of the Buddha himself or one of his close disciples delivering a direct teaching. Here's a nice website for exploring the teachings:
A Path to Freedom
A Self-guided Tour of the Buddha's Teachings
And here's the anthology that's most recommended in this sub:
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha)
Start with Anguttarra Nikaya and Samyutta Nikaya, or "In The Buddha's Words" by Bhikkhu Bodhi https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings-ebook/dp/B003XF1LIO
Somewhere between here and here today.
If I won this would be great :)
Thanks for the contest!
Well going to the source is always the best option. Bhikkhu Bodhi made an anthology of the major Buddhist writings, and he explains them very well with the beginner in mind. I suggest looking into getting a copy of In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Check your local libraries first, a few of the ones near me have a copy. That book is seriously the only resource you will need right now, online or offline.
Totally. I liked Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures even better.
A couple of the best
Iain M Banks : Excession
Greg Egan : Permutation City
> Permutation City
Thats the hard cover. I got the kindle for $3 which is a steal, but can find the paperback for cheap: http://smile.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/1597805394/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
If you want a good start on the feeling of Buddhism from a textual level, I'd start with Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen. It's about as straightforward as you can get, covers the history and the basics of Buddhist thought and is pretty thorough.
If you are more interested in Buddhism from a personal perspective, read literally anything by Pema Chodron or Thich Nhat Hanh. Especially Thich Nhat Hanh. He is one of the leading thinkers of these times, and beautifully eloquent.
In fact if you're going to, start with The Heart of Understanding. Its short (60 pages), beautifully profound and powerfully motivating.
Strong recommendation for David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Dutch clerk in late 18th/early 19th century Dejima, lots of depth, gorgeous prose) and for Walter Moers's Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures (fantastical but oddly profound; I'd pick it up even if it doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy). I finished both of these very recently and they were amazing. They hopped right on my list of favourite books, if I'm honest.
Otherwise, I'd very much recommend my all-time favourites: Le Petit Prince (in French or English), Under Milk Wood, Cloud Atlas, and To Kill a Mockingbird (which is always worth a re-read, too).
I included Amazon links so that you know exactly which books I'm talking about, but please consider buying from local bookshops!
It's a bit of a younger read, I think the target audience is young adults or teenagers.
There are great little sketches littered throughout it which I've always enjoyed.
A great book with sketches in it is Rumo by Walter Mooers. He's a German cartoonist and wrote several great reads. They're light hearted, but still insightful. Less illustrated than the Edge Chronicles, but a bit better quality I would argue.
If you're interested in checking them out, here's some quick info I pulled up!
The Edge Chronicles
Example: http://theedgechronicles.wikia.com/wiki/Sky_Ships?file=Skyshipmapgalerider.png
Walter Moers
Rumo
Sorry about the excessive response, I just have always loved these books to death, easily some of my favorite reads of all time. That's coming from a huge fantasy fanatic that actually read through the entire Silmarillion like it was a damn history text.
Permutation City by Greg Egan
https://www.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/1597805394
... dust theory is very intriguing!
A terrific fictional account of this era is Phillip Roth's Plot Against America.
Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, by Walter Moers. Available in the original German too. Absolutely one of the most startlingly creative and fun stories I've ever read.
Read a few others by him too, The City of Dreaming Books is similarly fantastic, as was The Alchemaster's Apprentice.
Both of these books one and two are books I need for school this coming semester. So I would love either or both. :)
Gah...3 favorite books SO HARD. Ok i'm cheating a bit.
page-turner
Edit: the amazing /u/jbs090020 gifted me the two books I initially picked so now I will say this and this for school. :)
Here
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Shadow of the Wind is a 2001 novel by Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and a worldwide bestseller. The book was translated into English in 2004 by Lucia Graves.
The novel, set in post- Spanish Civil War Barcelona, concerns a young boy, Daniel. Just after the war, Daniel's father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old, forgotten titles lovingly preserved by a select few initiates. According to tradition, everyone initiated to this secret place is allowed to take one book from it, and must protect it for life. Daniel selects a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax. That night he takes the book home and reads it, completely engrossed. Daniel then attempts to look for other books by this unknown author, but can find none. All he comes across are stories of a strange man - calling himself Laín Coubert, after a character in the book who happens to be the Devil - who has been seeking out Carax's books for decades, buying them all and burning them. In time this mysterious figure confronts and threatens Daniel. Terrified, Daniel returns the book to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books but continues to seek out the story of the elusive author.
I just happened to pick this book up one day and it is now one of my favorites. I have re-read it many times.
Try The Shadow of the Wind: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901
The Shadow of the Wind
http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901
About mystery in the Spanish civil war period you could read any of the Carlos Ruiz Zafón's books, like The shadow of the wind, The angel's game or Marina.
Actually, those books are a 'book book' genre. ;)
Try The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
So long as it doesn't end up as badly as it did here.
You should probably read Max Barry's "Machine Man"
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Man-Vintage-Contemporaries-Original/dp/0307476898
You guys should read Machine Man by Max barry.
Looks at bionic limbs & enhancements etc in a very Black Mirror way. When I see this gif I feel uneasy...
There is a a book called Machine Man that explores this idea.
Have you read Machine Man, by Max Barry?
It's that. And so much more.
MFE,
I did like Train Job. I would have still liked the series if it had started with that one, but Serenity seemed to provide the perfect delivery.
>You'd think I would have gotten that down pat over the years.
I think you’re an excellent communicator. I feel like you have a good sense of yourself and are balanced between challenging and accepting yourself. I feel that you are very accepting of me and want the best for me but also understand when I don’t always hit the high notes. If that’s all correct, then I think we’re good. : ) I will generally take you at your word, but if I notice you say something that seems to contradict in any way how I see you being (most especially if you ever express falling short in an area where I see you shine), there’s a good chance I’ll speak up, although I’ll always give you the benefit of the doubt since you know yourself best.
I’m not sure why Take on Me isn’t high on my list. I’m thinking perhaps that it doesn’t have a strong enough hook for me and that I like a more distinctive drum line. I can tell that Vitas is very good, but if we’re going strictly by preferences, I do prefer what I’ve heard of Inva Mula over Vitas. However, I don’t know that I can distinguish my enjoyment of the song and composition from that of the voice. My sense is that for everyday listening, I prefer voices that do not abide in pure notes. Like candlelight, the flickering light thrown is as much or more a part of the ambiance than the flame itself.
I’ll add Gibson in behind Vinge. : ) Reading about cyberpunk made me think of Machine Man by Max Barry. Have you read it? It isn’t cyberpunk, but I liked it for its take on the line between optimizing our use of and actually becoming tools.
I’d never seen that pirating incident. Funny that the line after it goes back to the show is “As far as I can tell, a massive electric shock. He died instantly.” When I first saw pirating I thought of this and then this.
My love for Chicago is solely from my experiences there from business and tourist trips. It is a city I would brave tough winters to live in if called upon, although I prefer to be in the Bay Area and just visit it when I have the opportunity.
As far as what’s safe to share, I’m of the same perspective as you are as far as not divulging all my gnome’s secrets, and I’m also very careful to be respectful of the privacy of those who aren’t a part of the conversation. I’m guessing, though, that it’s fairly safe to say that I came to the Bay Area by way of stork.
Charles Schulz. Hmmm. I was about to wax eloquent about what I’ve heard of his character and went a-searching for some little tidbit about it to share and ran across this instead. : /
Not going to things in our own neighborhoods or extended areas is not that uncommon for Californians, I’ve found. I don’t think I went to Yosemite until I was almost thirty.
>Have I told you that your words make me happy? Well, and laugh a bit too?
I so much like that those things happen. I try very hard to just let what I’m going to say bubble up and flow out and not make any effort at creating a particular effect. I just know that I enjoy talking to you so much, and I want always to be open to having that show.
Were you ahead or behind the spider during the cup-and-paper operation, or did it use a duck-and-weave pattern that was virtually impossible to anticipate?
