Books I Own
Explore my curated collection of personal books, featuring iconic fiction by Kurt Vonnegut, Oscar Wilde, and Ayn Rand, alongside philosophical works like the Tao Te Ching and Beat poetry by Allen Ginsberg.
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Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Randâs magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thrillerânominated as one of Americaâs best-loved novels by PBSâs The Great American Read. Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy...why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction...why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph...why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill. Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Randâs most extensive statement of Objectivismâher groundbreaking philosophyâoffers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth centuryâs leading artists.
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The Fountainhead
by Ayn Rand
The revolutionary literary vision that sowed the seeds of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophy, and brought her immediate worldwide acclaim. This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Randâs provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fictionâthat manâs ego is the fountainhead of human progress... âA writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.ââThe New York Times
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Anthem
by Ayn Rand
Anthem is Ayn Randâs classic tale of a dystopian future of the great âWeââa world that deprives individuals of a name or independenceâthat anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was oneâthe great WE. In all that was left of humanity there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy wordâI. âI worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.ââAyn Rand
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides âą Nominated as one of Americaâs best-loved novels by PBSâs The Great American Read Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wildeâs story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the authorâs most popular work. The tale of Dorian Grayâs moral disintegration caused a scandal when it ïŹrst appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novelâs corrupting inïŹuence, he responded that there is, in fact, âa terrible moral in Dorian Gray.â Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wildeâs homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Grayâs relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, âBasil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to beâin other ages, perhaps.â
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Howl, and Other Poems
by Allen Ginsberg
This collection of poems by Ginsberg created a sensation when it was first published in 1956, becoming the subject of an obscenity trial and changing the literary landscape forever.
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Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach
More concerned with the dynamics of his flight than with gathering food, Jonathan is scorned by the other seagulls.
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Illusions
by Richard Bach
In the cloud-washed airspace between the cornfields of Illinois and blue infinity, a man puts his faith in the propeller of his biplane. For disillusioned writer and itinerant barnstormer Richard Bach, belief is as real as a full tank of gas and sparks firing in the cylinders . . . until he meets Donald Shimodaâformer mechanic and self-described messiah who can make wrenches fly and Richard's imagination soar. . . . In Illusions, the unforgettable follow-up to his phenomenal bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach takes to the air to discover the ageless truths that give our souls wings: that people don't need airplanes to soar . . . that even the darkest clouds have meaning once we lift ourselves above them . . . and that messiahs can be found in the unlikeliest placesâlike hay fields, one-traffic-light midwestern towns, and most of all, deep within ourselves.
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Running from Safety
by Richard Bach
A half-mile up, suspended by nylon wings and the promise of good lift, life hanges on a pledge. Richard Bach made that pledge, fifty years before, to return to the frightened child he used to be and teach him everything he had learned from living. His promise went unfulfilled until one day, hovering between earth and sky, Richard encounters Dickie Bach, age nine--irrepressible challenger of every notion Richard embraces.... In this exhilarating adventure, Richard and Dickie probe the timeless questions both need answered if either is to be whole: Why does growing spiritually mean never growing up? Can we peacefully coexist with the consequences of our choices? Why is it that only by running from safety can we make our wildest dreams take flight?
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éćŸ·ç»
by Lao Tsu
For nearly two generations, Gia-fu Feng and Jane English's translation of theTao Te Chinghas been the standard for those seeking access to the wisdom of Taoist thought. Now Jane English and her long-time editor, Toinette Lippe, have revised and refreshed the translation so that it more faithfully reflects the Classical Chinese in which it was first written, taking into account changes in our own language and eliminating any lingering infelicities. They have retained the simple clarity of the original rendering of a sometimes seemingly obtuse spiritual text, a clarity that has made this version a classic in itself, selling over a million copies. Written most probably in the sixth century B.C. by Lao Tsu, this esoteric but infintely practical book has been translated into English more frequently than any other work except the Bible. Gia-fu Feng and Jane English's superb translationâthe most accessible and authoritative modern English translationâoffers the essence of each word and makes Lao Tsu's teaching immediate and alive. This edition includes an introduction and notes by the well-known writer and scholar of philosophy and comparative religion, Jacob Needleman.
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Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut
âA funny, savage appraisal of a totally automated American society of the future.ââSan Francisco Chronicle Kurt Vonnegutâs first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paulâs rebellion is vintage Vonnegutâwildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. Praise for Player Piano âAn exuberant, crackling style . . . Vonnegut is a black humorist, fantasist and satirist, a man disposed to deep and comic reflection on the human dilemma.ââLife âHis black logic . . . gives us something to laugh about and much to fear.ââThe New York Times Book Review
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Geography Of Nowhere
by James Howard Kunstler
Argues that much of what surrounds Americans is depressing, ugly, and unhealthy; and traces America's evolution from a land of village commons to a man-made landscape that ignores nature and human needs.
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The Economy of Cities
by Jane Jacobs
In this book, Jane Jacobs, building on the work of her debut, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, investigates the delicate way cities balance the interplay between the domestic production of goods and the ever-changing tide of imports. Using case studies of developing cities in the ancient, pre-agricultural world, and contemporary cities on the decline, like the financially irresponsible New York City of the mid-sixties, Jacobs identifies the main drivers of urban prosperity and growth, often via counterintuitive and revelatory lessons.
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On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouacâs classic American novel of freedom and the search for originality that defined a generation âAn authentic work of art.ââThe New York Times Inspired by Jack Kerouacâs adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naĂŻvetĂ© and wild abandon and imbued with Kerouacâs love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hopeâa book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.
