What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?
Every reader has at least one, that book that never caught on, or is out of print, but that resonates so much with people that they can't forget it. I still remember reading "The Republic of Tea" on the Sunday it came out years ago. And of course, Steve Pressfield's "The War of Art" which I've purchased and handed out a dozen times so far...
10 minutes ago: The book "Gung Ho" by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles to turn on the people in any organization. I got it as a birthday gift from one of my seniors in 1998. Inspired by the expression of the spirit of cooperation and "can do" attitude shown by the US marines, I chose Gung Ho be the name, spirit and slogan of my new company - Gung Ho BPO.
1 hour ago: Based on what you've revealed about your likely taste for reading material, I recommend;Anything written by Malcolm Gladwell (obvious but worth saying)
'Guns, Germs, and Steel' by Jared Diamond
'Gulliver's Travels' by Jonathan Swift (everyone who's read it knows what it's about, everyone else only thinks they do)
'Homage to Catalonia' by George Orwell.
'Justice' by Michael Sandel.
Those are just shots in the dark as far as what your interest is. All have resonated with me.
1 hour ago: Thanks for the question.Some of them may not be "overlooked gems", but I am often amazed at the number of people I come across, who have not yet picked them up:
The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
Education and the Significance of Life – J. Krishnamurti
Memoirs of a Madman (M̩moires d'un fou) РGustave Flaubert
The Alphabet versus the Goddess, the Conflict between Word and Image – Leonard Shlain
Tao Te Ching – Laozi
Miranda July's "No One Belongs Here More Than You" (my number one!!!)
Ervin Laszlo's "Chaos Point" (my life could be described as "before and after" this book - surprised by Vivienne Westwood recommending it at a speech she gave here in Brazil)
Dino Buzzati's "The Tartar Steppe" (about waiting)
Herman Hesse's "Damien" (many people recommended 'Siddartha', but I prefer 'Damien')
Alain de Botton's "The Art of Travel" (a good light unpretentious companion for a trip)
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"I haven't resisted and created a wiki page with mostly all books listed here. I must confess I took the liberty of deliberately omitting books I've read or know about and that would not fit in my "lost gem little box".
* If anyone wants to join the wiki please write to me at cmayumi.a@gmail.com
4 hours ago: A slight twist: a terribly overlooked book that I've read a hundred times, but that everyone should--must read, at least once a year is Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. Regardless of who you are, no matter how good a writer I think I am, I reread this book. Again and again. To remind myself that I am not nearly as good a writer as I think I am.
4 hours ago: In 1971 I found a copy of The Universal Traveler (www.amazon.com/Crisp-Universal-Traveler-Don-Koberg/dp/1560526793/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) that I marked up and is dog-earred from so much use. I recently brought it out in a discussion with a speaker we had at our TEDxAmericanRiviera event. Seems that my friend had taken a class in 1970 with Don at Cal Poly while the book was being written - he didn't know that anyone had ever read it. If you are a problem solver and are looking for new ways to think about how you do your work, this is an amazing book.
5 hours ago: "Mister God, This is Anna" would have to be my overlooked gem.(Despite the title, it is not particularly concerned with religion or faith - though such matter to its characters.)
It is, perhaps, a book to read young. I stumbled across it at the age of nineteen. It has stayed with me ever since. It is a singular work.
6 hours ago: It would be really useful if somebody could compile these replies into a list that may keep me busy the rest of my life.
Notes From The Hyenas Belly by Nega Mezlekia: Memories of an Ethiopian boyhood. After I had finished reading it I missed it so much I started to read it again.
Dolores Claiborne by Steven King. I started to read one night and could not put down until finished.
The Taming of Chance by Ian Hacking; Other end of the literary spectrum about how modern mathematical thinking evolved during the 19th and 20th century.
7 hours ago: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig helped to place for me Quality and Caring (2 sides of the same coin) at the core of my life. Over the years since first reading that book when it was initially published I have occasionally noticed how what seems to be the default way I look at and interpret things turns out, on reflection, to have been rooted in my reading of, and responses to, that modern masterpiece.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
A conversation on TED.com: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?
via ted.com
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