One word of advice. If you see cougar scat in the web, move.
I’ll send this and then write to your next part. : )
Edit: dusting and vacuuming
You should read Machine Man by Max Barry.
Below includes links to the amazon page, which has identification numbers you can use for other sites, but since many of these titles share comic/manga names, it can be confusing telling the difference. Also, I think everything but Another and Baccano have a good fan translation done as of now, and he may have already read it (at least first volumes) and is not interested in a physical copy of them, so I would ask.
If he likes the idea of a game esque world (very popular right now for some reason), I would recomend Rising of the Shield Hero, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, and Log Horizon.
For more typical fantasy styled light novels, Spice and Wolf, Another, A certain Magical Index, No Game, No Life, The Devil Is A Part-Timer, and soon to be release Baccano.
It's not really "rational" at all, but I enjoyed the hell out of DanMachi. Very fun power fantasy Light Novel in an RPGMechanicsVerse. Was also adapted into an anime. I can send you the EPUBs if you have any interest.
Yes there is a manga, however the story originally comes from light novels. If still want to read the manga for a slightly different perspective it can be found on MangaReader.net or many other sites. Edit: the name of the manga is found under this name. Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka Gaiden
But here is the link on Amazon to the first light novel.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316339156/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_UHY4Bb753SB79
The original SAO LN in Japan is way past the anime. (A good 2 seasons or so.) In English, it's been published up to the end of the first season with the first arc of the second season coming out on the 15th. (Phantom Bullet) The anime adapts through to volume 8.
The SAO: Progressive series is a re-write of the first arc and hasn't been adapted beyond a single chapter. It's a really good read for those that are interested in what SAO should originally have been. The manga version of it is a silly adaption where it tells the story from another character's perspective while focusing on comedy.
Not sure about other kinds of LNs he might like considering it's hard to get an accurate sense of taste just from the series listed. Going based off the genres, Danmachi is a really enjoyable growth adventure action series I consistently look forward to the next volume of.
A Certain Magical Index is a series I love as the story is always becoming more and more exciting with some of the best writing from an author out of many light novels. The English publication isn't past the anime yet but the anime does butcher some of the arcs so it's worth it to start from the beginning. A companion to this series would be the A Certain Scientific Railgun manga which is also very action orientated.
Tate no Yuusha is an LN series without an anime adaption that got licensed in English. It's a pretty good adventure series that he might like. It's a safe bet for something he's probably not experienced yet I think. Only 2 volumes published in English so far.
Here's a worthwhile read: https://www.amazon.com/Submission-Novel-Michel-Houellebecq/dp/0374271577
It's about a French literature professor as he confronts a rapidly Islamifying France. The main character, Francois, drinks heavily, sleeps with his students and focuses on the writing of the now obscure French writer, J.K. Huysmans. Detached from politics, he watches as his native country divides between Muslims and the traditional French right led by the National Front’s Marine Le Pen.
This book is quite applicable to the current situation.
Check Barnes and Noble. A couple years back I got the complete hardcover for less than $3.
It was this version, apparently not the newest edition, not sure how anything could have changed though.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0517149257/
When you wish upon a star...
I'd have to say Beauty and the Beast because I always related to her when I was little because she liked to read and she had brown hair. I love that she sees the good in people.
I think my favorite song would be You'll Be in my Heart, it's just too sweet :)
Thanks for the contest!
A new book :)
Dune by Frank Herbert.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. You have probably read it, but if you haven't, it's superbly funny sci-fi comedy.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. A book that I re-read once every few years, and every time I find something new in it.
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. A gripping, heartbreaking non-fiction book about police detectives. It inspired the acclaimed TV series "Homicide: Life on the Street." Simon would go on to create "The Wire."
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy. Noir-ish procedural crime fiction. If you enjoy "Homicide," you may well like this.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, "a philosophical novel about two men, two women, a dog and their lives in the Prague Spring of the Czechoslovak Communist period in 1968," according to Wikipedia. One of my favorite books.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Detective novel meets sci-fi in one mind-bending existential work. If you watch "Fringe," well, this book is Fringe-y... and more.
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Time travel. Victorian England. A tea cozy mystery of sorts.
Graphic novels! Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman. Love And Rockets by The Hernandez brothers. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. And of course, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. To discover yet more great comic books, check out the Comics College series.
what about this?
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
I definitely want to recommend one I just finished: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World. Without spoiling anything, think along the lines of Inception. Absolutely one of the best books I've ever read.
If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, you'll probably like The Bartimaeus Trilogy (this links to book 1). Has a more Harry Potter feeling to it but the humor is so well done. Really fun read.
I don't know if sci-fi is the best word for it, but I'd be remiss not to mention Hard-Boiled Wonderland.
Glad you liked it. Echopraxia is the sequal to his book Blindsight, which is a story about aliens, vampires and post singularity humans. Because Peter Watts is a biologist and only a somewhat recent author his sci fi writings reflect that. His perspective as a biologist yields impressive insights, and surprisingly beautiful prose, often philosophical in nature yet somehow not preachy.
Starfish is also highly enjoyable if you like deep ocean stuff. Peter Watts does what great sci fi authors are capable of, they take known concepts turn them on their head and allow you to look at them from a completely new perspective.
Oh let's definitely give him science fiction about the ocean, good idea.
Starfish trilogy by Peter Watts... love this guy, and like these novels. I like echopraxia series more, but these are solid
Here's another I've heard pretty good things about, which I plan to read once I finish Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (which is fucking long holy shit only halfway done.)
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
I think Grey would really enjoy Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Amazon) and its Sequel The Dark Forest.
...Brady described the "empty" sky as an abandoned city (see Vanilla Sky)...as the sequel's name says, you might also describe it as a Dark Forest where humanity is the only guy lighting a big fire and clumsely searching for more wood and stuff, not particulary caring who or what might be watching and evaluating options (for example: our technology advances exponentially, what would somebody ahead of us think of that if they can only advance linear?)
...the books are not without flaw but very original and interesting in their style.
Not only is there an English version, it won the Hugo Award.
The Three Body Problem
Written by: Cixin Liu
Translated by: Ken Liu
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032
Though it certainly isn't perfect, based on your response I would recommend you read [The Three Body Problem].(https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032)
Though it goes off on some tangents, I believe it may be fairly accurate when it comes down to intelligent life in the galaxy.
This is a central plot point of the awesome sci-fi series that starts with The Three-Body Problem
Nice writing prompt. I won't spoil it, but in the Three Body Problem series, similar subtleties of human communication play a big role in deciding the fate of the human race. Definitely worth a read.
It's actually called the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Cixin Liu. It's apparently pretty big in China. But I've kept myself pretty ignorant about what it's about because I want to be surprised.
Here's the Amazon page with a description for the first book.
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032
I had kind of a hard time thinking about a response I felt good about. Below are resources roughly sequenced as "stages". All the resources are within or related to the Theravada tradition. I tried to keep everything free. When a preferred resource is not free, I include a free alternative. Buddhism is very much a practice, so when instructions are given put them into practice the best you can. There is also a need to understand why you are practicing, so there is a need to understand Buddhist theory. Some of these resources might not be seem immediately applicable to you, which is fine, just think of it as being similar to reviewing a map before going on the hike. This small collection of selected resources may seem overwhelming, but learning the dhamma is a long process, so there is no hurry to read or listen to everything. It is like walking through mist, you don't necessarily notice getting wet. I just want to reiterate that practicing is very important. Buddhism is about doing, and to lesser degree about acquiring book knowledge. One caution, I put several different meditation styles below; go a head and experiment with them, but figure out which one fits you best and stick with it for a while. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer skillfully. Remember that persistence will bring rewards. Good luck.
