[demon]

Could come under compsci, philosophy or mathematics, but Godel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter is quite the read. Can't give a link because I'm posting from a shitty HTC phone.

I have this and am going to read it some day. I keep putting it off for other books because it looks intimidating, but my dad said it's an extremely interesting read.

[Mumei]

To be honest, I don't know whether or not these are required reading, which makes me rather gun-shy about posting anything at all... though I do think that they are very educational and I'd recommend them if one were interested in the subject.

Gay History

• Gay American History, Jonathan Katz
• Homosexuality and Civilization, Louis Crompton
• Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia: The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent, Dan Healey
• The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps, Heinz Heger
• Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, George Chauncey

[Suairyu]

Saw Paradise Lost.

To be honest, when it comes to English Literature, I wouldn't recommend any particular works, just books on theory. One of the first things you learn with a university-level course is to move away from the idea of one all-encompassing canon.

Either break your English literature section down into subjects or don't have it at all, really. Anything else is elitist and dishonest.

So would I say Paradise Lost is essential for English literature? No. Absolutely not.

Would I say Paradise Lost is essential if you want to specialise in Romanticism? Yes.

[mltplkxr]

Essential reading in Computer Science:
-Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
The "Gang of Four": Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns_(book)

-The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art...er_Programming

[afternoon delight]

Saw Paradise Lost. To be honest, when it comes to English Literature, I wouldn't recommend any particular works, just books on theory. One of the first things you learn with a university-level course is to move away from the idea of one all-encompassing canon. Either break your English literature section down into subjects or don't have it at all, really. Anything else is elitist and dishonest. So would I say Paradise Lost is essential for English literature? No. Absolutely not. Would I say Paradise Lost is essential if you want to specialise in Romanticism? Yes.

Agreed. I'm all for specific case examples (for science and history) but your point about theory over 'works' definitely has merit.

Edit: Which is why I have trouble with some of the 'literature' section in general, actually. I'd personally tell everyone in the world to read The Master and Margarita for Russian Literature, but it's such a personal preference I don't know if we should define it. Maybe keep this to more bound lists for areas of study. For example, if you want to know about Russian Literature, you'll probably hear all of the examples we could ever list. So perhaps we're being redundant?

Edit 2: More books!

International Relations and Foreign Policy
The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk - Paperback, 1100+ pages. From Amazon: Fisk, who has lived in and reported on the Middle East since 1976, first for the (London) Times and now for the Independent, possesses deep knowledge of the broader history of the region, which allows him to discuss the Armenian genocide 90 years ago, the 2002 destruction of Jenin, and the battlefields of Iraq with equal aplomb. But it is his stunning capacity for visceral description—he has seen, or tracked down firsthand accounts of, all the major events of the past 25 years—that makes this volume unique. Some of the chapters contain detailed accounts of torture and murder, which more squeamish readers may be inclined to skip, but such scenes are not gratuitous. They are designed to drive home Fisk's belief that "war is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death." Though Fisk's political stances may sometimes be controversial, no one can deny that this volume is a stunning achievement.

War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerilla Warfare by Robert Taber - Paperback, 216 pages. Via Amazon reviewer: "what is given is a detailed history of what led to the success or failure of previous guerrilla campaigns and the lessons learned from their outcomes. Written in the heyday of the guerrilla, Taber looks at dozens of case studies; from Grivas in Cyprus to Castro in Cuba, and of course the authors of the classics of guerrilla war and warfare in general, such as Mao, Sun Tzu, and Clausewitz."

Philosophy
A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, JR

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

Honestly, I feel like the literature section could be taken out entirely. Literary theory (dumb as I think it is) could get its own section, given how big the field has grown, but there's bound to be a great deal more contention regarding which books are great than in other fields. So unless we limit the literature section to the most seminal and historically important works (in which case Paradise Lost actually would be perfectly justified in remaining;I disagree with Suairyu that it is primarily of interest to the study of Romanticism), then the literature section is bound to get cluttered with a clusterfuck of titles representing a variety of interests and opinions without a critical center to discern which are the most worthwhile in whatever sense we're considering.

