What books should a 14 year old read to get a better body of knowledge?

Cafe Society
1

I’d like to get myself educated on how the world is run, about how the world has been run, and a whole bunch of other things. What are some good books for just generally increasing a body of knowledge, about anything?

Include more ‘mature’ books, because my reading level is much higher than my peers. A lot of the books I’ve read that are aimed at my age have some sort of gimmick that is kinda silly(see gross history or something similarily titled) or uses words that are not unlike those of a first grade primer(comapred to the level I’m at).

For example:

“The Ultimate guide to Fishing, by A. Guy is perfect for learing about fishing, the history of fishing, etc.”

To narrow it down a tiny bit, although you’re welcome to share any other books that would be good, I’m interested in finding out about(:smiley: does that make sense?):

Ancient Egypt, Law, Philosophy, Music(of any kinds, such as the 60s or 18th century), Biography(especially historic figures like Einstein or Mozart), Art(especially ancient), Mythology, The Paranormal(theories/discussions, no “It’s completely real” or “All of it can be explained rationally…”*), Chinese Culture, Country Dynamics/Political Structure.

Also, the process of writing. See Stephen King’s On Writing for a great example.

That’s about it.

*Not trying to get this into a GD, but sometimes things just can’t, under our understanding of the universe, be explained

2

You could start with Sophies World by Jostein Gaarder.

It is about a 14 YO girl having secret philosophy lessons and her reflections on these lessons. It covers a lot of the basics of the history of thought and the development of ideas in a way which is easy to follow yet deep enough to give a reasonable outline of the main important works. It’s a good starting point for developing an interest in philosophy.

3

Colleen McCullough’s books on ancient Rome, while fiction, is a very good series about that world. There has been some debate about the accuracy, but hasn’t just invented stuff, but gone to the very sources, i.e. ancient documents, transcripts ASF. Of course, since it’s fictionalized, she takes liberties, but only to make it more readable. It’s a hefty read, now spanning six volumes and about 200 years of History in Rome, complete with intrigues, backstabbing, political spin and sexual exploits.

As a side note: I grew out of young childrens books at about 11 or 12, when I switched to Agatha Christie and Alistair MacLean. Then I got hooked on SciFi and especially Robert Heinlein. Very little was ((and is) translated to Swedish, so pretty soon I switched to buying them in English. I was about 14 when I bought ‘The Past Through Tomorrow’, and eagerly read it with an English-Swedish dictionary next to me.

I’m sure that some people think that sexual exploits in Rome or Heinlein’s juicier writing is not suitable reading for ‘young readers’. Bollocks, sez I. Any 14 year old whop willingly reads is to be encouraged. All that crap people are afraid of is available as movies, comics or videogames anyway. It’s always better to read a book.

4

I better nominate Guns, Germs and Steel before someone else does.

5

Both of the Science of Discworld books are funny and thought provoking…I would only recommend them if you’re into the whole Terry Pratchett thing though. They are written by PTerry, Ian Stewart (one of my professors a very good science writer) and Jack Cohen (another very good science writer). The first book covers the evolution of the universe and the second one looks at the role of culture, arts and litereature in society.

6

Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”. Very interesting and has worthwhile insights.

Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology”. For a good readable introduction to the Greek myths (and a few Norse ones as well).

J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”. Random passages from this book stick in your head forever. A justified classic.

7

Machiavelli’s Discourses is a must read. It is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Machiavelli takes Livy’s first ten volumes of the history of Rome and pulls from it, along with myriad contemporary and ancient incidents, general principles of politics, governance, and life. This book is far, far better than The Prince, and since it has to do with a republic, you can actually learn something worth knowing!

I’ve only read the Walker translation which, I have heard, is not the best. (The version I have is older and has a second volume of notes that gives details on the people and events that Machiavelli references.) There are other translations that you can use, if you wish. Here’s a sampling from amazon.com.

If possible, I’d recommend the two-volume Walker translation if you can get your hands on a copy. The notes at the end really help a lot, since Machiavelli is assuming you know a lot of stuff that you won’t know.

This book is a tough read, and getting through it will be no small accomplishment. It is, however, worth the effort, IMO, and knowing that you can tackle such a book and succeed will give you a well earned sense of pride.

Another book that you might try out is call How to Read a Book by Adler. The author gives his scheme for reading a book well. I have mixed feelings about this book, but it may be worth your time.

8

I second the Art of War

and, Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.

Also, I cannot recommend more reading the dictionary randomly.

9

Aslan - there are some very good recommendations here - I am partial to books like Guns, Germs and Steel, Sophie’s World, the Masters of Rome Series by McCullough and Machiavelli’s Prince…

However, what you are describing is the building of a Reading Plan, and you need to be more structured about that. You need to lay out a set of topics (Science, History, Literature, etc.) and scope (e.g., Western History or just one country; modern times or through known history) and frame your search for recommendations within those boundaries.

One way to do this might be through looking at other’s Reading Plans - there is a book called the Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman that presents a recommended set of classics and more modern works, providing a brief description and rationale as to why that book should be included. There are many other “recommended sets of classics” that you could check - either go to a book store and find Fadiman’s book - the others should be close by - or go to Amazon, look up Fadiman’s book and see what else is recommended.