Books:
"Stage 1"
With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana [not free] (Free older version)
Noble Strategy by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The Buddha’s Teachings: An Introduction by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
"Stage 2"
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon edited by Bhikkhu Bodhi [not free] (A free "clone" can be found at www.suttacentral.net. It has all of the introductions Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote, but uses free translations of the suttas)
The Dhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations translated by Gil Fronsdal [not free] (A free and reliable translation of the Dhammapada by Anandajoti Bhikkhu)
"Stage 3"
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli & Bhikkhu Bodhi [not free] (Free translations of all of the Majjhima Nikaya suttas can be found at www.suttacentral.net. Thanissaro Bhikkhu has translated a free anthology of the Majjhima Nikaya called Handful of Leaves, Volume II: an Anthology from the Majjhima Nikaya)
The Wings to Awakening: An Anthology from the Pali Canon by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Talks:
"Stage 1"
Introduction to Meditation is an audio course by Gil Fronsdal.
Basics is collection of talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
The Buddha's Teaching As It Is: An Introductory Course is a series of talks by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Eightfold Path Program is a series of talks by Gil Fronsdal.
Four Noble Truths is a series by Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella.
"Stage 2"
Don't eat your fingers. Seriously though, just listen to talks and get a better feel for the dharma.
"Stage 3"
Seven Factors of Awakening is a series of talks by Gil Fronsdal.
A Systematic Study of the Majjhima Nikaya by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Resources:(There are a huge number of great resource. Below are the ones I frequent or have frequented)
Texts: www.suttacentral.net, www.accesstoinsight.org, www.buddhanet.net, www.dhammatalks.org, www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net
Talks: www.dharmaseed.org (huge variety of teachers have talks here), www.dhammatalks.org (Thanissaro Bhikkhu has a huge catalog of talks. He has a straight forward style.), www.audiodharma.org (Gil Fronsdal has very accessible teaching style. He presents the dharma in an almost secular way, but doesn't doesn't diminish it in the process.)
Video: Buddhist Society of Western Australia (Ajahn Brahm is a much loved and accessible teacher), Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu (Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu has a very calm demeanor, and does live Q&A regularly, StudentofthePath (Bhikkhu Jayasara is a recently ordained monk and is an active redditor, u/Bhikkhu_Jayasara), Dhammanet (Bhikkhu Sujato has "loose" and friendly teaching style, but is a serious scholar.)
And if you want to more obscure but real religions:
And if you want to be very snarky:
Middle length discourses
Long discourses
Connected Discourses
Those 3 make up the Nikayas and will keep you busy until infinity. They're also a bit pricey.
I have a copy of Buddhist Suttas that contains many of the key suttas in it.
A Buddhist Bible contains some of the more important Mahayana suttas as they relate to Zen especially.
And then of course there is the Lotus Sutra, an epic classic unto itself.
The Dhamma. The second gem of the triple gem. For a theravada buddhist, that means The Pali Canon.
The pali canon is a collection of 2,000 or so texts that come from disciples of the buddha, and record his teachings. The big ones are the dhammapada, the nikaya's and the tipitika. As for what to buy, go for these books of dhamma compilations by bhikku bodhi, In the Buddha's words, Middle-length Discourses, The Connected Discourses, and The Long Discourses.
Here's a good free copy of the dhammapada.
As one last suggestion on dhamma books, I would recommend the The Path of Purification as a must own-must read guide to the entire path from the beginning to enlightenment.
Take your time on the diet and don't force yourself. Do it because you want to. Your focus should be on the triple gem and meditation. Read the booklet I linked in the last thread to get a COMPLETE understanding on what meditation is and what it does. After you have read the booklet, I will be happy to answer any remaining questions you have.
I also made an edit to the original post at the ending of the first answer I made on this thread.
It depends on which school of Buddhism you are interested in. Different schools of Buddhism have different scriptures. For example, the school of Theravada Buddhism cherishes the Pali Canon, which consists of Vinaya Pitaka (monastic rules and disciplines), Sutta Pitaka (Buddha's discourses) and Abhidhamma Pitaka (philosophical treaties). The school of Mahayana Buddhism cherishes the Tripitaka, while the school of Tibetan Buddhism also has their own scriptures.
If you are into the Theravada school of Buddhism, which is the oldest school and also closest to the original teaching of the Buddha, then I'd recommend the following books:
The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya
The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Complete Translation of the Anguttara Nikaya
The Suttanipata: An Ancient Collection of the Buddha’s Discourses Together with Its Commentaries
He makes it out as if seeing Buddha-nature is the only way to destroy Khanda Mara, but the sutta he only partially quotes explains exactly how to attain Nibbana via viewing the khandhas "rightly".
Here's the full thing:
>At Savatthı. Then the Venerable Radha approached the Blessed One, paid homage to him, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Venerable sir, it is said, ‘Mara, Mara.’ In what way, venerable sir, might Mara be?”
>“When there is form, Radha, there might be Mara, or the killer, or the one who is killed. Therefore, Radha, see form as Mara, see it as the killer, see it as the one who is killed. See it as a disease, as a tumour, as a dart, as misery, as real misery. Those who see it thus see rightly.
>“When there is feeling … When there is perception … When there are volitional formations … When there is consciousness, Radha, there might be Mara, or the killer, or the one who is killed. Therefore, Radha, see consciousness as Mara, see it as the killer, see it as the one who is killed. See it as a disease, as a tumour, as a dart, as misery, as real misery. Those who see it thus see rightly.”
>“What, venerable sir, is the purpose of seeing rightly?”
>“The purpose of seeing rightly, Radha, is revulsion.”
>“And what, venerable sir, is the purpose of revulsion?”
>“The purpose of revulsion is dispassion.”
>“And what, venerable sir, is the purpose of dispassion?”
>“The purpose of dispassion is liberation.”
>“And what, venerable sir, is the purpose of liberation?”
>“The purpose of liberation is Nibbana.”
>“And what, venerable sir, is the purpose of Nibbana?”
>“You have gone beyond the range of questioning, Radha. You weren’t able to grasp the limit to questioning. For, Radha, the holy life is lived with Nibbana as its ground, Nibbana as its destination, Nibbana as its final goal.” source
Thus, it is easy to see that reaching Nibbana, in this case, has nothing to do with seeing Buddha-nature. It is predicated on 1) seeing the khandhas with revulsion and 2) thus developing dispassion toward the khandhas. This is obviously taught so as to dissuade Radha from clinging to the khandhas as being precious, as being self.
Buddhism 101: clinging leads to suffering; not-clinging leads to nirvana.
----------------------------------------
Edit
It's even more succinct just a few suttas later:
>At Savatthı. Sitting to one side, the Venerable Radha said to the Blessed One: “Venerable sir, it would be good if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief, so that, having heard the Dhamma from the Blessed One, I might dwell alone, withdrawn, diligent, ardent, and resolute.”
>“Radha, you should abandon desire, you should abandon lust, you should abandon desire and lust, for whatever is Mara. And what, Radha, is Mara? Form is Mara. Feeling … Perception … Volitional formations … Consciousness is Mara. Seeing thus … He understands: ‘… there is no more for this state of being.’”
Theravada ordained monk, Bhikkhu Bodhi, has a spectacular grasp of Buddhist concepts based on the ancient texts, the Pali Canon.
Audio Lectures
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya
Is it a religion?
Read this if you need something simpler, but really, it doesn't get simpler then just sitting.
> Also, as an aside, what, if anything, are considered the "scriptures" of Buddhism?
The tripitaka, though what that collection entails changes from lineage to lineage. For the Theravadins, it is the Pali Tripitaka, for the various lineages of Chinese, Korean, Japanese it is the Taisho Tripitaka, ect.
The Pali Tripitaka would perhaps be the easiest and least confusing to start with. This is my favorite collection from the Pali Tripitaka.
What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula (1974) and Buddhism: A Concise Introduction by Huston Smith and Philip Novak are the classic introductory texts to Buddhism and still used in colleges. In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon by Bhikkhu Bodhi (2005) is a newer introductory book and more text based.
In the Buddha's Words by Bhikkhu Bodhi. It has introductions and explanations for each chapter, and unlike most books on Buddhism, actually has full suttas as opposed to abridged summaries of teachings.
