Books I read in 1991
Explore the books I read in 1991, a curated reading list featuring sci-fi classics like Dragon's Egg, literary masterpieces such as Les Misérables, and philosophical works by Ayn Rand.
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The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
In 1327, finding his sensitive mission at an Italian abbey further complicated by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William of Baskerville turns detective.
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A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
Set in New Orleans, the protagonist is nearly arrested for being a suspicious character and encounters many unfortunate events.
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Peter Camenzind
by Hermann Hesse
After a young writer leaves his Swiss mountain village to experience the world, his illusions are crushed by the suffering he witnesses, until a friendship with an invalid restores his hope.
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The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick: The short happy life of the Brown Oxford
by Philip K. Dick
No summary available.
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The Golem
by Gustav Meyrink
"A favorite of connoisseurs of works of fantasy for many decades." ? St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A compelling story of mystical experiences, strange transformations, and profound terror, this is the most famous supernatural novel in modern European literature, set in Ghetto of Old Prague around 1890. 13 black-and-white illustrations. "Not to be missed." ? Los Angeles Times.
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Lord Valentine's Castle
by Robert Silverberg
Traveling the planet Majipoor with a group of eccentric performers, young Prince Valentine longs to discover who Valentine really is and prepares to lay claim to the rewards of birth that await him. Reprint. NYT.
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Dragon's Egg
by Robert L. Forward
“In science fiction there is only a handful of books that stretch the mind—and this is one of them.”—Arthur C. Clarke In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms—the cheela—living on Dragon’s Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers. Praise for Dragon’s Egg “Bob Forward writes in the tradition of Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity and carries it a giant step (how else?) forward.”—Isaac Asimov “Dragon’s Egg is superb. I couldn’t have written it; it required too much real physics.”—Larry Niven “This is one for the real science-fiction fan.”—Frank Herbert “Robert L. Forward tells a good story and asks a profound question. If we run into a race of creatures who live a hundred years while we live an hour, what can they say to us or we to them?”—Freeman J. Dyson “Forward has impeccable scientific credentials, and . . . big, original, speculative ideas.”—The Washington Post
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The Virtue of Selfishness
by Ayn Rand
A collection of essays that sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's controversial, groundbreaking philosophy. Since their initial publication, Rand's fictional works—Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged—have had a major impact on the intellectual scene. The underlying theme of her famous novels is her philosophy, a new morality—the ethics of rational self-interest—that offers a robust challenge to altruist-collectivist thought. Known as Objectivism, her divisive philosophy holds human life—the life proper to a rational being—as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with man's nature. In this series of essays, Rand asks why man needs morality in the first place, and arrives at an answer that redefines a new code of ethics based on the virtue of selfishness. More Than 1 Million Copies Sold!
