# Straight Dope Bookshelf
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 25, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769 "2009-03-25T18:13:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/1 "2009-03-25T18:13:57Z")
(I tried this over the Giraffe Board with no success)
The objective is simple, let’s create a “SDMB Bookshelf” with the best of [“Project Gutenberg”](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page)
You can choose any book you want, it doesn’t matter if it’s a classic or an obscure title with only this conditions.
1. You’ve read the book.
2. You provide a short review or simply the reasons why you loved it and the reasons why you think other people might be interested in it.
3. You provide the link.
I’ll go first.
[“History of the decline and fall of the roman empire”](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#earlier) by Edward Gibbon:
This book has it all. It’s a history book that can be read as an historical novel; it’s fast paced as and adventure book and it’s a book that you can open almost everywhere and find a memorable quote.
[“The Prisioner of Zelda”](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/95/95-h/95-h.htm) by Anthony Hope:
I always recomend this book to those that claim that books are boring. Simply put, it’s one of the best adventures stories you can read. I don’t want to give the plot away but the book has it all; a great villain; romance, etc.
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### Author:  [@ShotgunZen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShotgunZen)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/2 "2009-03-27T20:45:54Z")
The prisoner of zelda is (so far) a great book, but I didn’t see anything I recognized on the list. Admittedly I didn’t check everything. I’m just hoping for some more good recommendations.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/3 "2009-03-27T21:15:17Z")
Do I really have to provide a justification for the complete works of Shakespeare?
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### Author:  [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/4 "2009-03-27T23:14:25Z")
> [@Estilicon](#):
>
> [“The Prisioner of Zelda”](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/95/95-h/95-h.htm) by Anthony Hope:
Is that the one about the guy who just can’t pull himself away from his Nintendo?
---
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/5 "2009-03-27T23:33:47Z")
_[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1661)_
Put it on my Kindle just 'cause it was free, and was delighted to discover that they actually stand up pretty well, and make a nice change of pace when you just want a quick short story.
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### Author:  [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/6 "2009-03-28T00:01:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Do I really have to provide a justification for the complete works of Shakespeare?
Yes you have… also you do have to provide a link 🙂
I am not an anglosaxon. The “greatest writer ever” is the the “one handded man of Lepanto” AKA Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Of course I’ve read some sonnets and I watched hundreds of movies based on his works but, except Julius Caesar and Macbeth in school I haven’t read his major plays: they are too difficult for someone who is not a native speaker (I won’t bother with a translation).
So tell why I should read Romeo and Juliet!
Shotgunzen, I am glad you liked that book and just because this thread is dying I’ll recommend another adventure book:
[“Miguel Strogoff”](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1842/1842-h/1842-h.htm) by Julius Verne
Julius Verne is worldwide famous for his early science fiction books, which are great and I strongly recommend. This one is different
The book takes place in Russia, when the zars still ruled. The Tartars invade Siberia and a traitor is off to kill the zar’s brother. The telegraph lines are broken so the Zar sends a courier - Strogoff - to warn and save the prince.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/7 "2009-03-28T00:08:19Z")
> [@Estilicon](#):
>
> [“History of the decline and fall of the roman empire”](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm#earlier) by Edward Gibbon:
>
> This book has it all. It’s a history book that can be read as an historical novel; it’s fast paced as and adventure book and it’s a book that you can open almost everywhere and find a memorable quote.
Are you kidding me? This may be a great work and valid to include on the bookshelf, but a fast-paced, quotable novel it ain’t (caveat - it’s been 30 years since I cracked it open). To me it seemed like an endless repetition of dates and names I’ve never heard of, in short, every school kid’s worst nightmare. I got about halfway through and gave up, and I was really motivated.
Roddy
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/8 "2009-03-28T01:05:36Z")
[Winesburg, Ohio](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22949) - Sherwood Anderson
Really a collection of loosely-connected short stories set in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio in the early 1900s. The sort-of protagonist of the piece is young George Willard, just learning to make his way in the world (though in many of the stories, he makes only a cameo appearance as we explore the lives of the townsfolk of Winesburg).