Well said. I wanted to reply to obvious troll, but he was a bit too obvious.
In the Buddhas Words is one book I've been reading a bit over the years, at least for philosophy. Same time, I've got my King James Bible as well.
In my view, Buddha and Christ were very similar in beliefs, or what they taught, regardless of their background.
Here is a collection of sciptures,handpicked for a beginner book :)
https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483444616&sr=1-2&keywords=the+middle+length+discourses+of+the+buddha
You might want to read just one of the four Nikayas, or an anthology like Sayings of the Buddha or In the Buddha's words.
On the Mahayana side, it is better to start with the books of modern teachers like others have recommended. My personal recommendations are any book by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and "The method of no method" by Chan master Sheng Yen. Mahayana sutras can be underwhelming or confusing to the beginner - I can recommend the Prajnaparamita sutra (i.e. the Diamond sutra or a longer version.)
I recently bought In the Buddha's Words by Bhikkhu Bodhi and am very happy with it. It covers the main components of Buddhism and the author has some great explanations on many of the concepts as well.
You're welcome, I had a feeling that's what you were looking for.
If you don't already have it, I highly recommend the book that I got that quote from: In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon by Bhikku Bodhi.
Start with the words of the Buddha. There's a good anthology by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha) Paperback – July 28, 2005
by Bhikkhu Bodhi -
Practice generosity and follow the Five Precepts. Take refuge.
> Many people are telling me to meditate and figure it out for myself. How can I do this?
Honestly, I would advise against that. I'd recommend learning meditation from a teacher, and I'd also recommend studying some Dharma first before making meditation the main focus of your practice. And before all of that, the most important thing is going to be conduct. The most important aspect of conduct is to not take life, even very tiny insects. If you don't have proper conduct, then nothing else is really going to work. So, I'd recommend that order:
It won't hurt to start a small meditation practice right now, in fact I would recommend that. But it will be best to spend the most energy on conduct and study at this time.
> What should I focus on? Karma and dependent origin? Cessation of attachment? Compassion? Which aspect is the most important?
It's really hard to say. I don't think there's any right answer unless you're working within a specific tradition. My personal recommendation would be to read In the Buddha's Words by Bhikku Bodhi. This will give you a really strong introduction to Theravada teachings. Even though it's Theravada, it is the common foundation of all schools of Buddhism. If you don't understand everything in this book, it will be difficult to understand anything else in Buddhism beyond this.
Then, if you want to get a little introduction to the Mahayana, I'd suggest reading some translation of Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of a Bodhisattva (maybe translated as The Way of the Bodhisattva). This book is great for both complete beginners and very advanced bodhisattvas. I have read this text several times over the last 10 years and I learn something new every time. The Dalai Lama said:
> If I have any understanding of compassion and the bodhisattva path, it all comes from studying this text.
If you find that you are attracted to the Mahayana, then I would suggest that your next quest is to find your teacher. In Theravada, a teacher may not be of the utmost importance. But for Mahayana, a teacher is indispensible. There are enlightened teachers living today, it just takes effort to find one. My sincere advice would be to find an enlightened teacher, and then follow their advice as best as you can.
Finally, don't turn Dharma into an escape. Dharma is never going to solve your worldly problems. You will still need to learn how to deal with life just like any other adult does in our society. Make sure to spend the proper effort and do well in school :) Dharma doesn't solve worldly problems, but it will lead to peace where no worldly problems bother you at all.
Amazing place to start.
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0861714911/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jJLSDbKCFQ6PP
I have found collections very helpful where the editor has arranged important sutras to give the reader a step-by-step guide through increasingly complex dharma topics. In particular Bhikkhu Bodhi's In The Buddha's Words. Thich Nhat Hanh's Awakening of the Heart gives what the editor feels are the most crucial texts, (so fewer sutras and more in-depth commentary), and includes Perfection of Wisdom texts.
Edit: links
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411422908&sr=8-1&keywords=in+the+words+of+the+buddha
That's the one we recommend for newcomers at my temple.
In the Buddha's Words An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha) (9780861714919): Bhikkhu Bodhi
I asked this question just a couple of months ago and someone recommended "In the Buddha's Words" by Bhikkhu Bodhi which presents quotes representative of the Buddha's teachings as well as some commentary to put them in context--though this is more of a scholarly book than a beginner's guide.
This book is a collection from the Poli Canon, a group of writings based on the life of and life as written by the movement during Siddhartha's teaching years. Think of it like the Buddhism parallel to the new testament, just a lot more humble. It adds depth and explanation to a lot of things taught on a personal level.
After that just look up the different sutras, each has a different approach and adds a layer as they teach something different. The most commonly followed Sutra in the west is the Lotus Sutra but its up to you.
There are very good, recent translations of the Buddha's discourses; the 'long', the 'middle length, the 'connected' & the 'numerical', I've read all but one of them & IMO, they're great translations. LINK. The best overall summation of Buddha's teaching is In The Buddha's Words by an American Buddhist monk. It describes & explains everything in the Buddhist scripture in a compact and accessible form.
Sorry that's because I got the name wrong!
https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911
I mean sure he does say that Burma is the only place that kept the technique pure to the way that the Buddha taught it, and I don't know enough about Buddhism to know how true or false that claim is... does that make me indoctrinated? I started reading In the Buddha's Words which is basically translations straight from the Pali canon, and most of what Goenka says at retreats seems to align with what I am reading, granted I am not finished with it yet and he did not touch upon everything from what I can remember. He tells everyone at the end of the course that they are their own masters and can pretty much do what they want.
You're not the first person I've seen criticize Goenka, and I am just trying to understand where you're coming from. I have been meditating following the Goenka instructions for just over a year now, following the suggested prescription of 2 hours a day, do you think I am making a mistake?
When I first started reading the Pali Canon it quite astonished me to read religious mythology where gods came to pay their respects to a human for what he accomplished and praise him.
The friendliest introduction to Theravada writings might be The Dhammapada a very small book.
The monk Thannisaro Bhikkhu has an anthology of discourses called "The Wings To Awakening", loads of free electronic copies and if you write to him via snail mail ( he doesn't do email ) he MIGHT send you a copy in real book form.
The monk Bhikkhu Bodhi has a much larger and more comprehensive anthology of the Pali Canon called In The Buddha's Words. It has a lot of religious trappings in it and isn't all sunshine and rainbows. If you can stand it, you can stand the Pali Canon.
Most Theravada Buddhists have never read more than a few discourses, let alone the whole Pali Canon ( huge and repetitive ).
Both anthologizes are very dry, be warned.
You know what, no. You have attacked me perosnally already and this is no longer a discussion. Now you are simply picking small parts of what I said to attack me more. For the record, I'll link what I read below, but I really don't care what you think about me or the book. Your attitude is not nice and you of all people should know better than to be rude or hateful to others. You shame the LGBT+ community with your hatred for others.
Even if how I live isn't exactly the way you practice your religion, it's still a fact that by allowing others to control how you feel impacts you negatively. I think we could all benefit from learning how to control our own thoughts and feelings. We can't control what other people do and we're never going to live in a perfect world free of hatred.
So you can keep saying "woe is me... Bullies online and in my video games" and you can distance yourself from everyone except the LGBT+ community, but this is a temporary solution.
In my opinion you let them win when you allow their words to influence your thoughts, emotions, and decisions.
The book I read:
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0861714911/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_c33OCbH79GJ4Z
Edit: forgot a word
(Thanks, and sorry for the huge reply below; I might have gotten carried away.)
It's tough. The Pāli Canon is relatively inaccessible, and most of it probably isn't relevant for your purposes. Part of the problem is the literature on Buddhism is huge, much larger than the Bible, and there are many different angles you can approach it from: for example, vipassanā meditation has recently become very popular in the West, and there are many books devoted to that topic from a secular perspective that provide no information regarding Buddhist philosophy -- which consists of an ethics, metaphysics, cosmology, etc. Buddhist philosophy is much broader than, say, Christian theology, and is arguably more analogous to Western philosophy.