[Suairyu]

So unless we limit the literature section to the most seminal and historically important works (in which case Paradise Lost actually would be perfectly justified in remaining;I disagree with Suairyu that it is primarily of interest to the study of Romanticism)

I wasn't saying it was primarily of interest to Romanticism; that was just an example. My point was is that you couldn't say any single work is important to literature as a whole. The idea of 'the English canon', where you can say "these works are what you have to read" is bullshit. It doesn't make sense.

I mean, you suggest historic importance, but how do you quantify that? Paradise Lost is absolutely one of the most notable and well-known historic works in the history of western literature, but is that important to me when my area of interest in 20th century American Literature? Unless a title in question overtly references Milton, I'd say not.

The problem is that there is no such thing as original thought in art. Everything is inter-connected with other things. If I want to study Paradise Lost, I need to study Genesis, but then I'll also want to study other chapters of the Bible to get where the particular hellfire and damnation slant of Paradise Lost comes from, Medieval works - Canterbury Tales for a high school-level start etc. etc.

Creating a short-list of tentpole titles to fit the generic header of 'English Literature' is just not possible, in my opinion, unless you're talking about critical theory and essays (and even that is a rabbit hole in itself).

Basically, if person A said "I really want to study English Literature, where do I start?" and person B said "You need to X and Y by Z first" I'd assume person B didn't know much about English literature, or at least wouldn't be a very good teacher of the subject.

[Erasus]

Gender: The male dominance by Peirre Bourdiux? sp

Sociology:
Consumption society - Zygmunt Bauman
The established and the outsider - Norbert Elias
Sociology - Giddens
Outsiders - Howard S Becker
Internetgalaxy - Manuel Castells

But for starting out, then a textbook like
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sociology-An.../dp/0745643582
or
http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mode.../dp/0631212884
would be the best.

Smart Mobs - Howard Rheingold
This might not be a sociology book, but dunno where else to put it really. So good!
The original texts by the authors are hard to read. Though I did find The established and the outsiders pretty okay to read. But not as a first book.

Just what I have read that I though was good in school.

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

Edit: Never mind, the conversation's not really worth it, especially in a thread like this.

[what_rhythm]

Music Theory: Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony by Bert Ligon

[finowns]

Roman History

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt

Everitt at his best; gives a great understanding of Augustus's struggle with Mark Anthony.

Very cool thread.

[gabbo]

International Relations/Political Theory, perhaps Philosophy

Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto, and Das Kapital
Even if you detest the idea of anything but the market, you should probably understand the actual basis for communism as an evolution of capitalism and these two works will provide that.

Antonio Gramsci - Prison Notebooks
A critiques and expansion on Marxist/Communist ideas.

Cultural Studies
Michael Ryan & Douglas Kelner - Camera Politica
It will change the way you consume entertainment by breaking down the medium of film

[Zeitgeister]

Edit: Never mind, the conversation's not really worth it, especially in a thread like this.

dammit, I was going to read that long post later.

[Zeppelin]

Computer Science

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

dammit, I was going to read that long post later.

It's nothing that I haven't written before elsewhere on the forum. For anybody curious, the summary is that my opposition to a literary canon comes more from the fact that it tends to be made almost exclusively by old white men and tends to be downright slothlike in terms of responding to change. However, I do believe that some works are imminently greater than others, but this is not the same thing as having historic import, i.e. being influential in the development of later literature. Paradise Lost would be an example of a work with historic import, as would Moby-Dick. To take an example of something that I know Suairyu is a fan of: I don't think Blade Runner is much more than an impressive visual showcase with mostly cardboard characters, but I would have little problem with its inclusion on a comparable filmic list because of its importance in the realm of aesthetics and design in sci-fi films.

[AgentP]

The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings by Bart D. Ehrman


Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters by Donald R. Prothero and Carl Buell


The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

[E-DuB]

For Literature

Homer's "The Odyssey" and "The Iliad" if you want to go classical

Thomas Stearns Eliot's "The Waste Land" and "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" if you want to go modern, although I'm a little biased for choosing these

Shakespeare--Take your pick

W.E.B DuBois' "The Souls of Black Folk"

Fredric Jameson's "Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" for some postmodern writing is good and ff you're going to talk about Jameson you should include something on Jean Baudrillard, notably "Simulacra and Simulation"

Good idea for a thread. I'm interested to see what comes of this.

