Reading Suggestions and Top Ten Books

[Truth4Youth]

I need an independent reading book for school. Anyone have suggestions or a "Top Ten" books?

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Wanna list?

How about one must-read book?

Lt. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty's 'The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the World' (1973)

Prouty was the Pentagon's liason with CIA from 1955-63 among other roles.
He watched Allen Dulles' CIA take over the US government right under Ike's nose and wrote up how it happened.

Lots of important paramilitary and parapolitical basic history in his book.
Having been 'disappeared' after initial publishing, it has been reissued in paperback recently and I saw it on the shelf at Borders, of all places.

[barracuda]

Truth4Youth, have you ever visited the Book Forum here at R.I.? I hazard a guess of no. Lotsa good stuff there, especially on the Currently Reading thread. Anyway, just off the top of my pile...

[Elvis]

If you haven't read it, maybe "The Anatomy of Power" by John Kenneth Galbraith.

I'd been meaning to post something about it, and finally did, here:
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=23645


Also, maybe not your cup of tea, but I just finished "The Rockefeller Medicine Men" (1979) by E.Richard Brown, an excellent history of the American medical establishment, chiefly the "reforms" shaped by Rockefeller and Carnagie endowments in the service of capitalism.


Whatever you choose, happy reading!

[stefano]

How about one must-read book? Lt. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty's 'The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the World' (1973)

Seriously, Hugh, is that the one book you'd recommend to someone, out of two millennia of literary and philosophical treasures? You really do have a one-track mind.

Truth4Youth: read Catch-22, if you haven't already. Someone here has as their sig line a quote by Wittgenstein that "a serious philosophical work could be written using only jokes". It has, and Catch-22 is it. Definitely my favourite book.

My other fiction picks are The Fall and The Outsider by Albert Camus, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Atomised by Michel Houellebecq, 1984 by Orwell, and The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess. Anything by those authors is well worth your time (except Houllebecq, who turned into a literary star and began churning out rubbish).

[jingofever]

I need an independent reading book for school. Anyone have suggestions or a "Top Ten" books?

When you say you need an "independent reading book for school," do you mean you need a book for an independent study course or do you need a book to read in your downtime?

[beeline]

It's a trilogy, and it's Sci Fi, but if you are looking for a good story, I liked the Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars books by Kim Stanley Robinson.

[OP ED]

My other fiction picks are The Fall and The Outsider by Albert Camus

i prefer the Rebel personally. Camus is about as french as my existentialism can stand really.

A Secret History of Consciousness by Gary Lachman [yes, the guy from Blondie] is as good an introduction to less-than-currently-mainstream views on thinking in the last couple centuries or so as you'll likely find anywhere.

also:

The Sword and the Mind
[i prefer the translation by Hiroaki Sato]

Marketing Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout
[not so much good as interesting, if somewhat narrow in scope]

and

Modern Latin American Revolutions by Eric Selbin.
esp. the Epilogue section sub-titled "Toward a New Vocabulary for Revolution" which deals with integrating magical realism with social work. [the "magical revolution"]

a significant portion of my own strategies of tension is a direct result of having read this book in 1997.

[lightningBugout]

books that changed my way of thinking entirely, off the top of my head:

Eldridge Cleaver -- Soul on Ice
F.T. Marinetti's various manifestos
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche -- Shambhala followed by Cutting through spiritual materialism
Deleuze and Guattari -- a thousand plateaus
The roots of consciousness - Jeffrey Mishlove
Marx -- Theses on Feuerbach
The archaic revival -- Terence McKenna collection

[lightningBugout]

and in its own class altogether,

if i could recommend only one book to a teenager it'd be

The Situationist International Anthology edited by Ken Knabb

[Truth4Youth]

When you say you need an "independent reading book for school," do you mean you need a book for an independent study course or do you need a book to read in your downtime?

A book that I will read in my downtime and have to do a book report on.

Barracuda, I had forgotten about the Book Forum. But I think its better that I posted this in General Discussion as it doesn't seem many people occupy that area of RI.

HMW, I want to read Prouty, but didn't he promote some rather "out there" things at times; ie: The Report from Iron Mountain, the umbrella man, etc.?

