If I was going into solitary confinement, these are the books I'd take with me.
Fiction
- The Shepherd - Frederick Forsyth The book is great, but hearing Alan "Fireside Al" Maitland read it on CBC's As It Happens every December is the best way to experience this great story.
- A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving Granite and faith back-drop the fictional character I'd most like to meet. Religion, friendship and fate without the heaviness of deep questions. I've never been happier and sadder at the same time.
- La Peste - Albert Camus Best read in French. Religion and faith in the face of death.
- Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien Good, evil and jewelry.
- Fail Safe - Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler A fantastic story about international politics and technology in the nuclear age.
- Adventure in Space with Rip Foster - Blake Savage The Federation is at uneasy peace with the Consolidation ("Connies" for short) when an asteroid of pure uranium is discovered... It somehow manages to pull the patriotic strings every time I reread it.
- Son of Interflux - Gordon Korman What do you do when the multi-national corporation that's destroying the woods behind your arts school is run by your dad?
Non-Fiction
- Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin Walk a mile in someone else's skin.
- Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin Thorough, easy to read, persuasive and important.
- Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors - Carl Sagan The part of the natural selection argument that Darwin avoided mentioning: where humans come from.
- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Witches, superstition and science.
- On Equilibrium - John Ralston Saul An argument in favour of balance.
- Gödel, Escher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas Hofstadter If you like puzzles, computers, or thinking, this book is for you.
- A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons - Robert M. Sapolsky Perhaps it's the 'foreigner in Kenya' bit, but this book speaks to me. The Mowat-like stories in it would be described as "foibles" in a review, but the frustrations that life inflicts on passionate people and how they cope is a better description.
- A Short History of Progress - Ronald Wright In the past, civilizations have destroyed their environments and despite realizing the problem, haven't been able to refrain from continuing the destruction. We probably won't either.
- African Laughter - Doris Lessing Journals of four visits tracking Zimbabwe's post-independence period. Watching Lessing and the people she talks with wrestle through the difficulties of a country that has just thrown off colonial rule. The struggle and hope are heavily tinted by the irony that the reader is aware of Zimbabwe's current troubles, while Lessing, writing before they occurred, is not.
The New Testament (I read the New International Version) is worth your time for the history, the philosophy, the narrative form, the sayings and lots more. Some is fiction, some is non-fiction, but both are worth reading.
Recommended Books
By title, by author's last name or by recommender
| Book Title | Author First | Author Last | Recommended By |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian Directory to Foundations and Grants | Yaacov | ||
| Canadians Living and Working Overseas | Hana | ||
| the D- poems of jeremy bloom | |||
| Sunset Song | |||
| Gone with the wind | |||
| The Fishing-boat Picture | |||
| Lord Derek Sagan | |||
| el manatial | |||
| Dalai Lama Little Book of Inner Peace | |||
| Travels in Nilon | |||
| Children's cookbook | stardrifter | ||
| Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds | Donald | Akenson | Matthew Griffin |
| Pride and Prejiduce | Jane | Austen | SLS |
| Men of Mathematics | E. T. | Bell | Stephen Forrest |
| The Arcades Project (Die Passagen-Werk) | Walter | Benjamin | matthew griffin |
| Klondike | Pierre | Berton | Brian Mulroney |