The common thread that seems to run through the stories is the longing of the characters to make intimate connections with one another, and their awkward inability to do so. The stories _Paper Pills_ and _Hands_ are standouts.
Reading these stories, you can feel their influence on the later work of Hemingway.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/9 "2009-03-28T02:49:24Z")
[A Confederacy of Dunces](http://www.amazon.com/Confederacy-Dunces-John-Kennedy-Toole/dp/0807126063/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238208176&sr=8-2)- Ignatius J. Reilly is a lead character like no other (a morbidly obese hypochondriac “stay at home” medieval theologian with a tendency towards pathological lying) who falls fat-ass backwards into some of the funniest misadventures in American literature. Add to this one of the best “the city is a character” depictions of New Orleans, some of the greatest work ever done with dialogue and dialect (you know which character is speaking in every line just by the way they talk) and some of the wildest driven-exactly-to-the-edge-of-belief-and-not-one-inch-further characters (strippers, ‘sodomites’ [there’s a reason I use that word since it’s important to the novel], hippies, rioting black people, a self-convinced self educated bourgeois housewife and her senile project, etc.), and impossible to predict plot twists and a (very unconventional, admittedly) happy ending all around for, in my opinion, the greatest one hit wonder in the history of southern literature (and, Atticus forgive me, I _am_ including _To Kill a Mockingbird_).
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/10 "2009-03-28T13:14:28Z")
Psst – **Sampiro** – reread the OP – we’re looking for public domain/Project Gutenberg.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/11 "2009-03-28T14:07:12Z")
How about [The War of the Worlds](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/36) and [The Time Machine](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/35) by H.G. Wells? These were the first two novels I ever read, and they reeled me right in. War of the Worlds gave birth to the idea of the alien invasion in science fiction, and it still holds up.
If you enjoy those two, I’d also recommend [The First Men in the Moon](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1013). The story of a trip to the moon (using a novel means of propulsion) and the alien beings encountered there. Though the description of the moon doesn’t hold up (of course), it’s interesting to see how it was imagined back in the pre-rocketry age.
For my money, _The Island of Dr. Moreau_ and _The Invisible Man_ are not as entertaining, though they are better known.
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### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/12 "2009-03-28T14:40:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Do I really have to provide a justification for the complete works of Shakespeare?
I would say that you do.
ay, there’s the rub. 😃
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/13 "2009-03-28T17:37:55Z")
> [@Estilicon](#):
>
> Yes you have… also you do have to provide a link 🙂
>
> I am not an anglosaxon. The “greatest writer ever” is the the “one handded man of Lepanto” AKA Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra…
I am also not an anglosaxon (Como andás che? :p), but i have to confess that “Don Quijote” bored me to tears, I understand why it had so much impact in its time but I could barely read it all at my third or fourth attempt.
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### Author:  [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/14 "2009-03-28T17:54:40Z")
Has anyone read [The Thirty-Nine Steps](http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=851978) by John Buchan? It’s one of the very first spy thrillers, and involves an average guy finding out about an assassination, a shadowy spy ring, and a plan to invade Britain.
Not high literature, but it’s fast-paced and it gives you an idea of how tense things were before World War I.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/15 "2009-03-28T19:19:11Z")
> [@twickster](#):
>
> Psst – **Sampiro** – reread the OP – we’re looking for public domain/Project Gutenberg.
Ah, sorry.
In that case
[Gone With the Wind](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200161.txt) (which is public domain in Australia’s Gutenberg site).
