# The most profound books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-profound-books/655652 "2013-04-14T01:58:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-profound-books/655652/41 "2013-04-20T06:01:51Z")
> [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](#): > > Voltaire’s _Candide_. A very short, quite hilarious, incredibly biting satire written as a response to the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, and as a criticism of Leibniz’s then quite popular idea that despite all the apparent evils of the world, this is the best of all possible ones. If you’re not already familiar with it, read the bit of its wiki on [its historical background](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide#Historical_and_literary_background) before you start on the novella proper for an enhanced experience. “O che sciagura d’essere senza colgioni!” ([“Oh, what a misfortune to be without testicles!”](http://books.google.com/books?id=awgaTbpxeTIC&lpg=PA35&ots=R43dD-YZVo&dq=%22Oh%2C%20what%20a%20misfortune%20to%20be%20without%20testicles.&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q=%22Oh,%20what%20a%20misfortune%20to%20be%20without%20testicles.&f=false)) ---
**Author:** ![wombattver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b77776/32.png) [@wombattver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wombattver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-profound-books/655652/42 "2013-04-20T06:10:34Z")
Gosh, I LOVE that I have read most of the books people have mentioned. It’s been a bad day and reading this made me a little happy, so yay for me. 🙂 Profound?! Off the top of my head - Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy - Anna Karinina (one of those classics I just never seemed to get around to until my 40’s), Kurt Vonnegut - anything and everything, read them all in my late teens/early twenties, have re-read them all every decade or so since then… life-changing, for me. Galapagos, Cat’s Cradle and Bluebeard would be my first recommendations. Never liked much of Hesse or Dickens, enjoyed Willa Cather, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Kafka and Austen. Only recently read the “Chronicles of Narnia” because my 3rd grader started the series, and really enjoyed them, for the most part, until the very end. (a bit too much woo and religion for me) Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck Lolita, Nabokov - SO not what I was expecting and does NOT support the common usage of the term “Lolita” to describe a sexual, enticing young girl! We hear that term often, but I wonder how many have actually read the book… the poor girl was groomed, abused, raped, used and basically held captive! So profound, worth reading, and left me in awe to know that English was not his first language! I tend to like authors rather than books. If I like the way the person writes, I will like most of their books/novels, regardless of subject. More modern authors: John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver, esp. “Poisonwood Bible.” ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-profound-books/655652/43 "2013-04-20T07:24:10Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > “O che sciagura d’essere senza colgioni!” > > ([“Oh, what a misfortune to be without testicles!”](http://books.google.com/books?id=awgaTbpxeTIC&lpg=PA35&ots=R43dD-YZVo&dq=%22Oh%2C%20what%20a%20misfortune%20to%20be%20without%20testicles.&pg=PA35#v=onepage&q=%22Oh,%20what%20a%20misfortune%20to%20be%20without%20testicles.&f=false)) The great-granddaddy of all rape jokes. Far more nuanced than Daniel Tosh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-profound-books/655652/44 "2013-04-20T15:56:31Z")
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned _[Ishmael](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(novel))_ yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-profound-books/655652.md?page=2)