Stefano, my English class is going to be reading Brave New World soon, so that's off limits. But since you mention Huxley, would you recommend The Devils of Loudon? I've been interesed in that one since I found out that Ken Russell (director of Altered State, based on some of John C. Lilly's work) made a movie version simply titled The Devils.

To be honest I'm a bit more interested in reading non-fiction at the moment (although that has a tendency to change rapidly!). I am interested in the Huxley book I mentioned, some of Colin Wilson's fiction (Ritual in the Dark and The Space Vampires), Charles Bukowski, and Frank Harris's The Bomb.

Looking up The Wanting Seed right now, and it looks like I'm going to have to add that to my list as well. Burgess always struck me as a fascinating individual. Its really too bad that most people only seem aware of him through Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (or at least that's how I percieve it).

I'm looking for some "entry level"/starter reading for the following authors, if anyone can provide some suggestions:

John Zerzan
Colin Wilson
Paul Krassner
Kirkpatrick Sale
Douglas Valentine
William Blum
Derrick Jensen
Abbie Hoffman

Also if anyone has "thumb's up" or "thumb's down" opinions on these books, it'd be appreciated:

The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror by David Hoffman

Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrate Washington by Paul Sperry (ties in with Sibel Edmonds crowd, but seems to b e promoted by the right-wing WND crowd)

The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA by Jonathan Kwitney

The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush by Peter Brewton

Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker and the Postwar Fascist International by Kevin Coogan

Illinois Justice: The Scandal of 1969 and the Rise of John Paul Stevens by Kenneth A. Manaster (book deals with some events from Sherman Skolnick's early career, question is: Was Sherman Skolnick always batshit insane or was that just a symptom of old age in his later years of life)

The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR by Jules Archer

War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race by Edwin Black

Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure by Daniel Quinn

Right now I'm sort of in a political/"investigative reporting" mood, but I dig the suggestions thus far and have thought about reading some of the books mentioned already.

Also:

and in its own class altogether,

if i could recommend only one book to a teenager it'd be

The Situationist International Anthology edited by Ken Knabb

REALLY would be interested in that one. But thus far in my very limited research of situationism I've had a hard time understanding the movement. Is it a good, thorough introduction to the movement?

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

How about one must-read book? Lt. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty's 'The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the World' (1973)

Seriously, Hugh, is that the one book you'd recommend to someone, out of two millennia of literary and philosophical treasures? You really do have a one-track mind.
.....

The results of that one book's education could be comprehensive and relevant, more than 'literary treasures.'

The US is a military-intelligence government with a civilian facade which has a war budget larger than the rest of the world combined.
It also controls media which affects cultures around the planet and will for the foreseeable future.

Knowing how this machine grew after WWII and how it operates now is rather important to our survival.

[waugs]

I've only been reading non-fiction lately. I highly recommend these:

Facts and Fascism--George Seldes

Understanding the F-Word--Dave McGowan

Unholy Alliance--Peter Levenda

Sinister Forces (3 book series)--Peter Levenda

The Stargate Conspiracy--Picknett and Prince

Programmed to Kill--Dave McGowan

You can read Facts and Fascism online here: http://www.naderlibrary.com/seldes.factsfascismtoc.htm

[Truth4Youth]

How about one must-read book? Lt. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty's 'The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the World' (1973)

Seriously, Hugh, is that the one book you'd recommend to someone, out of two millennia of literary and philosophical treasures? You really do have a one-track mind.
.....

The results of that one book's education could be comprehensive and relevant, more than 'literary treasures.'

The US is a military-intelligence government with a civilian facade which has a war budget larger than the rest of the world combined.
It also controls media which affects cultures around the planet and will for the foreseeable future.

Knowing how this machine grew after WWII and how it operates now is rather important to our survival.

Once again HMW, didn't Prouty promote some rather "out there" things; ie: The Report From Iron Mountain, the "umbrella" man, etc.

[thurnundtaxis]

Two Thumbs Up on the OKC book by David Hoffman. I read it way back when, and it really prepared me to see the future of false flag attacks.

Funny though that Hoffman later stated that he believed that the official 9/11 story.


For fiction, I'd suggest Pynchon's "Crying of Lot 49". A quick, fun, and cheerful, read that outlines most of the general gestalt of his lengthier, richer and far more obtuse work.