| Dandelion Wine | Ray | Bradbury | Polly Edwards |
| The Process of Education | Jerome | Bruner | |
| Beatrice Chancy | George Elliot | Clarke | Jesse Helmer |
| The Polished Hoe | Austin | Clarke | my mom |
| The Alchemist | Paulo | Coelho | Miranda Persaud |
| Miss Rumphius | Barbara | Cooney | Sammy* |
| un dimanche à la piscine à kigali | gil | courtemanche | matthew griffin |
| Shop Class as Soulcraft | Matthew B. | Crawford | Janna Rosales |
| Birds Without Wings | Louis | De Bernieres | Paul Doherty |
| The Little Prince | Antoine | de Saint-Exupéry | Derek |
| Herzog | Dellow | ||
| The Third Chimpanzee | Jared | Diamond | Jeremy WOld |
| City of God | e.l. | doctorow | matthew griffin |
| The Critical Villager: Beyond Community Participation | Eric | Dudley | Erin Antcliffe |
| the kissing man | george | elliot | |
| The Natural Alien | Neil | Evernden | Derrick Jensen |
| First Nations, Second Thoughts | Tom | Flanagan | Ryan O'Connor |
| The Sicilian Mafia | Diego | Gambetta | Christine Cheng |
| The Interpretation of Culture | Clifford | Geertz | Christina Campisi |
| Progress and Poverty | Henry | George | The Oil Drum |
| Progress and Poverty | Henry | George | Thomas Homer-Dixon |
| All Marketers Are Liars | Seth | Godin | Stephen Chris |
| Sports Slump Busting | Alan | Goldberg | Greg Cooke |
| SISTERS OF THE WILDERNESS | CHARLOTTE | GREY | GAIL MANNING |
| How Doctors Think | Jerome | Groopman | Don Norman |
| The Kid | Gutman | ||
| Tigana | Kay | Guy Gavriel | |
| A Spot of Bother | Mark | Haddon | Juanita |
| Blood in the Sky | Steve | Hamilton | Robert Munch via Gah-Ning Tang |
| Natural Capitalism | Paul, Hunter, Amory | Hawken, Lovins, Lovins | Paul Schreiber |
| The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel | Hawthorne | Kim Mackhan |
| For Whom the Bell Tolls | Ernest | Hemingway | Derek |
| The Dune series | Frank | Herbert | Andrew Hibberty |
| The Kite Runner | Khlaed | Hoesinni | Natasia Spencer |
| Nonviolence in Theory and Practice | Robert L. | Holmes, Ed. | Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff |
| Their Eyes Were Watching God | Zora Neale | Hurston | Natasia Spencer |
| Everything by | Jane | Jacobs | Janna Rosales |
| Shooting in the Dark | Thompson | John | Greg Cooke |
| The Colony of Unrequited Dreams | Wayne | Johnston | Juanita |
| The Custodian of Paradise | Wayne | Johnston | Juanita |
| The Chosen | Jerome | Karabel | Yaacov |
| Girl, Interrupted | Susanna | Kaysen | Sammy* |
| On the Road | Jack | Kerouac | |
| Confessions of a Shopaholic | Sophie | Kinsella | Bobbi Lynn Kydd |
| The Need For Crisis: Exploring Environmental Policy and Canada and Germany | Jared | Kolb | Jason Shim |
| Islan Series | Gordon | Korman | Ashley |
| Island Book: Three | Gordon | Korman | Mary |
| Crow Lake | Mary | Lawson | Val Lawton |
| Small Island | Andrea | Levy | Val Lawton |
| The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror | Bernard | Lewis | Bud Wildman |
| What Went Wrong? | Bernard | Lewis | Bud Wildman |
| Fall On Your Knees | Ann Marie | MacDonald | Yaacov |
| The Way the Crow Flies | Ann Marie | MacDonald | Bud Wildman |
| The Prince | Machiavelli | Miranda Persaud | |
| Peacekeeper: the Road to Sarajevo | Lewis | MacKenzie | Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff |
| No Great Mischief | Alistair | MacLeod | Bud Wildman |
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | Gabriel Garcia | Marquez | Sonal |
| Life of Pi | Yann | Martel | Juanita |
| On Caring | Milton | Mayeroff | Jesse Helmer |
| Morality for Beautiful Girls (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency) | Alexander | McCall Smith | Kim Freeman |
| The Innocent | Ian | McEwen | Margaret |
| Atonement | Ian | McEwen | |
| Black Dogs | Ian | McEwen | James Grace |
| The End of Ignorance | John | Mighton | Richard Hoshino |
| Tropic of Cancer | Henry | Miller | Stephen Forrest |
| Cloud Atlas | David | Mitchell | Juanita |
| Pentagon of Power: The Myth of the Machine | Lewis | Mumford | Derrick Jensen |
| Suite Francaise | Irene | Nemirovsky | Val Lawton |