[TestMonkey]

French Literature: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

?: The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

[Maklershed]

Can someone add any recommendations for the archaeology section? I would be very interested to do some reading in that area.

[RockAction]

Architecture

Pretty much necessary:
Eyes of the Skin - Juhani Pallasmaa

Recommended:
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
Constructing Architecture - Andrea Deplazes
Seven Lamps of Architecture - John Ruskin
The Embodied Image - Juhani Pallasmaa
Image of the City - Kevin Lynch

[mu cephei]

Seeing as the Anthropology section is still pretty empty, I'll nominate a few.

These I've read the entire book and thought they were very good/ interesting:

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea by Annette B. Weiner
The Poetics of Manhood: Contest and Identity in a Cretan Mountain Village by Michael Herzfeld
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande by E. E. Evans-Pritchard

These are probably undoubted classics but I've only read the bits I needed to:

The Gift by Marcel Mauss
Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski

Most of the biological anthropology we studied was from papers or textbooks, so there's not much I can think to recommend. I am looking forward to reading 'The Origin of our Species' by Chris Stringer which is out in paperback next month, though.

[Shrike_Priest]

Semiotics (sign/signification theory) might be a bit of a niche, but Daniel Chandler's Semiotics: The Basics is one of the best texts I've read in the linguistics field. Especially considering the cryptic nature of many other texts on the subject of semiotics. He makes a theory that might come across as overly academic and needlessly complicated into something you can grasp and apply fairly easily. Helped me a bunch when I wrote my English-thesis on memes.

If you're into image macros and "memes", it is an interesting field to get into. Memetics isn't the only theory that can be applied to memes.

[guidestone]

Sociology:

Frankfurt School
Jean Baudrilliard - The Consumer Society, The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena

Philosophy:

Nietszche - everything
Stirner - Ego and its Own
Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation, Essays
Wittgenstein - TLP, Philosophical Investigations
Kierkegaard - The Modern Age, The Essential Kierkegaard
Bertrand Russell - Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects, The Conquest of Happiness, A History of Western Philosophy
Jean Baudrilliard - Simulacra and Simulation

[RiccochetJ]

Computer Science:
The Mythical Man-Month - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

[Invisible_Insane]

Philosophy:

A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick

[Attackthebase]

Let's not allow this thread to die. Zmoney, don't turn this into another Boston meetup thread!

[Maklershed]

Can someone add any recommendations for the archaeology section? I would be very interested to do some reading in that area.

Anyone? Bueller?

[MrGame&Watch]

How has no one put any game design books?

Rules of Play
Theory of Fun


Just a start

[Suairyu]

To take an example of something that I know Suairyu is a fan of: I don't think Blade Runner is much more than an impressive visual showcase with mostly cardboard characters, but I would have little problem with its inclusion on a comparable filmic list because of its importance in the realm of aesthetics and design in sci-fi films.

Right, but film has only a century of works (though you could link its earliest traditions back to theatre, I suppose). If I want to study a modern sci-fi film released today, Blade Runner, Star Wars, Star Trek etc. will all be of obvious importance.

If I want to study a modern take on a biblical story today, I don't think Paradise Lost would actually be necessary, unless the work in question directly referenced it. There's such a long period of time there that new influences have built on top of other influences such that a person writing Biblical fiction today might very well have never heard of Milton.

I dunno. It's a problem of scale. There's so much English literature that limiting yourself to a select few titles of importance is both criminally reductive and extremely difficult.

[Fugu]

I'm a big Music Theory guy. Favorite thing in the whole world. Some books I would recommend if you want to get a good background (no musical knowledge necessary):

- This is your Brain on Music (Daniel J. Levitin)
This book is a good place to start, as it teaches you some basic music terms but also gives you a good background on the neuroscience of music. It is not a dense textbook so it's not the most scientific, but if you read it you will learn a lot.

- The Jazz Theory Book (Mark Levine)
A much more meat-and-potatoes book, this is a great starting point for learning about contemporary and jazz theory. There are tonnes of context and listening examples covering basic and intermediate concepts of harmony and rhythm.

