Scholarly??? What do you need..

[fatfencer]

Hey folks,

some of you have scholarly backgrounds and some dont but I want to put together an exhaustive list of MUST HAVE books.

If you are a chemist...what is the one tome you just HAVE to have...

Historian, lawyer, chemist, librarian, etc. Doesnt matter. One thing about me is that I like it when people visit and see things they like.

Maybe you are a trucker. Doesn't matter. Every once in a blue moon I ask this question so I can update my collection.

A bud of mine just recently gifted me a copy of 'On the Shoulders of Giants' by Hawking. What a nice friend.

I also have quite the collection of Cliff's Notes and and the entire MasterPlots series. I worked in a university bindery. I rehabbed a set and they decided they didnt need it. Sold it for a dollar per volume. Same with the OED. Got a smoking deal on that.

I do hope everybody answers. What is your must have book. What book is your fave??

Fatfencer

[Grimaldi]

Uh....well, for a psychologist's "must have" library, I'd recommend a copy of the latest DSM-IV. Not really the kind of book you curl up with for a relaxing evening, but it seems to fit the bill of what you're looking for, and has some interesting disorders in it.

I found Donald Kagen's "On the Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace" to be a fascinating look at the common factors in international diplomacy and war throughout history. It's remarkable how closely situations from as long ago as the Peloponnesian Wars can mimic more recent events, and how complex ancient diplomacy and society was.

A pair of books that shed light on the complexities of the human mind in relation to battlefield situations are Richard Holmes' "Acts of War: Behavior of Men in Battle" and LTC David Grossman's "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society".

[Nicksmom]

DMS-IV is a classic. Grey's Anatomy is a good one, too. Currently working on reading "Armies of Pestilence: The Impact of Disease on History" It is a VERY difficult read. I read the same parpgraph 3-4 times to understand.

[Slacker]

As a lab tech in the trenches of veterinary medicine I rely on Lab Techniques by Benjamin Cole. I have the third edition, believe the seventh edition is just out, but, blood's blood, and fungus is fungus. Another vet goodie is the animal behavior book by Karen Overall. While behaviorists change their tunes every so often on what works and what doesn't, Karen's book does a credible job of describing the behavior itself.

Of course you must have the Harry Potter series!

[TBean]

The more I read to my son, the more I think all adults should revisit the books they read as children. Adult library's should include these books that offer thoughtful and sometimes painful life lessons. CS Lewis, EB White, Roald Dahl, all wonderful authors. We just finished reading Charolette's Web, that is just about a perfect book.

For pure "scholarship" I might recommend, Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia by Edward Digby Baltzell as a very interesting read on class, authority and leadership. I read it as part of a fundraising course to examine how the founding of the city still effects its philanthropy.

[fencerchica]

These are the core of my electrical engineering library. I don't actually refer to them often (except Oppenheim) but recommend them for imparting basic principles:

for basic principles of electronics: Engineering Circuit Analysis (Hayt and Kemmerly)

for an intro to electronic devices: Electronic Circuit Analysis and Design (Neamen)

for practical adventures in electronics: The Art of Electronics (Horowitz and Hill)

for DSP: Discrete-Time Signal Processing (Oppenheim and Schafer)

[erik_blank]

Hummm... Trying to stockpile all the "necessary" books neeed to perserver society, eh? What do you know that we don't?

As for usefull books, you may want to pick up a book titled "Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook " very nice to have when in the field...
Also, look into these titles by Euell Gibbons:
Euell Gibbons' handbook of edible wild plants (A Unilaw library book)
Stalking The Healthful Herbs

[Neinteen]

For being a general you'll need the Art of War by Sun Tzu

[Nicksmom]

Originally Posted by TBean

The more I read to my son, the more I think all adults should revisit the books they read as children. Adult library's should include these books that offer thoughtful and sometimes painful life lessons. CS Lewis, EB White, Roald Dahl, all wonderful authors. We just finished reading Charolette's Web, that is just about a perfect book.

For pure "scholarship" I might recommend, Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia by Edward Digby Baltzell as a very interesting read on class, authority and leadership. I read it as part of a fundraising course to examine how the founding of the city still effects its philanthropy.

We (Nick and I) are working on "Treasure Island".

[fatfencer]

Originally Posted by erik_blank

Hummm... Trying to stockpile all the "necessary" books neeed to perserver society, eh? What do you know that we don't?