| The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit | David F. | Noble | Sam Kritikos |
| Famished Road | Ben | Okri | sid (mt19823@hotmail.com) |
| Cry, The Beloved Country | Alan | Paton | Nadia Kucherepa |
| The Hacker Ethic | Himanen | Pekke | Tere Vadén |
| More than a Game | Jackson | Phil | Greg Cooke |
| The Raven | Edgar Allan | Poe | Swansea |
| The Virtue of Selfishness | Ayn | Rand | Jesse Helmer |
| Fountainhead, The | Ayn | Rand | Colin Dellow |
| The Fountainhead | Ayn | Rand | |
| the Art of kissing | Mordechai | Richler | |
| A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in an Age of Genocide | David | Rieff | Yaacov |
| Another Roadside Attraction | Tom | Robbins | |
| A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality | Jean-Jaques | Rousseau | Ryan O'Connor |
| Social Contract | Jean Jaques | Rousseau | |
| The Human Factor | Rubinstein and Hersh | Yaacov | |
| The Rainbow | Ann | Ryan | |
| Anything by | Ken | Sarawiwa | Rosanne Iland |
| Seeing Like a State | James | Scott | Christina Campisi |
| fishing boat picture | alan | silitoe | |
| SATURDAY NIGHT SUNDAY MORNING | ALAN | SILLITOE | |
| Practical Ethics | Peter | Singer | Yaacov |
| Academic Capitalism | Sheila and Larry L. | Slaughter and Leslie | Yaacov |
| CULTURE OF DEATH | WESLEY | SMITH | RUBY |
| East of Eden | John | Steinbeck | lost in a database error |
| The Grapes of Wrath | John | Steinbeck | brenda beatty |
| The Visual Display of Quantitative Information | Edward R. | Tufte | Ryan Chen-Wing |
| No Place to Learn: Why Universities Aren't Working | Allan | Tupper | Yaacov |
| Venture to the Interior | Laurens | van der Post | Poppy Trowbridge |
| Cat's Cradle | Kurt | Vonnegut | |
| Trainspotting | Irvine | Welsh | |
| Learning to Labor | Paul E. | Willis | danah boyd |
| A PLACE TO CALL HOME | GABRIALLE | WILLS | GAIL MANNING |
| The Future of Life | Edward | Wilson | Tom Robinson |
| Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now | Jan | Wong | Gah-Ning Tang |
| Jan Wong's China | Jan | Wong | Gah-Ning Tang |
| Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity: Lessons from Cuba | Julia | Wright |
Books I've Read
By title or by author's last name
| Book Title | Author First | Author Last | Recommended By |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | George | Orwell | |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey | Arthur C. | Clarke | |
| A Beautiful Mind | Sylvia | Nasar | |
| A Canticle for Leibowitz | Walter M. | Miller Jr. | David Simpson |
| A Clockwork Orange | Anthony | Burgess | |
| A Prayer for Owen Meany | John | Irving | Matthew Griffin |
| A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons | Robert M. | Sapolsky | Joel Kamnitzer |
| A Short History of Nearly Everything | Bill | Bryson | Mark Daalderop |
| A Short History of Progress | Ronald | Wright | My Mom |
| A Stranger In A Strange Land | Robert | Heinlein | Matthew Agnew |
| A Whale For The Killing | Farley | Mowat | |
| Adventure in Space with Rip Foster | Blake | Savage | |
| African Laughter | Doris | Lessing | |
| Against All Enemies | Richard | Clarke | |
| All Quiet On The Western Front | Erich Maria | Remarque | |
| All The President's Men | Carl and Bob | Bernstein and Woodward | |
| Amsterdam | Ian | McEwan | |
| Animal Farm | George | Orwell | |
| Anthem | Ayn | Rand | |
| Apologia | Plato | PSCI 225 | |
| Being Digital | John | Negroponte | |
| Beware the Fish! | Gordon | Korman | |
| Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium | Carl | Sagan | |
| Birds of a Feather | Fotheringham | Allan | |
| Black Like Me | John Howard | Griffin | |
| Blockbuster | Stephen | Barclay | |
| Brave New World | Aldous | Huxley | |
| Bugs Potter Live at Nikaninny | Gordon | Korman | |
| Candide | Voltaire | ||
| Captain Corelli's Mandolin | Louis | de Bernieres | |
| Caribbean | James A. | Michener | |
| Cat's Eye | Margaret | Atwood | |
| Catch-22 | Joseph | Heller | |
| Che | John Lee | Anderson | Emily |
| Chutzpah | Alan | Dershowitz | |
