 | Holy Bible: King James Version by American Bible Society
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $5.00 I've been reading and re-reading the Bible for as long as I can remember, and though I've read many other translations I always come back to the King James Version, the most beautiful book ever written.
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 | William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Deluxe Edition by William Shakespeare
Buy used from: $9.68 I've been reading Shakespeare since I was old enough to read.
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 | I Can't Go On, I'll Go On : A Samuel Beckett Reader by Samuel Beckett
Buy used from: $5.75 No other author has depicted modern man's spiritual plight as movingly.
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 | The Trial by Franz Kafka
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $0.97 This epochal masterpiece can be seen as religious allegory or political prophecy. Makes "1984" and "Brave New World" seem superficial by comparison.
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 | Valis by Philip K. Dick
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $3.10 Mind-bending blend of sci-fi, autobiography, and theology about one man's spiritual journey.
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 | The Foundation Trilogy: Three classics of science fiction by Isaac Asimov
Buy used from: $4.95 Isaac Asimov has been a favorite of mine since junior high. Perhaps the greatest writer of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, his influence can be seen in everything from "Star Wars" to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
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 | In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin
Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $2.21 Excellent science popularization introduced me to the strange world of quantum physics.
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 | Oswald's Tale:: An American Mystery by Norman Mailer
Buy new: $19.80 / Used from: $0.01 Brilliant combination of history, journalism and novel, shedding light on enigmatic figure in American history.
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 | Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
Buy new: $17.13 / Used from: $0.01 Beautifully written Bible story from former queen of goths that reawakened my interest in Christianity.
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 | A High Wind in Jamaica (New York Review Books Classics) by Richard Hughes
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $5.81 Compelling if off-center tale of interaction between crew of has-been pirates and children they kidnap, a study of innocence and savagery, good and evil.
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 | Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $4.25 Daring and brilliantly conceived Holocaust parable. Jews are mice, Nazis are cats. Art Spiegelman draws on his father's experience as Auschwitz survivor.
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 | The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.01 Beautiful children's fantasy, much better than Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia.
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 | One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Buy used from: $4.98 Alexander Solzhenitsyn's harrowing semi-autobiographical account of life in Stalinist gulag is a book everyone should read at least once.
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 | The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings by Marquis De Sade
Buy new: $12.21 / Used from: $6.00 Literary masterpiece or cry for help? This collection of ramblings from history's most famous sexual predator sheds valuable insight on the dark side of the human soul and lays bare the mechanism of fascism 150 years before Hitler. Should be read in conjunction with Pasolini's movie "Salo."
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 | The Mountain People by Colin M. Turnbull
Buy new: $19.75 / Used from: $0.92 Harrowing account of destruction of indigenous culture by misguided environmental policies.
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