As for more modern books, well, there are lists galore, both on the SDMB and from more formal sources. There is the Modern Library 100 list of the most important books in the English Language in the 20th century, lists about science books, etc… you should check those out by searching for them on the internet.

Since you will end up with way too many books to read, you will have to use your own criteria to narrow them down…

Bottom line - give this a little more thought and do some research regarding recommended lists in both the classics and for modern works…

10

To expand on what green_dragon said, the whole Discworld series would probably help expand your perspective on alot of things. Read any of his books once to have a good laugh, then go back and look at some of the underlying messages behind the jokes. A couple of good starts would be Small Gods or Interesting Times. Interesting Times is part of the “Rincewind” series, and makes a few references to earlier books, but IMO can be read as a stand alone book just fine.

A non-fiction book I enjoyed around your age was called What the Buddha Never Taught. It’s written by a Canadian journalist who spends time exploring Buddhism at a monestary in Thailand. Very interesting read.

11

If I may, I would suggest getting a translation of The Art of War that has been done by a military person rather than a business person. If you do read it, also read Sun Bin’s Art of War. It has been sold under the title of The Lost Art of War. You may find a volume that has Sun Tzu’s & Sun Bin’s books bound together.

The reason I recommend this is because Sun Tzu is very general, and I found it difficult to picture in my mind much of what he was talking about. Sun Bin, on the other hand, is much more specific, thus creating, in my mind, and outstanding complement to the older classic. If you do decide to read these, then I would strongly recommend adding How Great Generals Win by Alexander. Why? Because you’ll be able to read about Sun Tzu’s principles in action. This trio of books will give you an outstanding glimpse into the world of war.

As for reading the dictionary randomly, I have The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordianarily Literate, The Superior Person’s Book of Words (one and two), and The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases that I browse through frequently. Not that they’re better than a regular dictionary, they just don’t have words like “dog”.

12

There are two books by P.J. O’Rourke you should look at, Parliament of Whores, which deals with the structure and function of the US government, and All the Trouble in the World, which casts a critical eye on social and environmental activism. I don’t agree with much of what he says, but he raises questions that a person should ask when assessing what he’s reading in the newspaper or watching on television (i.e. “Is this claim accurate? If not, who benefits from me thinking that it is?”). They are also very funny books.

If you can find a set at your local used bookstore, there’s a series called Journeys Through Bookland which is a survey course of Western literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s intended for children (they cut out the racier parts of Gulliver’s Travels, for example), but don’t be too dismissive of it for that reason. Volume 10, which is all index, provided fodder for quite a few English assignments in high school lit classes for yours truly back in the 70s.

13

Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. It’ll take you a while to read, but it’s worth the time.

It’ll probably also cause you to post a lot more in GQ.

14

I second Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. Another books that serves as a great complement to Guns, Germs, and Steel is Our Kind : Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going by Marvin Harris, Harris’s book will touch on a lot of cultural elements you are curious about.

Good general-knowledge recommendations include Eureka!: What Archimedes Really Meant and 80 Other Key Ideas Explained by Michael Macrone, and The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know edited by James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, E. D. Hirsch. The latter is more of a reference work, but it is more interesting to idly peruse the book’s contents than you might expect.

If you are interested in getting a grasp of contemporary scientific thought in physics, astronomy, psychology, game theory, chaeos theory and other fields, I recommend Who’s Afraid of Schrodinger’s Cat : All The New Science Ideas You Need To Keep Up With The New Thinking by Ian Marshall & Danah Zohar.

Finally, let me recommend a trio of skeptical inquiry books with which you may hone your critical thinking skills:

15

Jeez, could y’all handle this kind of stuff when you were 14? If so, color me impressed. I’m 33, I have read some of this stuff and found it hard going. If I ever want to start a similar thread, I’m going to ask for books aimed at 10 year olds!

I’m not the dumbest one here! I’m not!

16

“The Joy of Sex”

17

I don’t know if I could have. Some of the books listed, e.g. Machiavelli (IMO), will definately be a challenge for the average college graduate; some, such as popular science, shouldn’t be insurmountable, although still challenging.

I must say that not being able to tackle many of the books recommended is hardly a failure for a 14 year old. To step up to the challenge and then decide to put a volume off until gaining a some more education, life experience, etc. is a more of an accomplishment than a failure.

The Joy of Sex might be a little premature at this point, though. I’m all for healthy sexuality, but there might be some better books on romantic relationships that Aslan might want to read before getting into that mess.

18

All the books I’ve recommended to Aslan are intended for popular consumption – i.e. they are written for the non-expert in each given field. I’d say each book on my short list is written at a high-school reading level except for the introduction of some jargon or the occasional bit of sophisticated vocabulary.

Having a collegiate dictionary nearby would be handy, but wouldn’t necessarily need to be constantly used.

19

This book have a very broad overview on just about every subject:

An Incomplete Education

It might help point out where you’d like to study more (as it gives you little facts you can stun your friends with!)

20

Don’t know if you are joking toque but I am going to be serious and recommend picking up a few Playboys/Playgirls (or both). Get with a friend or 2 and have a good time reading the jokes, staring at the pictures. But of course the answer to anyone asking you about your reading material is “I only looked at it for the articles”. And this is whether you are a boy or a girl.

Read all of the serious stuff, but remember to be silly every now and then.