| Contact | Carl | Sagan | Ben Carr |
| Cyrano de Bergerac | Edmond | Rostand | |
| Deception Point | Dan | Brown | Yvette Nanasi |
| Don't Care High | Gordon | Korman | |
| Enchanter | Sara | Douglass | Klara Michal |
| Ender's Game | Orson Scott | Card | Janna Rosales |
| Even Cowgirls Get The Blues | Tom | Robbins | |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Ray | Bradbury | |
| Fail Safe | Eugene and Harvey | Burdick and Wheeler | |
| Feet of Clay | Terry | Pratchett | |
| Fifth Business | Robertson | Davies | Ivor |
| Flatland | Edwin | Abbott | Ben Carr |
| Flowers For Algernon | Daniel | Keyes | Joel Kamnitzer |
| Friends In High Places | Claire | Hoy | |
| Future Tense: the Coming World Order? | Gwynne | Dyer | |
| Getting To Maybe | Frances, Brenda and Michael Quinn | Westley, Zimmerman and Patton | |
| Go Jump in the Pool | Gordon | Korman | |
| Godel, Escher, and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid | Douglas | Hofstadter | M. Rejean Pepin |
| Good Benito | Alan | Lightman | merrily |
| Good Omens | Pratchett & Gaiman | Derek | |
| Good to Great | Jim | Collins | Stephen Chris |
| Government Policy toward Open Source Software | Robert W. | Hahn, Ed. | |
| Greenpeace III | David | McTaggart | PACS 398 |
| Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan | Swift | |
| Guns, Germs & Steel | Jared | Diamond | Peter Jackson, Mark Carr, Ivor Tossell, Brian Gardner |
| Hamlet | William | Shakespeare | OAC English Class |
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | J. K. (Joanne) | Rowling | Steph Boettger |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Jill K. | Rowlings | Ivor Tossell |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Joanne K. | Rowling | Steff Wong |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | J. K. (Joanne) | Rowling | Steph Boettger |
| Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | J. K. (Joanne) | Rowling | |
| Heat | George | Monbiot | |
| I Want To Go Home! | Gordon | Korman | |
| Interesting Times | Terry | Pratchett | |
| Island of the Sequined Love Nun | Christopher | Moore | Alison De Muy |
| Jingo | Terry | Pratchett | |
| Journey Through Genius | John | Dunham | Mark Evans |
| L'etranger | Albert | Camus | |
| L'identite | Milan | Kundera | Joel Kamnitzer |
| La guerre, Yes Sir! | Roche | Carrier | |
| La peste | Albert | Camus | |
| Lamb : The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal | Christopher | Moore | Jon Markiewicz |
| Leinengen versus the Ants | |||
| Lolita | Vladimir | Nabokov | lost in a database error |
| Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson | Mandela | |
| Lord Of The Flies | William | Golding | |
| Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. | Tolkien | |
| Lords and Ladies | Terry | Pratchett | |
| Macbeth | William | Shakespeare | Grade 12 English Class |
| Making Waves : The Origin and Future of Greenpeace | Jim | Bohlen | PACS 398 |
| Maria Chapdelaine | Louis | Hemon | |
| Microserfs | Douglas | Coupland | |
| Mila 18 | Leon | Uris | |
| Mostly Harmless | Douglas | Adams | |
| Never Cry Wolf | Farley | Mowat | |
| No Coins Please | Gordon | Korman | |
| No Comebacks | Frederick | Forsyth | |
| Notes from a Small Island | Bill | Bryson | Margaret McCarthy |
| On Equilibrium | John Ralston | Saul | Liam McHugh-Russell |
| Open Sources | Chris,Sam and Mark | Dibona, Ockman and Stone | Joseph Potvin |
| Origin of the Species | Charles | Darwin | |
| Paladin of Souls | Lois | McMaster Bujold | Katia Bassenko |
| Paradigms Lost | John | Casti | |
| Paradigms Regained | John | Casti | |
| Players and Issues in International Aid | Paula | Hoy | PSCI 350A, Tanya Korovkin |
| Rebel Code | Glyn | Moody | |
| Red Rabbit | Tom | Clancy | |
| Ringworld | Larry | Niven | |
| Romeo And Juliet | William | Shakespeare | Grade 11 English Class |
| Sacred Hoops | Phil | Jackson | |
| Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors | Carl | Sagan | |
| Shake Hands With The Devil | Romeo | Dallaire | |
