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