If you're a secular Westerner like myself, you'd probably be most interested in Theravāda Buddhism: this is the least "mystical" of the three major schools, and is the most conservative, dealing mostly with the Buddha's actual (purported) words. Mahāyāna is the most popular school of Buddhism, found (for example) in China and Japan, and is newer, less conservative, and has a much larger canon of commentaries and interpretations; Vajrayāna is found in places like Tibet, and is (relative to Theravāda) extremely esoteric. Theravāda is the closest to "Buddhism as a philosophy".
/r/Buddhism is a welcoming community, and they are better equipped to provide you with resources than I am. I would recommend asking them, and narrowing down what interests you the most via Wikipedia. Feel free to pose me any specific or follow-up questions as well. I'll also be able to keep my answer briefer if the question is more constrained.
A couple of warnings: vet any authors first, before buying their books. A lot of the resources at your local book store are by Deepak Chopra types, and are not highly regarded. Look for commentaries on or interpretations of actual Buddhist canon. Related to that, forget what you think you know about Buddhism: New Age concepts like "reincarnation" and "karma" actually have very little to do with traditional Buddhism. My favorite example is that, while Buddhism does have a concept of "rebirth", it also explicitly rejects the notion of a soul -- this precludes the possibility of New Age or Hindu "reincarnation", and I have seen this trip some people up.
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. My own knowledge comes from reference material like Wikipedia (especially as a portal to find other material), as well as selections from the Pāli canon -- this is one book I found useful as an introduction. It might not be the most academic book, but I think it does a good job as a general overview. Other books from the same publisher are also supposed to be good (and rely on actual canon), but I can't personally recommend any others.
Good luck!
I read this:
http://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings/dp/0861714911
Free preview:
http://urbandharma.org/pdf2/InTheBuddhasWordsBookPreview.pdf
I hope that you like it as much as I did!
You referring to this? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IQO403K/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I am interested in this.
The Rosie Project Series
I usually read stuff that is SUPER depressing but these books just pull me right out of that :-) And they're not sappy & stupid, as a bonus.
Description: "The art of love is never a science: Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.
Rosie Jarman possesses all these qualities. Don easily disqualifies her as a candidate for The Wife Project (even if she is “quite intelligent for a barmaid”). But Don is intrigued by Rosie’s own quest to identify her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on The Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you."
edit: added description
The Elemental Mysteries series is not really smutty. It's a fantasy series, though...
The Rosie Project might interest you.
Fantasy is my usual choice, but my book club recently read The Show Child and I really enjoyed it. It's a nice mix of realism and fairy tale set in 1920s Alaska.
We also read The Rosie Project which was surprisingly entertaining and sweet. I didn't expect to enjoy it but I did. I just saw there's a sequel to that one I'll be checking out.
I'm also a huge fan of M.R. Carey's post-apocalyptic The Girl with all the Gifts.
Read the Zamonia novels by Walter Moers.
Rumo is an especially thrilling read. Gory, funny, self-aware and just brilliant.
Moers writes like a micture between J.K. Rowling and Douglas Adams. Read the reviews on amazon. I know some people who actually rediscovered reading for themselves because of these books.
The Zamonia Books by Walter Moers. Seriously.
Start with either
Rumo,
City of Dreaming Books
or
Captain Bluebear
Don't let the cover illustrations fool you: these are seriously entertaining, thrilling, funny and sometimes brutal reads (check the commentaries on amazon).
I have to admit, I'm certainly more left fiscally, but possibly more right socially. I think the opposition to free speech on public campuses is a somewhat uncomfortable shift too far to the left. If you want a really interesting (fictional) look at what moving too far left does to speech, I highly recommend reading the first few chapters of The Three Body Problem, a scifi novel writen by Cixin Liu, a chinese guy, whose focus (before coming to the present day) is on the Chinese communist revolution.
Not Rks1157, but I've already asked him this question, and he recommended reading as much as possible from the Buddha's original teachings, as cited in the Pali Canon.
This recommendation brought me to the most important book I've read so far (out of several): "In the Buddha's Words" by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
You can get it in digital and audio form from Amazon. I recommend the audio form, since it is so powerful to listen to these words rather than read them.
First, I'm a bit agnostic when it comes to characters. You'll often find me on the other side when the argument that Chinese could never go full romanization. I just hate it when people say that using characters is stupid or wrong.
> Show me the article that says there's currently an epidemic of otherwise literate adults forgetting how to write basic words in English.
Mere anecdote but it reminds me of the ongoing blurring between there, they're, and their.
> I mean, there's "effective" and there's "optimal", right?
You mean letting better be the enemy of good? Using optimal in opposition to effective is a bit disingenuous as well, especially when we're using the clearly suboptimal orthography of English to discuss the matter.
At the same time, China had been exposed to an alphabet (or at least an abugida) when they imported Buddhist texts, and they still felt that Chinese characters were a more effective way of recording their thoughts. That might have been cultural inertia, but the choice was made. At the same time, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese all made use of the characters in the past. Part of that may have been because of cultural and prestige factors, but it was seen as an effective as a way of recording information for a number of languages over centuries. Sure, it's not perfect, but few writing systems are (unless you listen to the Korea-philes who claim Hangul is).
> I'm not sure what you mean here.
You're getting caught up on the specific meanings rather than seeing it as an example of a larger trend in English. Many of the specialty words that are in common use come from three main sources : Germanic, Latin and Greek. While related, the links are not always clear in their expression. The example of doctor, medic and physician shows words from different roots that are used in a way to distinguish different roles in a single field where the links are not clear from the words used. A doctor studies medicine. In Chinese, an 医生 studies 医学。 In English the related nature of the two words is not as clear as it is in Chinese. Even the idea of study (学/学习） is more closely linked to medicine.
> Ehhhhh, again, technically true, but so what? It's not even that big of a difference. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in English is 309 pages while in Chinese it's 242. This is not that much value-added.
That's because you're looking at the language through the perspective of the modern language. If you go back and look at the Analects or the Art of War, they are tiny slivers of books. You can easily fit the text of the Art of War on 4 or 5 letter-sized pages. When the language was establishing itself, and was being written on bamboo slips, brevity made a lot of sense.
And it would be better to see how the length looks from Mandarin to English. The Three Bodies Problem is 302 pages in Mandarin, and 400 in English. Ask any publisher or environmentalist if 98 pages (per book) makes a big difference. Even the 67 pages that you're dismissing as "not that much value-added" is a reduction of over 20% of the length of the English novel, which is nothing to sneeze at.
> Arguing that Hanzi has some benefits over romanization
I am not trying to argue that Hanzi is better than romanization; I'm arguing that Hanzi shouldn't be dismissed by learners who are coming at it from a romanized background. They overlook some of the qualities that helped it endure for centuries. I do not consider it perfect. I can't imagine, for instance, trying to write computer code in it. But I am sure going to push back against the people who say that it's dumb.
> It just strikes me as a pride thing.
looks in mirror
laughs
I guess you think I have some sort of cultural connection with China and Chinese characters. That would be wrong.
The Plot Against America is an interesting book that imagines Charles Lindbergh defeating FDR and keeping America out of WWII. Henry Ford is in his Cabinet, but this aspect of his life (anti-semetism) is on full display.
Backing up my argument, I refer to Pat Buchanan's The Unnecessary War for the case for, and Philip Roth's The Plot Against America for the case against, but with Freudian slips exposing its real agenda, this view of pre-war anti-fascism.
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Roosevelt loses the presidential election to Charles Lindbergh who negotiates an understanding with Hitler.
I'm currently reading The Wolf in the Whale by Jordana Max Brodsky. It is an amazing book, I love the fact that she uses Native Inuit myths along with Norse Myths. It's just a good story. I love good stories.
