[NT] The ultimate NT books

[sunset5678]

My favorites are definitely Les Miserables and Wicked, those books changed my way of
thinking so much, in some ways I'm not the same person as I was before I read those b-
ooks because they made me realize that society is a joke and people are pretty much b-
rainwashed into conforming, not speaking out or thinking for themselves by fear of rejec-
tion. In some situations, I'm really outgoing and make friends easy but in others I keep
to myself and really don't give a flying fuck what people think how a lot of the people I
hang out with are complete opposites and I don't need things that some people crave li
ke attention for things they're good at or popularity in activities they're in, so even thou
gh I'm described as easy going and compassionate sometimes people with strong person-
alities are intimidate by or afraid of me because I just can't be pulled into ways of think-
ing I don't agree with, so I like fictional books that encourage using intellect or imaginat-
ion to make your own decisions

 

[Stillow]

To Kill A Mockingbird is one of my favorites. As a child, I knew people made erroneous assumptions about others that caused division, feared others for often no good reason, and built themselves up upon the destruction of their neighbors, sisters, brothers, etc... I read this book in Jr. High, I think, and the author confirmed those suspisions through the experiences of a child learning some hard lessons about life in her seemingly quaint little town. On some level, I still see the world the same way, the fearful mob of people afraid of change, afraid of losing, and refusing to see things any other way even if justice is maligned and mercy forsaken. I'm an INTP, but I suppose I am hopelessly romantic.

 

[brilliantwomble]

For kids I would recommend "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales" and "Math Curse." And for that matter, probably other kids books by Jon Scieszka. They are twisted, but I liked them a lot as a kid--still like them. Great picture books especially for NTs.

 

[MiasmaResonance]

I enjoyed reading 'The Elegant Universe'

It was reccomended to me on here by a fellow INTP.

Written by Brian Greene? Great book!

'Fabric of the Cosmos' is pretty good so far, but I liked 'Elegant' much better.

 

[sgtmac_46]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenence really appealed to me. A lot of people read it and then never look back, but I've found it to be really intensive and deep. It essentially delves into what quality really is.

Ditto on that Zen and Lila are both VERY NT books.........Pirsig is definitely an NT........I strongly suspect an INTP. Here's a rare interview with Pirsig. Robert Pirsig Discusses 'Lila: An Inquiry into Morals' : NPR


I'll add H.P. Lovecraft....Lovecraft writes NT horror......Lovecraft was also very likely an INTP.

Robert Heinlein writing is also very NT.

 

[dividend]

So many of my favorites have already been mentioned.

I love Heinlein, especially Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which is probably my single favorite book if I had to pick. But really anything of his.

Agree on the Asimov short stories, and Ender's Game, although I don't so much dig alot of the rest of OSC's stuff - particularly the Alvin Maker series.

Atlas Shrugged - I started reading it on a Friday night, looked up, it was Sunday, and my worldview was completely altered. I read it once year.

Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. Identifying with it too much was always like a moth getting too close to a flame, but I could never look away. Never had a reaction like that to any other book.

Flowers for Algernon makes me weep.

As a child? Sherlock Holmes, Tolkien, classic scifi, new pulpish scifi like Anne McCaffrey, Robert Jordan.

Here's a great quote from OSC about science fiction, that I think explains why so many of our choices are science fiction. He's writing about how science fiction writers are freed from any conventional constraints of time, space, possibility, and thus are free to invent their own moral context with which to best tell a story. It's from the introduction to an anthology called Future on Ice:

...Science fiction is the one place where moral philosophy can still be explored, in public, with an ardent audience that cares about the ideas being discussed. ... it is still possible, in the science fiction community, to write stories that explore genuinely strange or unpopular ideas. ... Many science fiction stories have such moral complexity they would leave the purveyors of soundbite religions speechless ... For science fiction, at its best, has the capacity to take its readers into societies that have never existed, or give ironic twists to the familiar milieux so that all meanings are transformed. ... The best of science fictions takes us away from the nightbound clashing of ignorant armies to the bright firelight of the storyteller, who torments and satisfies us, both at once, as he spins his complicated tale, explaining to us the otherwise inexplicable shadows on the wall. That is science fiction at its best...

 

[sofmarhof]

I second House of Leaves.

I can't be the only one who loves Bartleby the Scrivener.

 

[slowriot]

Id say for fun especially if you like Douglas Adams and Pratchett I think Italo Calvinos books might interest you. Like "Baron In The Tree" and "Mr Palomar".

If you want a book thats written in a stream of mind with no real plot and point to get to but just for the construct of words and beauty of words Id say Robert Walsers "The Robber" is a good choice.

And if you want society in the 50's Brooklyn to hit you straight in the face theres always "Last Exit to Brooklyn" by Hubert Selby Jr.

And of course Franz Kafka books

 

[realmsghzx]

Holy fuck, these are most of my favorite books!

I love Huxley, Hemingway, Rand, Wilde, and Hesse. All of their books rearranged my thought process. 1984 did, also. Kafka is good too, as well as all of the existentialist works I have read.

I haven't read House of Leaves, but a lot of people have recommended it to me.

When I was younger I loved fantasy and sci-fi.

 

[FDG]

I'd personally think of NT books as something technical, complex, innovative, combining different fields. This could be the ultimate NT book:

Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

(I have the book in .pdf format, if anybody is interested)

Principia Mathematica-Bertrand Russell
Common Sense of Exact Sciences- W.K Clifford
An Investigation into the Laws of Thought-George Boole
Mathematical Analysis of Logic- George Boole
Groundwork of Arithmetic-Gottlob Frege
Critique of Pure Reason-Immanuel Kant

This list is also pretty good, although some of these books have a cumbersome style (ex. Frege). Also, I reckon Principia Mathematica contains some inexact parts, since it was written before Goedel discovered his famous theorem.

 

[sofmarhof]

Chromophobia is a good one... a short little art book, its unifying theme being a concept rather than a time period. Sees connections between works that wouldn't normally be compared.

 

[Kenneth Almighty]

"The Modern Drunkard's Guide"

The most irreverent goddamn book in the world, you ENTPs out there will fall in love.

I'd personally think of NT books as something technical, complex, innovative, combining different fields. This could be the ultimate NT book:

Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

(I have the book in .pdf format, if anybody is interested)



This list is also pretty good, although some of these books have a cumbersome style (ex. Frege). Also, I reckon Principia Mathematica contains some inexact parts, since it was written before Goedel discovered his famous theorem.

I'd be glad to take a copy off your hands.

Speaking of Goedel, here's a great book for all you INTs (I should now, my dad's an INTJ/INTP):

Amazon.com: Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (9780465026562): Douglas R. Hofstadter: Books

 

[sofmarhof]

I just read I Am A Strange Loop by Hofstadter. I liked the first half, wasn't so into the second half, which was when he actually got to the point he was making... I think I should have gone with GEB as the first half is apparently just a rehashing of GEB anyway.