If you’ve seen the movie but haven’t read the novel, then regardless of how you felt about the film give it a whirl. The novel is far more closer to the history of the time than the movie (which was more mythology) and there are dozens of great characters who either didn’t make the film at all or were condensed into one: Grandma Fontaine, Will Benteen, Archie the Wife Killer, Uncle Henry, Scarlett’s two oldest children, etc.). Characters who are in the film are given much greater depth and back stories (particularly Scarlett’s parents [the reason they married is interesting] or Mammy [I’d argue with anyone who called McDaniel’s portrayal of her a stereotype, but in the book she’s very complex]). It answers questions posed by the movie (Scarlett’s wedding night with Charles, how Scarlett pulls off convincing Frank to marry her or why her fall down the stairs caused her miscarriage [far from automatic from a fall]). The novel’s far more believable and more moving, and just generally a helluva read; it’s a rare book that makes you both loathe and admire the heroine.
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### Author:  [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/16 "2009-03-29T00:54:14Z")
> [@Frodo](#):
>
> I am also not an anglosaxon (Como andás che? :p), but i have to confess that “Don Quijote” bored me to tears, I understand why it had so much impact in its time but I could barely read it all at my third or fourth attempt.
Muy bien ¿Vos? No me digas que también sos de mis pagos.
I once started reading the Quixote and I quite enjoyed it. I couldn’t finish it because I gave my copy as a gift. Later I tried again and I just couldn’t do it.
Strangely, the same thing happened with “The last of the Mohicans”.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/17 "2009-03-29T00:59:45Z")
I’m reading a really good one right now that will make a great addition to the bookshelf when I’m done. It might get its own thread, too.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/18 "2009-03-29T01:24:36Z")
Voltaire
[Candide](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19942/19942-h/19942-h.htm) This is a classic that you can actually read without having to resort to footnotes. Sure, Voltaire takes it to ridiculous levels. Having some knowledge of the period will help. But, this is a fun book to read.
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### Author:  [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/19 "2009-03-29T16:32:48Z")
[_Can You Forgive Her?_](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19500) by Anthony Trollope.
I think everyone should read more Trollope, and this novel is a great example of the vivid, hilarious characters he creates. George Vavasor is a \*fantastic \*villain.
And because Trollope’s works are more enjoyable when you know a bit about the man, I highly recommend [his autobiography](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5978). His recollection of his early years are hilariously pitiful. For example:
> [@](#):
>
> I know that I skulked, and was odious to the eyes of those I admired and envied. At last I was driven to rebellion, and there came a great fight,–at the end of which my opponent had to be taken home for a while. If these words be ever printed, I trust that some schoolfellow of those days may still be left alive who will be able to say that, in claiming this solitary glory of my school-days, I am not making a false boast.
Trollope thought of writing as a job like any other job. Not a craft or an art, but a way to make money. He was fastidious in his efforts. He kept a ledger of the number of pages he wrote each day and became dismayed if he fell behind his goals. He woke up early every morning to write for a few hours before going to work for the post office.
I could go on and on - just read the autobiography. I guarantee you’ll like it.
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### Author:  [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-bookshelf/490769/20 "2009-03-29T17:01:07Z")
For those who don’t know, you can download free volunteer-recorded audio books of many of these works from [LibriVox](http://librivox.org). I think it’s a neat project, and I’ve submitted a few recordings myself, though not for any of these books.
[History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire](http://librivox.org/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire-vol-i-by-edward-gibbon)
[The Prisoner of Ze **n** da](http://librivox.org/the-prisoner-of-zenda-by-anthony-hope)
some [Shakespeare]([LibriVox](http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?&author=shakespeare), william&status=all)
[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes](http://librivox.org/the-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes)
[Winesburg, Ohio](http://librivox.org/winesburg-ohio-by-sherwood-anderson)
[The War of the Worlds](http://librivox.org/the-war-of-the-worlds-by-h-g-wells-group)
[The Time Machine](http://librivox.org/the-time-machine-by-hg-wells)
[The First Men in the Moon](http://librivox.org/the-first-men-in-the-moon-by-hg-wells)
[The Thirty-Nine Steps](http://librivox.org/the-thirty-nine-steps-by-john-buchan)
[Candide](http://librivox.org/candide01)
[Can You Forgive Her](http://librivox.org/can-you-forgive-her-by-anthony-trollope)
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