- The Jazz Bass Line Book (Mike Downes)
A great book for all musicians, it analyzes bass construction from the greats and uses that to illustrate how effective basslines are formed. I don't believe that a more definitive manual on the subject exists.

- The Real Book (Hal Leonard; several so-called "illegal" versions exist and are just as good)
Not quite a reading textbook, the real book is a massive compilation of common tunes and jazz standards; it is absolutely an essential resource for the proper understanding of the jazz lexicon. Theory is all well and good, but you've got to make the music happen.

- Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations (David Lewin)
Definitely not a book for beginners, this book discusses the mathematical components of musical set theory and offers a great look at a relatively difficult-to-understand field. It can be dizzying at times, but the information you will learn will completely change how you look at music.

[Pollux]

Let's not allow this thread to die. Zmoney, don't turn this into another Boston meetup thread!

It won't. But with finals I don't have time to really update the thread. But I'll get everything into the OP, don't worry.

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

Right, but film has only a century of works (though you could link its earliest traditions back to theatre, I suppose). If I want to study a modern sci-fi film released today, Blade Runner, Star Wars, Star Trek etc. will all be of obvious importance. If I want to study a modern take on a biblical story today, I don't think Paradise Lost would actually be necessary, unless the work in question directly referenced it. There's such a long period of time there that new influences have built on top of other influences such that a person writing Biblical fiction today might very well have never heard of Milton. I dunno. It's a problem of scale. There's so much English literature that limiting yourself to a select few titles of importance is both criminally reductive and extremely difficult.

It's not so much "limiting yourself" as it is offering works that are thought to be of a particularly high level of quality. Again, the problem with the canon itself is that it tends to be made by out-of-touch Academics worshiping at the altar of dead white males, but I don't have a general problem with the idea of holding some works higher than others.

[thoughthorizon]

Computer Science:

C++
-----

Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++, Bjarne Stroustrup - obviously
Effective C++, Meyers - lots of tips for improving code here: it's my go-to for coding style.

AI
--
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Russel, Norvig - a lot of great stuff here
Godel, Escher, Bach, Hofstadter (application not immediately obvious sometimes, but good synthesis of philosophy, cognitive science, computer science)

General Coding
------------------
Art of Computer Programming, Knuth

Projects
---------
Mythical Man Month: a classic
Agile Estimation and Planning, Cohn: use this as our day to day workflow and it really works.

Edit: Okay, a few of these have been posted already - should have checked more carefully.

[thomaser]

I'm a big Music Theory guy. Favorite thing in the whole world. Some books I would recommend if you want to get a good background (no musical knowledge necessary):

I'm a huge classical music fan and listen to it all the time, but I struggle with all the technical jargon. Do you have a recommendation for a book that would teach me about notes, scales and harmonies and so on, from the simplest concepts to pretty advanced stuff? I have tried to educate myself on Wikipedia, but get nowhere.

Edit: I'd also like to see a section for cooking! It's treated as a science by many...

[Attackthebase]

Any good paperback novel that focuses on Psychopathy?

[beelzebozo]

Edit: I'd also like to see a section for cooking! It's treated as a science by many...

some suggestions:

Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious.

In The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter shares his latest bread breakthroughs, arising from his study in several of France’s famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary academy kitchen with his students. Peer over Peter’s shoulder as he learns from Paris’s most esteemed bakers, like Lionel Poilâne and Phillippe Gosselin, whose pain à l’ancienne has revolutionized the art of baguette making. Then stand alongside his students in the kitchen as Peter teaches the classic twelve stages of building bread, his clear instructions accompanied by over 100 step-by-step photographs.

Cook's Illustrated is an American cooking magazine published by America's Test Kitchen in Brookline, Massachusetts, every two months. It accepts no advertising[2] and is characterized by extensive recipe testing and detailed instructions; the magazine also conducts thorough evaluations of kitchen equipment and branded foods and ingredients.

