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Deep thinking novels

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It's Snake Pliskin

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What are some good deep thinking novels that explore issues such as paradox, morality and stuff like that?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
 
It's Snake Pliskin said:
What are some good deep thinking novels that explore issues such as paradox, morality and stuff like that?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is a good read. Mostly just a bloody good story, but has a deep philosophic element to it as well.
 
It's Snake Pliskin said:
What are some good deep thinking novels that explore issues such as paradox, morality and stuff like that?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Paradox and Morality?

Try "Watchmen" the only graphic novel to ever make the "100 books you should read before you die" list.

Don't see the movie...go get the graphic novel. Seriously.

Sir O
 
Hi Snake,

I just finished a book called "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid.

It was short listed for the Booker Prize award. A bit of an eye opener if you read between the lines.

Also - try the Kite Runner. A bit mainstream but def a good read.

Cheers
 
Les Misérables, Crime and Punishment.. or looking for something more obscure?

I thought Shantaram was a great story of redemption, currently being turned into a movie.
 
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant...if you are into 'fantasy' universes ..took me some time to acclimatise to it but brilliant! Very much on the topics you list.

by Stephen Donaldson
 
The World Without Us - Alan Weisman

Explores what might happen to the world and nature if humans suddenly disappeared. Really makes you think about a range of things (climate change, polution, etc).
 
I thought Shantaram was good but got a bit "fantastic" at the end... Crime and Punishment suggested earlier is a definately a good one for morality. another great read amnd worth keeping on the bookshelf for many, many re-reads is Musashi - the story of one of the last true Samurai (15th century I think) in Japan, great read and some wonderful moral lessons handed out...

On a different stream though, not a novel but a bit more self helpish, a funny book by a pom aussie about life's lessons is "observations of a very short man" by Nigel Marsh - the lessons of a 40 something dad, a good quick read, his 2nd book after "Fat, Forty and Fired"...
 
brettc4 said:
'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' by Robert Pirsig.
Click to expand...

Agree totally, a brilliant deep book which I re read constantly,

but for a lifetime's contemplation "Finnegans Wake " by Jim Joyce is the book to inherit as a 13 yo and take to the grave.

gg
 
Not a novel but a great read...
Sun Tzu on the Art of War

You will see many politicians have read it!
 
For deep thinking you can't go past Kafka. Start with Metamorphosis. Then you can try The Trial, or even The Castle.

His writtings are highly metaphorical and will make you question a think or two about the world.
 
brettc4 said:
'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' by Robert Pirsig.
Click to expand...

sits next to my bed and gets read all the time

whats weird is that i just started to re read it..


for some great focus help look at

"the power of now"..
 
Gulag Archipelago by A. Solzhenitsen

Not a novel, but incredibly powerful. Philosophical, profound, shocking and a true account all at the same time.

Relates the horrors of the Soviet prison system, but also the methods of interrogation and torture, the universal personality types among humans and where they each fitted into the system and how they coped and where they ended up.
 
Of Mice & Men - John Steinbeck

Most have probably read it...some good life lessons about friendship, loneliness, set in the great depression :, dreams etc...Also about establishing yourself in the world...

Just a fantastic read (albeit quite short) but very moving
 
RobinHood said:
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged.
Click to expand...

Exactly...I read in the newspaper how Atlas Shrugged is doing well this year because of the downtern and it said every time times are tough in the USA both books do well.

In short Atlas Shrugged is the greatest book every written...it is more important than the bible.
 
I like the suggested Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, and Kafka's work. Mandela's Long walk to freedom is a must read as well imho.
 
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