I have a lot of Kindle books on my Kindle wishlist. The book I really want on there is called The Three-Body Problem, it's the first book in a trilogy by a Chinese sci-fi author. I have heard awesome things about this trilogy and I can't wait to read it.
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Remembrance-Earths-Past-ebook/dp/B00IQO403K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493667787&sr=8-1&keywords=rememberance+of+earths+past
there is the first book, it is fantastic. I ended up burning through the whole series in about 3 weeks, I absolutely couldn't put it down! I'll check out that blog if it is still available.
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Scifi and not really about the country and it's people - but the actions of the protagonists are very much an outcome of the culteral revolution.
Wow, that short story was awesome. It's great that there's still so much Greg Egan I haven't encountered.
You're right that this idea feels like a deus ex machina. When I first read "Permutation City" I walked around for a few days in a euphoric haze, imagining simulations running without their substrates. But then reality hit. I was running huge microprocessor simulations in those days, and I remembered that you can't simulate their instructions out of order. There are dependencies that have to be respected[1]. And Egan had glossed past that in a single page, so slickly that I never noticed. This feels similar. It's dangerous to introduce too much fiction into one's worldview.
[1] Though it's possible you can sidestep dependency constraints, using something like maximum entropy to simulate a set of particles at far enough time steps without simulating the intervening steps, simply by estimating the probabilities of different kinds of interactions. It might work better if you have a goal in mind to train for using reinforcement learning. Then you could leave the fundamental laws of the simulated universe open and part of the weights to train, and select the simulation that gives you what you want. But all this is probably like Borges's library[2], or at least way beyond our computational capacity. Or maybe you need to imagine your goal to such depth that.. what's the point of finding a simulation that yields it? The world has never been easy, so better to assume it never will be until one is proven wrong.
[2] When I first read Carl Sagan's "Contact", the final chapter left me in a similar euphoric haze for a few days. Inside the infinite digits of pi in all bases you could find all possible patterns, all truths. Then I discovered the insight of Borges's library for myself.
True, it is quite advanced. Nonetheless, it represents the essence of Mahayana.
A beginner alternative might be The Heart Sutra.
I don't want to just talk about a book that moved me, I want to talk about one that quite literally altered my personal philosophy, and how I try to view everyday life. Last year I picked up a book called "The Heart of Understanding" by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is a really, really short read that took me all of an hour to read from cover to cover. The first time I read it, I was filled with an emotion that I find so hard to put into words. I want to say happiness, but that doesn't do it justice. I suppose compassionate towards others is pretty close. This small little paperback book had me wearing a smile for the entirety of the day, and brings it back every time that I pick it back up. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have stumbled upon it, and am insistent on spreading the word about it, and the author.
Seriously, if you are ever in a low point that just won't go away, in need of a pick me up, get a copy of this book. It's not a blind faith cure-all, it will help you understand just why you are feeling what you are feeling. The answer, the remedy, comes naturally afterwards. And if not for the purpose of entering into a contest, let's at least have a conversation about this book. This applies to anybody who has read or would be interested in reading the work.
Lotus Sutra: I've only read the Watson translation, which is very good, but I've also heard good things about JC Cleary's translation, although that appears to only be available as an e-book.
Heart Sutra: I have read, and recommend, Karl Brunnholzl's The Heart Attack Sutra, Red Pine's translation, and TNH's Heart of Understanding. I've also got a copy of Kaz Tanahashi's exigesis on the shelf, which people speak very highly of.
Some questions and hypotheticals to probe your intuitions:
Someone you deeply care for is scanned and reassembled while sleeping dreamlessly (or under anesthesia, or whatever). Two of them lie side by side before you. Do you kill one without regret? Is it harder to kill one than it is to kill an extremely high fidelity video game model of one?
You say goodnight to your romantic partner of choice and go to sleep beside them. While you both sleep, someone sneaks into your bedroom and painlessly kills them. You wake up to see the intruder standing over their lifeless body. You are angry and upset. The intruder says "it's all good dude, I scanned them before killing them! Here's their saved brainstate (or whatever)". Do you laugh it off? And maybe kick the intruder out for playing such a hilarious practical joke?
Unbeknownst to you, you were copied yesterday and your copy has since slept a dreamless sleep (or is still saved somewhere and hasn't been created yet). Are you more comfortable with killing yourself then and there and being reformed from the save-state, or taking a 24-hour amnestic?
Is the badness of death continuous or discrete? Presume you're entirely, 100% OK with the perfect fidelity copying thing. Now wiggle some of the atoms around. Are you still 100% on board? Wiggle some more atoms. Change your favorite flavor of ice-cream to rum raisin, but leave everything else intact. Make your colon half an inch longer. Tuvan throat singing is now overwhelmingly your favorite sort of music. Etc. Still ok with it? Those things aren't really integral to your identity, are they? Or is the death of the "original", instead of being a neutral act, now 5% as bad as death sans "copy"? Now approach the process of copying from the other direction -- instead of having a perfect copy, you find out that "Sam" exists. Sam's your distant kin, and they sorta like the same things you do. They're willing to step into your shoes when you get vaporized. Are you now slightly reassured at the prospect of death?
-------------
I myself wouldn't step into the copy-destroy-reconstruct machine (except in certain circumstances), but would be inclined to do a piece-by-piece mind upload. I'm not nearly certain enough that copies are meaningfully "me" to risk death in the former manner, but my intuitions don't balk nearly as much at the latter. Perhaps the question's even arbitrary, and you can just as well imagine agents who value their "particular" configuration of matter as well as those who value only the pattern that configuration represents, or those who value both, or those who value neither. That said, in a sci-fi universe, I'd be totally in favor of creating "back-ups" before performing risky activities, if only because a lot of what I value doesn't have to do with me, personally, and the backups could fulfill those goals just as well in the event of my untimely demise (I'd also be in favor of just creating more of me, but that's a separate discussion).
I've another question for those who believe it doesn't matter, or that you don't die in any meaningful respect when you step in the teleporter: how certain of this are you? As in, give me a number, p equals what? Are you 99% certain? That still leaves 1% chance you die meaningfully (and there's still uncertainty about that probability estimate). How great a benefit do you have to receive to gamble on that uncertainty?
As for sci-fi books that investigate the question of personal identity, I recommend Permutation City.
Ok so just try this book its my favorite book and is like tolkien if he were on LSD
https://www.amazon.com/Rumo-Miraculous-Adventures-Walter-
I would recommend the Zamonia series by Walter Moers; Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear and The City of Dreaming Books. It's incredibly imaginative and great story-telling.
Don't know which tradition you're following, but I recommend In The Buddha's Words. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XF1LIO/
SOLVED! You’ve unknowingly helped me make the connection I’ve been trying to make for months. The book is Rumo: and his miraculous adventures, by Walter Moers. Link for the curious:
Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585679364/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_hnooDbARCWXWS
Thank you so much for the help everyone
Try the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation.
While I haven't read their translation of this book, I've read other books they've translated and I haven't been disappointed yet.
Pevear and Volokhonsky just edges out Burgin and Tiernan O'Connor for readability. The latter is great, and has a lot of good footnotes and commentary, but P&V is my preference.
As far as I know they are the only two English translations that include the complete text of the novel: Ginsburg and Glenny each used the older version of Bulgakov's text. Of those two, Glenny is significantly better than Ginsburg.
Read this translation
http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Margarita-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141180145
I read this one, but I don't know if that's good or bad, as I haven't read any others and don't speak Russian.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0141180145/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0679760806&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=09V8F9P9Y9Z9BNBKH270
https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafón/dp/0143034901
Does have a detective like element but is more about a son’s quest to discover the author of a mysterious book and his relationships.
The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime by Mark Haddon. You're welcome... about Shadow.. It's mystery someones burning copies of a book and the kid in the bookstore tries to figure out who's behind it. It's soooo goooood. For the other request maybe Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Noooo! My books are still packed because we're mid-move. Thanks for hosting, Lady!
edit: Here is what's left. The rest of our books are at the new place with our furniture. Moving Pro Tip: Only pack 1/3 of the box with books and put clothes on top. Otherwise the box is waaaay too heavy! The book I recommend for you is The Shadow of the Wind. One of my favorites!! Bibliophile
Only book that's done that for me recently was Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Stupendous book.