As for usefull books, you may want to pick up a book titled "Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook " very nice to have when in the field...
Also, look into these titles by Euell Gibbons:
Euell Gibbons' handbook of edible wild plants (A Unilaw library book)
Stalking The Healthful Herbs

What do I know that you don't...hmmm...MUST RESIST JOKES...MUST RESIST.... whew. The need to inject some humor has past lol.

Seriously though this thread is going very well. Please F-netters keep it up. I have what is a pretty extensive library and am adding to it as much as I can.

Years ago, Bennett(former US Sec. of Edu) had a list of must read books. Great idea in some way, but severely misused. I like it when clients come to my home office and see that I've read something they have or at least own it. Gives us something to talk about and we can develop some rapport.

So please continue folks. Lots of good books. FencerChica's contribution of must have EE books is duly noted.

Fatfencer

PS: Nein, darling QotF...I own just about everything that is worth reading in historical Asian literature. Except a rare copy of the 36 Strategems...grrrr must get lol.

[Neinteen]

Originally Posted by fatfencer

PS: Nein, darling QotF...I own just about everything that is worth reading in historical Asian literature. Except a rare copy of the 36 Strategems...grrrr must get lol.

Thanks for resisting the humor. and really? that's awesome! You should read Goethe's Faust, so that in the persuit of all your knowledge, you don't make any mistakes when you run into Mephistopheles!

[Rabid Monk]

For daily life, I recommend the following:

"The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan
"Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)" by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
"Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions" by James Randi
"1984" and "Animal Farm" By George Orwell
"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking

That's six.
Should hold you for a while.

[D'Artagnan1673]

I guess the most scholarly book I have ever read was Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade by John France. I believe he's a Cambridge professor. He handles all the major primary sources of the First Crusade with ease. It was a thoroughly enjoyable book for someone who loves this period of history.

[Empty Wallet]

I have written some psych books, but I am sure you have those already so I won't name them -- or me.

For psych there can be a variety of interesting and useful and scary things to read. Here is a sprinkling of mainly older things:

Freud is a must. Peter Gay's biography of Freud is fascinating after reading Freud.

Erikson: Identity and the life cycle.

Jung: the archetypes and the collective unconscious. and/or Modern man in search of soul.

Walden Two by BF Skinner presents a utopia based on behaviorist principles. Has some of the science with really interesting/scary application.

Daniel Levinson "the seasons of a man's life" (read about the court case that he won against Passages)

Something by Piaget on child development

Williams James: Principles of Psychology

[fatfencer]

One of the best history textbooks I've ever read was Palmer and Colton's History of the Modern world.

If you have a chance pick up a copy. As far as European History it certainly is one of the best texts I've read and I've read several.

Fatfencer

[Meteoric Iron]

"Sound and Symbol: Music and the External World," by Victor Zuckerkandl, one of Princeton's Bollingen Series of books.

"A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe:The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science," be Michael Schneider

'The New Making of a Cook," by Madeleine Kamman

"The Best Recipe," the editors of Cook's Illustrated

"Taliessin through Logres," "The Arthurian Torso," by Charles Williams

"Finnegan's Wake," by James Joyce

Dante's "Inferno," in Italian/English

"Parzifal," in Medieval German/ modern German/English

"The King of Ireland's Son," by Padraic Colum

"The Temple in Man," "The Temple of Man," by Rene Schwaller de Lubicz

"The Nature of Substance," Rudolf Hauschka, English translation

"The Art of Color," by Johannes Itten (the Bauhaus period)

I keep coming back to these over the years. Thanks for the great thread theme, ff.

[mikeb]

For all you engineering needs:

1.Shigley's Mechancial Engineering Design
2.Machinery's Handbook 28th Edition - described as the engineers bible
3.The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number - although i haven't read this its meant to be really good

[sabreur]

For English lit-crit.

The Bible (King James Version)
Strong's Biblical Concordance
The Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume I and II

Random interesting knowledge:

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

[Nicksmom]

Anything by Erma Bombeck--can't take life to seriously

[swordwench]

For your classic software/quality library:

Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules - Steve McConnell
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering - Fred Brooks
Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman (reading this book a long time ago actually made me give up on a career teaching literature, and focus on software design and usability - what the hell was I thinking?!?)

For your must-have collection:

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Le Morte D'Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory
Ulysses - James Joyce
Beowulf!!! (and not the Ray Winstone DVD, either)
Lord of the Rings trilogy
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Silverlock - John Myers Myers
The Princess Bride - William Goldman