[Fugu]

I'm a huge classical music fan and listen to it all the time, but I struggle with all the technical jargon. Do you have a recommendation for a book that would teach me about notes, scales and harmonies and so on, from the simplest concepts to pretty advanced stuff? I have tried to educate myself on Wikipedia, but get nowhere. Edit: I'd also like to see a section for cooking! It's treated as a science by many...

The jazz theory book that I mentioned will give you a decent background in harmony, even though it's a jazz book. Honestly, I don't know any great resources for counterpart and history because the books that I've read on these subjects have been horrible. The books released by your local conservatory will usually be a pretty decent resource but it would be tough for me to tell without seeing it.

[Dominican Power]

What's a good political science book for the self taught?

[afternoon delight]

This thread was and might still be a gigantic tease of great discussion.

[Zeitgeister]

What's a good political science book for the self taught?

Don't take this the wrong way, as I mean no insult to your intellect by it, but Plato's Republic might be a very effective place to start. Another one, even though few would mention it, is Gulliver's Travels, as this collection of four stories is actually a targeted parody of the political situation of it's day.

I know it's hard to consider it "science", but ultimately all questions of power come back to the old question(s) of power: who controls the controllers? What is a just state? What is a effective way to gain power and not be corrupted by it (the legitimacy of the ruler)? What is freedom and how is it gained, distributed or achieved (the conception of freedom determines what degree of agency people can have, before they come into conflict with the ruler). And so on.

There is a book that deals specifically with the question of power, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was called. Maybe someone else does.

Other classical readings are The Social Contract, Leviathan, Utopia (although you should probably focus on its critics more than the actual text, as it's basically solipsistic and fails to notice it), On Liberty, and the long list of philosopher's who have dealt with these issues and delivered their answer. The latest would be people like Rawls, Peter Singer (in the field of morality, but utilism in morality has a direct impact on the political as well, so), to some extent Habermas, Isaiah Berlin (two ideas of freedom is a short and good start for his work), and last but far from least people like Michael Foucault, Hannah Arendt, Erich From's 'escape from freedom', Baudrillard and so on.

The real problem with any thought system is that politics deals with a redistribution of wealth AND morality (currently the justice system), meaning that you can't avoid reading on both.

And ehm, Marx's Kapital really should be required reading for its analysis of labour versus power. "possession" is not just a meaningless concept, it is a deeply political concept. (well, according to Marx, but there is no way around this 'little fact of capitalism', to be honest).

The good thing about the older texts is that they are all public domain and you can access them online for free, even on a Kindle reader. Look out for "anoted versions" though, as you only have to change 20% of a work to make it "yours" and be able to sell it as such. The original works are completely free, but they also tend to be tough reads.
(not that modern author are any better: I find Baudrillard to be utterly unreadable. The summary by George Ritzer is a life saver. )

Best of luck in delving trough all this.

[justjohn]

Cheeky bump.

[guidestone]

What's a good political science book for the self taught?

Alexis De Tocqueville's Demoracy in America is THE authority on democracy. You can follow it with Reflections on the Revolution in France.


Pretty much everything by Russell is great to start with:
http://www.amazon.com/Bertrand-Russe...ref=pd_sim_b_9
http://www.amazon.com/Bertrand-Russe..._bxgy_b_text_b
http://www.amazon.com/Bertrand-Russe...ef=pd_sim_b_14
http://www.amazon.com/Bertrand-Russe...pd_sim_sbs_b_9
http://www.amazon.com/In-Praise-Idle...d_sim_sbs_b_40
http://www.amazon.com/Sceptical-Rout.../ref=pd_cp_b_1
http://www.amazon.com/Bertrand-Russe..._bxgy_b_text_b


Stirner's Ego and its Own is such a fantastic read as well.

[guidestone]

Chomsky's work is a must read:

http://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-...ref=pd_sim_b_3
http://www.amazon.com/World-Works-St...ref=pd_sim_b_5
http://www.amazon.com/Hopes-Prospect...ref=pd_sim_b_6
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-...ref=pd_sim_b_5
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Future-...ref=pd_sim_b_4
http://www.amazon.com/Failed-States-.../dp/0805079122

[Gustav]

Game Design - Rules of Play, by Zimmerman and Salen
Creative Writing - Hero with a thousand faces, by Joeseph Campbell
Anthropology/Game Theory - Homo Ludens, by Johan Huizinga

[Prez]

There's much more on my list but these are the books I could recommend to everyone. They're incredibly inspiring from what I've read. What makes a good artist is something dark or tortured deep inside that can manifest in various ways. Many great jazz artists battled with personal demons, but so did many great painters, writers, etc. So these books teach you much more than just the story of these people. You can apply the knowledge you get from these books to many great minds in history.