Last summer I read Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon. It will always remind me of this time of the year.
That's just for 2008 though... I'd open it up to other years.
First up is anything by Umberto Eco. He's the guy who wrote "Name of the Rose", but his other books are phenomenal. If you hated "The DaVinci Code" then check out "Foucalt's Pendulum". He makes Dan Brown look mildly retarded. His novels are so heavy and serious that I was surprised by his tiny book of essays "How To Travel With a Salmon" which is hilarious.
Let's see... what else... "Shadow of the Wind" is excellent. The Musashi novels are fun to read. Scaramouche, which was turned into an OK movie. Classics like Cyrano de Bergerac should be required reading.
I had a hard time hunting down all the volumes to "Journey to the West" and it's not a task that should be taken on lightly, but I think I'm a better person for having muscled through them.
Links:
http://www.amazon.com/Name-Rose-Everymans-Library-Cloth/dp/0307264890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637805&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Foucaults-Pendulum-Umberto-Eco/dp/015603297X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637841&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Salmon-Other-Essays-Harvest/dp/015600125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637864&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637894&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637921&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Scaramouche-Rafael-Sabatini/dp/0554360268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637963&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Cyrano-Bergerac-Edmond-Rostand/dp/0451528921/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637993&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-West-4-Boxed-Set/dp/7119016636/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228637756&sr=8-1
The Doom Brigade, by Weiss and Perrin (link below for cover photo).
It was my first Dragonlance book, and one of the very first fantasy books I had ever read. It has gone on to become one of my favourite and most cherished books, and it sparked a lifelong love of reading scifi and fantasy. I still go back and re-read it every few years and it takes me right back to 12yr old me poking around in the shelves of a bookstore and suddenly being carried away on an amazing (and ongoing) journey at first glance... Now that I think about that again, I realize that it sounds very similar to the opening section of The Shadow of the Wind (Zafon) in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which incidentally is another favourite book that played a foundational role in my love of reading.
The Doom Brigade
The Shadow of the Wind
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It takes place in Spain in the 20's and 30's. It's a cool mystery.
Mushy Snugglebites is my main squeeze!
I love collecting books! IMO, they're one of the greatest things to collect! =D They're fantastic entertainment, you can always share books with friends, and they're awesome for camping, roadtrips, or the beach. Best of all, they're reusable. I love reading books over again! You can always catch something you've never caught before!
If I win, I'd really like this book! I love mysteries, but more unique ones rather than the regular grizzly murder stories. This one looks promising! Thanks for the fun contest! =D
Have you read Machine Man by Max Barry?
Machine Man, by Max Barry? Max Barry's awesome.
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Man-Vintage-Contemporaries-Original/dp/0307476898
Pretty short read.
This book may be relevant to your interests
Machine Man by Max Barry.
Have you read Machine Man? :)
It's been licensed for both physical and digital release in English. Keep track of licensed release dates with the subreddit wiki in the sidebar.
Volume 1:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 2:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 3:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 4:
iTunes (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Volume 5 (preorder):
iTunes (digital)
Google Play US (digital)
Google Play (digital)
Amazon (physical and digital)
Book Depository (physical)
Rightstuf (physical)
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon was price matched by Amazon so it is also currently $7 there. So glad I ended up not buying it last week.
Everything else hasn't been price matched :(.
Spice & Wolf - Love story between a merchant and a wolf deity in a medieval setting.
DanMachi - Hodgepodge of gods from various mythologies acting as catalysts for adventures in a fantasy world.
Goblin Slayer - Edgy but unconventional story of a man who simply kills goblins.
> What Europeans dont realize yet is that this is dangerous because with democratic institutions demographics matter a lot. Different religious and ethnic groups do have different values to some degree and I think a lot of Europeans don't recognize that. Most know that if you imported 500k rural Poles to your city they'll start to vote for banning abortion, but for some reason people are afraid to extrapolate that to other groups such as say North Africans. They prefer to live a fantasy where you will 'enlighten' these groups to give up previous in-group values en masse and integrate but if their demographics don't pressure it because they are a plurality or even a majority they will have more in-group pressure to retain than out-group pressure to change.
We don't realise it because we never really experienced true multiculturalism before, and many are still in denial about its effect. Now that demographics are rapidly changing, my point of view is Europe is going to start experiencing something similar to the 60s-70s in USA where there were massive civil rights protest movements. Tough with major differences due to the ethnic populations being different than what the US experienced (no hispanics, mostly Arabs/Muslims in France for instance).
USA being pretty much the blueprint for a nation becoming multicultural. We will see this play out in Europe over the next decades. Here is an interesting bestseller fiction book for what might happen to France over the next years: https://www.amazon.com/Submission-Novel-Michel-Houellebecq/dp/0374271577
Submission: A Novel Hardcover – October 20, 2015 by Michel Houellebecq (Author), Lorin Stein (Translator)
>It's 2022. François is bored. He's a middle-aged lecturer at the New Sorbonne University and an expert on J. K. Huysmans, the famous nineteenth-century Decadent author. But François's own decadence is considerably smaller in scale. He sleeps with his students, eats microwave dinners, rereads Huysmans, queues up YouPorn.
>Meanwhile, it's election season. And although Francois feels "about as political as a bath towel," things are getting pretty interesting. In an alliance with the Socialists, France's new Islamic party sweeps to power. Islamic law comes into force. Women are veiled, polygamy is encouraged, and François is offered an irresistible academic advancement--on the condition that he convert to Islam.
>Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker has said of Submission that "Houellebecq is not merely a satirist but--more unusually--a sincere satirist, genuinely saddened by the absurdities of history and the madnesses of mankind." Michel Houellebecq's new book may be satirical and melancholic, but it is also hilarious, a comic masterpiece by one of France's great novelists.
BOOKᕀREAD "The Recognitions by William Gaddis" german direct link how to eng review apple
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> Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter fo the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals"--pictures the painters themeselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indestinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch--cannot e...
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I found a translation on amazon
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0374271577/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1450128708&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=submission&dpPl=1&dpID=41YjMnlq0CL&ref=plSrch
Woo! I have this myself, only by now it's been so well-loved that it looks like an antique that you need gloves to handle, lol! Glad I could steer you towards something I hope you love. :D
Oops, I just noticed this. >.> Also, no, there's really not much difference, cept that the Ultimate edition is all 5 books in a collection. Amazon link - look at the cover, it lists all the books within. If that's not what you were asking about, whoops, sorry. @.@
Thank you so much. I don't know which book you mean, so I'll link both and let you pick. Please buy used, as there's no need to spend extra on a new copy if I'm going to re-cover it, so obviously the condition doesn't matter.
HGtG:
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Unabridged-published/dp/B00E6T900M/ Here's the second version that I owned.
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Douglas-Adams/dp/0517149257/ Here's is a cheaper version, but should have all of the same content.
Story of Mankind: http://www.amazon.com/Story-Mankind-Complete-Unabridged-Illustrations/dp/B00589YDDS/ This is the version I had from 1921, I think.
I'll PM you my address. I remember you from sending me "Thank You for Smoking" when you offered it a while back so I definitely owe you something good.
The authros are bnot in an specific order, but the books under each one are in suggested reading order for leisure maximization:
Douglas Adams
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels
Aldous Huxley
I would also add to deltatag's choir about George Orwell's 1984.
I could certainly use this sort of humor in my life
Also, welcome to RaoA! And good on your for choosing subjectively. I love to see contests that don't rely on reddit raffle. :)
Murakami - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Another book that kind of deals with this concept from a slightly different approach is Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami.
For beginners?
