Big Intellectual Books You Own and Would Really Like to Have Read

[Allegra]

I will give a try in the near future. Thanks.

 

[HanaBi]

"The Day the Universe Changed" -by James Burke

The Day the Universe Changed

Based on the 80s TV science program of the same name, although personally I preferred the book, perhaps because it wasn't quite so watered-down for the <understandable> benefit of populist TV.

 

[Extollager]

That looks fantastic and I think any other poster on this thread will have to go some way to beat it for size and apparent impenetrability. Though the blurb actually makes it look pretty interesting...

My top pick might be:
Brian Greene's Fabric of the Cosmos, which I've partially read, and loved, but I got a nosebleed about a third the way through. Someday I will concentrate very hard and finish it.

An Anatomy of Melancholy admirer...

Michael Dirda Offers Fresh Look At Some Unconventional Classics

 

[dask]

An Anatomy of Melancholy admirer...

Michael Dirda Offers Fresh Look At Some Unconventional Classics

Good book, highly recommended. The Dirda that is.

 

[Extollager]

Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France could be mentioned, except it isn't all that big.... about 400 in Penguin Classics.

 

[Extollager]

I've had From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life from 1500 to the Present
sitting on my shelf unread for more than 10 years. I've taken a peck at it now and then, but it's never engaged enough to sustain my interest. I can't bring myself to give it away because I still feel I ought to read it.

I saw a hardcover copy of this for $10 a few days ago and pounced on it. Looking forward to starting it! Thank you for mentioning it.

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

I have several books that are basically math that I intend to hope to get to, especially the ones with application to IT. But they do seem so much like work. Somehow I doubt that is what OP had in mind.

Have to agree with several posters about Gibbon and also The City of God. Gibbon I've started and put down and probably will finish sometime. I'll certainly get around to checking out Augustine's COG. Whether I make any attempt to finish it depends. I've read that it has worthwhile commentary about the politics of the time. If that is true and it isn't too diluted by theology (which interests me not a whit), I might finish it.

There are some I intend to re-read if that counts. "Human Action" by Mises. I've read it twice but it is dense enough to repay reading a third time and there is an annotated edition I haven't read. Rothbard's "The History of Economic Thought" in 2 volumes. I've read them once but will again.

I began reading my old style (about 26 volumes or thereabout) Encyclopedia Brittanica, skipping the articles that didn't interest me. But that still means I read at least a bit of almost all the articles and all of maybe half. I've just about finished the A volume. So I am now an expert on all subjects beginning with "A" - you might say an a-ness expert, not to be confused with an anus expert.

 

[Extollager]

Lew Rockwell Fan, would that be the 1989 edition?

I think your project is cool! Also it reminds me of "The Red-Headed League."

Note volumes in background.

 

[HanaBi]

The Bible (King James Version, 2010)

Not sure if one would class this as "intellectual" but it is certainly thought provoking. But since I take a very neutral stance towards religion in general, I have yet to complete more than a 3rd of the leather bound book.

 

[Paul_C]

I've had a copy of The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music by John A. Sloboda since 2006 and not yet made a start on it.

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

Lew Rockwell Fan, would that be the 1989 edition?

I think your project is cool! Also it reminds me of "The Red-Headed League."

Note volumes in background.

Of the Britanica? 1970.
Or the Mises? That's 1998. Based on the 1949 edition. The 63 edition is said to be full of mistakes. The 66 edition was supposed to be a corrected 63. But folks at the Ludwig von Mises Institute found that there were still significant omissions common to the 63 and 66. The 66 is probably what I've read before. I'm assuming the annotations of the 98 include anything that was ADDED to the 66. Here are links:
Description:
The Scholars Edition
$20 usd hardback (such a deal!):
Human Action, The Scholar's Edition
Free pdf facs:
https://mises.org/sites/default/files/Human Action_3.pdf

I remember that story. I didn't know it was a movie. I'm rather fond of Doyle. If you want to read a comical tribute set in the Old West, check out Holmes on the Range. Hysterically funny.

 

[Extollager]

LRF, the "Red-Headed League" image is from the television adaptations featuring Jeremy Brett as Holmes that began in the 1980s.

Thanks for responding to my unclear question--I meant the Britannica.

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

LRF, the "Red-Headed League" image is from the television adaptations featuring Jeremy Brett as Holmes that began in the 1980s.

Thanks for responding to my unclear question--I meant the Britannica.

You are most welcome. I'm wondering why you asked about '89 sepecifically. What I meant by "old style" is that they used to be one set starting with A going through Z plus an atlas, which made somewhere between 20 and 30 volumes. Later, they broke it up into 3 layers, one volume that was a 1 volume encyclopedia, maybe half a dozen that were some sort of condensed version but not as condensed as the 1 volume, and the remainder was supposed to be like the old style. But the remainder was considerably smaller than the last before they changed the format. The total of all 3 layers (my word, I forget what they called it) was a little bigger. But the ads made it sound to me like there was a lot of redundancy. I haven't seen a new one in a long time and I don't know if they still do that or even if they still have a print edition.

 

[Extollager]

I asked about the 1989 Britiannica because that's what I happen to have--saved as discards from the university library.

 

[Harpo]

Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel I bought paperback edition in the bargain section , I've skimmed it can't seem to get into it.

Just read the beginning of Book 2, maybe out loud

 

[WarriorMouse]

Hyperion, Dan Simmons.
Was give that as a gift. I have tried many times to read it but just can't get passed the first few pages.

 

[Bick]

Hyperion, Dan Simmons.
Was give that as a gift. I have tried many times to read it but just can't get passed the first few pages.

It’s not a big intellectual book though is it?

 

[Venusian Broon]

It’s not a big intellectual book though is it?

I quite liked it...but your point is fair

 

[Stewart Hotston]

My two volumes of Proust. Just never found the enthusiasm for them

 

[CTRandall]

Guattari and Deleuze A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Ya can't beat their conclusion that "God is a lobster." And yes, it is a (semi)serious work of philosophy. They do like to have fun, though. I've made it through several sections but never the whole thing. Now this thread has given me an itch that only poststructuralism can scratch.