| Slapshots 1 - The Stars From Mars | Gordon | Korman | Janna Rosales |
| Small Gods | Terry | Pratchett | |
| Son of Interflux | Gordon | Korman | |
| Sophie's World | Jostein | Gaarder | Shannon Maguire |
| Soul Music | Terry | Pratchett | |
| Starman | Sara | Douglass | Klara Michal |
| Stuffed and Starved | Raj | Patel | |
| Stupied White Men | Michael | Moore | |
| The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn | Mark | Twain | |
| The Air Farce Book | Roger, Don, John & Dave | Abbott, Ferguson, Morgan & Broadfoot | |
| The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz | Mordecai | Richler | |
| The Beach | Alex | Garland | Tamara Zur |
| The Best Man for the Job | Harvey | Sims | |
| The Black Power Revolt | Floyd B. | Barbour, Ed. | |
| The Blind Watchmaker | Richard | Dawkins | |
| The Cambridge Quintet | John | Casti | |
| The Catcher In The Rye | J. D. | Salinger | |
| The Chrysalids | John | Wyndham | |
| The Colour of Magic | Terry | Pratchett | |
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Mark | Haddon | Tamara Zur |
| The Da Vinci Code | Dan | Brown | Tamara Zur |
| The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark | Carl | Sagan | Lionel DeFreitas |
| The Dogs of War | Frederick | Forsyth | |
| The English Patient | Micheal | Ondaatje | My mom |
| The Fourth Protocol | Frederick | Forsyth | |
| The Golden Compass | Philip | Pullman | |
| The Greenpeace Book of the Nuclear Age | John | May | PACS 398 |
| The Hallowed Hunt | Lois | McMaster Bujold | Katia Bassenko |
| The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret | Atwood | |
| The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas | Adams | Ben Carr |
| The Holy Bible | Ezra Staples | ||
| The Jackal | Frederick | Forsyth | |
| The Legacy of Luna | Julia Butterfly | Hill | |
| The Lexus and the Olive Tree | Thomas L. | Friedman | |
| The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner | Alan | Silitoe | |
| The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul | Douglas | Adams | |
| The Long Emergency | James Howard | Kunstler | Barb Schwab |
| The Man Eaters of Tsavo | Col. James H. | Patterson | Ivor Tossell |
| The Merchant of Venice | William | Shakespeare | Grade 10 English Class |
| The Monstruous Regiment | Terry | Pratchett | |
| The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals | Michael | Pollan | Mark Daalderop |
| The Pearl | John | Steinbeck | |
| The Polite Revolution | John | Ibbitson | Poppy Trowbridge |
| The Prophet | Kahlil | Gibran | Miranda Persaud |
| The Republic | Plato | Craig Sloss | |
| The Shepherd | Frederick | Forsyth | |
| The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations | Ori and Rod | Brafman and Beckstrom | Neve Peric |
| The Summer Tree | Guy Gavriel | Kay | Josh Vanwyck |
| The Taming of the Shrew | William | Shakespeare | Grade 8 English Class |
| The Tao of Pooh | Benjamin | Hoff | |
| The Time Machine | H. G. | Wells | Ivor Tossell |
| The Tipping Point | Malcolm | Gladwell | Stephen Chris |
| The Unconscious Civilization | John Ralston | Saul | |
| The Upside Of Down | Thomas | Homer-Dixon | |
| The Voice of the Poor | John Kenneth | Galbraith | |
| The War with Mr. Wizzle | Gordon | Korman | |
| The Wayfarer Redemption | Sara | Douglass | Klara Michal |
| The World According to Garp | John | Irving | Kim Freeman |
| The World is Our Backyard | Samantha | Nutt | Janna Rosales |
| Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness | Tony | Kushner | Rosanne Iland |
| This Can't be Happening at MacDonald Hall | Gordon | Korman | |
| Three Day Road | Joseph | Boyden | Josh Vanwyck |
| To Kill A Mockingbird | Harper | Lee | |
| Tuesdays with Morrie | Mitch | Albom | Kim Freeman |
| Utopia | Sir Thomas | More | |
| Visions of Excellence: the Art of Achieving Your Dreams | Mark | Tewksbury | |
| Who is Bugs Potter? | Gordon | Korman | |
| Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | Robert M. | Pirsig | |
| Zuchini Warriors | Gordon | Korman |
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