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World-- Time, Duality, Left Brain/Right Brain Dillema
Norwegian Wood-- Memory, death (and therefore life), music
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle-- Surrealism, Defilement, Water (if you didn't like Kafka, you might not like this. It's like two steps back on the weirdness scale but twice as long).
He is easily one of my favorite authors of all time and I personally think every single one of his books is fantastic. Granted, Kafka was the last one I read, and I had read so many others before it that I wasn't phased by all the weird shit that goes down.
In my opinion, Murakami is the type of author that everyone will find at least one of his books enjoyable. It might be Norweigian Wood for some, 1Q84 for others, and maybe even A Wild Sheep Chase or Dance, Dance, Dance for a someone else.
I think there are certain works of his that are basically you either "get" them or you don't. This isn't an intellegence/educational thing, it's more like you're in a different place emotionally. That's okay, though, because his body of work is so large, complex, and thought provoking that it touches upon a lot of variable subjects.
I just looked it up (I was in bed last night when I posted the previous message) and it seems Birthday Girl is in the Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman collection. So if you want more short fiction that's probably the best route to go.
If you're interested in jumping right into a novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is one of his most generally well received novels and a good place to start for some of the signature Murakami weirdness. Kafka on the Shore would be a great choice as well, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is many Murakami readers' favorite novel of his, but I haven't read either of those yet so I'm more hesitant to recommend them.
I'd suggest reading the blurb of each and picking the story that sounds like it'd appeal to you most.
Mushishi is wonderful. But it is very episodic. Its best not to binge the show. Once I got half way through the first season (this was before the second season was even a twinkle in the anime studio's eye) I actually saved the rest for "rainy" day type situations. It took me almost 6 months to finish a handful of episodes, but I really enjoyed watching it that way.
Also, how in the heck can you give Lain an 8 when its like 100x slower than Habaine Renmei?! No, but I do partially agree with you. I love HR a lot, but the first half really drags. Also, I would like to mention that it is very loosely based on a book called Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Its a very bizarre but fun read if you are ever looking for a new book to get into.
I'm currently reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (which comes close to fulfilling the "more than 500 pages" challenge twice over), but I'm not far enough in to really recommend it yet.
However, I've previously read Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami and do highly recommend this one.
Here is my suggestion: Take it slow. Look up every word you dont know, even words you think you might know in the dictionary, and try to get a real good feeling for what's going on in the book. I'd recommend the HP series, or maybe Lord of the Rings, even if you've seen the movies. Maybe 1984 or Brave New World.
Also based off what you like I think you might really like Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
Btw I say look up words not because I think you're stupid or anything, but because a lot of times an author might use a word that you just not be as familiar with as you think. Sometimes just skipping them, at least for me, will leave me confused as to what is happening in the story at that moment.
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It's excellent.
I loved that show when I was younger.
There's a book called Starfish where they do the whole "cyberpunk" at the bottom of the ocean thing. I've always wanted to read it. And here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Starfish-Peter-Watts/dp/0765315963/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393876210&sr=1-2&keywords=Starfish
I found some strange books in my school library, including Starfish.
http://www.amazon.com/Starfish-Rifters-Trilogy-Peter-Watts/dp/0765315963
It's basically horror/sci-fi with its mix of 50,000 leagues under the sea and Resident Evil...and sex...so much sex. Strange find, but I loved it as a 13 year old. Haha.
Peter Watts Rifters Trilogy features humans who've highly adapted themselves to be able to live and work in the abyssal depths. Starfish is the first novel.
I'll leave this here
This is a very cool series. You can't tell by the description, and I don't want to give it away, but there is an undercurrent theme in this book and the next 2 that is related to this finding.
Starfish by Peter Watts.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765315963/ref=mw_dp_mdsc?dsc=1
" Civilization rests on the backs of its outcasts.
So when civilization needs someone to run generating stations three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific, it seeks out a special sort of person for its Rifters program. It recruits those whose histories have preadapted them to dangerous environments, people so used to broken bodies and chronic stress that life on the edge of an undersea volcano would actually be a step up. Nobody worries too much about job satisfaction; if you haven't spent a lifetime learning the futility of fighting back, you wouldn't be a rifter in the first place. It's a small price to keep the lights going, back on shore."
Are you excited about the Three Body Problem translation coming out? I hear it explores the idea of why intelligent civilizations would be (radio) quiet.
There was a pretty interesting sci-fi book about this called "The Three Body Problem". It is also what I'd been assuming was behind the erratic seasons on Planetos.
BQ: I literally just finished The Three Body Problem Trilogy last night. It was pretty interesting. At first glance you might think it is super sci-fi like Star Wars, but it isn't. The books are essentially about how people, and society as a whole, react to the discovery of alien life. So, although the environment is Sci-Fi, the main plot is very much about sociology.
---
I finally caved and got YNAB. I've spent a few hours this morning trying to figure out what I'm doing.
> Liu Cixin
Are you talking about this? http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765377063
that book is fiction.
Answers contained within: The Three-Body Problem
It is indeed a book
The Three-Body Problem od nekog kineza, ako neko voli znanstvenu fantastiku, toplo preporučam.
It is somewhat hard SF and not Japanese, but I recently enjoyed The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Three Body Problem Trilogy by Cixin Liu. Link is for first book:
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XPRZ0BKYWBX6&keywords=three+body+problem&qid=1557605024&s=gateway&sprefix=Three+body%2Caps%2C531&sr=8-1
You won't regret it. Read the original edition if you know some Chinese.
*Edit*
I'm an active reader of SFs but I'm not that into the traditional ones that read more or less like a history book (think Dune, Foundation, etc.).
I'll start us off.
If you're into science fiction, do yourself a favor and read the three book series that starts with The Three Body Problem. Fucking mindblowing. I don't recommend reading the whole description/overview. Just know it's an awesome book and jump in.
You guys ever use Kodi+ add-ons? Free TV shows/movies/live-sports. High quality, streaming. It's insanity
If you like Arrival (which you should!), I highly, HIGHLY recommend
reading the book series 'The Three Body Problem'.
The first book in the series won The Hugo Award for best sci-fi novel last year, and balances so many things well, like the Cultural Revolution, exploration, sociology, SETI, and hard sci-fi. Very original and unpredictable.
Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032/
Not sure about scifi movies, but there's a book, The Three Body Problem that has won the Hugo award. The title refers to the famous three-body problem in physics, which is known for having no closed-form general solution. People around this sub generally agree that the original Chinese version is better than the translation, no surprise there; but many English readers I've asked say they still liked the translation. It also has 2 sequels, so it's a trilogy really. And they're coming out with a film adaptation next year.
So here's some of the textbooks I read (and still own) from my Asian History courses at college. All are worth reading over, but you'll also want teachers to help you, to talk with historians from China, and eventually just to go to China and see a lot of stuff for yourself.
The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, by Patricia Ebrey.
Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, edited by Patricia Ebrey.
Quotations from Mao Tse-Tung, written by the man himself.
Fiction:
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai Sijie.
The Outlaws of the Marsh, by Shi Nai'An and Sidney Shapiro.
The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu and Ken Liu.
These are a relatively good start to help you get a grounding in China's history. Everyone in this thread has also given some good suggestions. And visit /r/askhistorians; they'll have some better sources you can check out.
In the sci-fi book, The Three-Body Problem, they used this very idea to communicate long distances.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Middle-Length-Discourses-Buddha/dp/086171072X/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370103869&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=middle+length+suttaa
Get a job hippie!
Seriously though, it costs money to plant trees, let them grow, pay someone to cut them down and then turn that into paper. That's not even counting the numerous hours that someone has to dedicate to translating the sutras and their living expenses during that time. Some of the essential buddhist books cost around $60 each which is expensive, but I look at it like an investment, the greatest investment.
*PS, you will never get out of the research phase.
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032
That was my initial reaction too. But even if you just read Bikkhu Bodhi's excellent concise anthology In The Buddha's Words, it is clear that even a great deal of Theravada is all about setting up the infrastructure necessary to maintain the monasteries.