Straight Life - Art Pepper

Art Pepper (1925 - 1982) was described as the greatest alto-sexophonist of the post-Charlie Parker generation. But Straight Life is much more than a jazz book ? it is oneof the most explosive, yet one of the most lyrical, of all autobiographies, narrated on tape to his wife Laurie. Pepper refuses to tiptoe round many of the unpalatable episodes of a life that involved alcoholism, heroin addiction,armed robberies and five of what should have been his most productive years imprisoned in San Quentin. The result is an autobiography like no other, a masterpiece of the spoken word, shaped into a genuine work of literature.

But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz - Geoff Dyer

In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skillfully evokes the music and the men who shaped modern jazz. Drawing on photos, anecdotes, and, most important, the way he hears the music, Dyer imaginatively reconstructs scenes from the embattled lives of some of the greats: Lester Young fading away in a hotel room; Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle; Thelonious Monk creating his own private language on the piano. However, music is the driving force of But Beautiful, and wildly metaphoric prose that mirrors the quirks, eccentricity, and brilliance of each musician's style.

Also, I'm looking for more books that are inspiring. I don't care about the subject, I want to broaden my mind. And what better way to do that than learn about views on life you're not familiar with?

[Prez]

Oops, double post.

[SIRF]

Psychology: Beyond Freedom and Dignity by Skinner. One of the best books on human behavior you'll read. You could also read his book About Behaviorism but it's a little heavy.

I'll second this one even though I think other Skinner' works need to be read first.

Psychology
General
Science of Human Behavior (Skinner)
Verbal Behavior (Skinner <--not for novices but a must read for those who are in the field)
Relational Frame Theory (Hayes <--not for novices but a must read for those who are in the field)

Applied/Clinical
Meaningful Differences (Hart & Risley)
Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology (Lilienfeld)

I have some others too but I'll have to look them up! Great topic :)

Imad

[bengraven]

Mythology

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
Edith Hamilton

I've rarely seen anything else used for beginning studies.

[Prez]

There's a lot I could recommend, but these are essential imo. I linked to the editions that's considered best (according to Google searches), but everyone should definitely do his own research on translations.

French Literature
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

Medieval Literature
Renard the Fox - Author unknown (the book refers to "Willem die Madocke maecte" ("Willem who made Madock") as the writer)
La Vita Nuova - Dante Alighieri

Italian Literature
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

Spanish Literature
Don Quixote - Miguel De Cervantes

[HarryHengst]

History
Hugh Thomas - The Spanish Civil War: Revised Edition (still the best single volume book on the topic)

Tony Judt - Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (excellent book for the lay reader)

Amelie Kuhrt - The Ancient Near East, c. 3000-330 BC (expensive, might a bit too academic for the average person)

Art History
Emile Male - The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century

Janson's History of Art (really, really expensive (the current edition goes for $150 new), but its a beautiful book and probably the best overview you can get for the history of art in the Western world.

Gender Studies
Christopher Killmartin - The Masculine Self (one of the few books which focusses on men).

Estelle Freedman - No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women (a history of feminism)

Allan Johnson - The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy (This book is a good introduction to feminism for both men and women, but it is especially useful for men. The author carefully examines feminist issues from the perspective of a man and provides insight into what can be done to combat patriarchy, misogyny and entrenched gender roles.

Naomi Wolf - The Beauty Myth (This book presents the author's take on the socially constructed concept of beauty and how it can be utilized as a tool of extreme violence against women.)

Economics
Ha-Joon Chang - Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (why economic policies dictated by the west are terrible for upcoming nations). He also has two other books which are excellent, both about capitalism and why its not as great as laissez-faire types want you to believe.

David Harvey - The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism (the origins of the current crisis from a marxist perspective).

Steve Keen - Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences