Orthodoxy

Progress & Poverty (1879) by Henry George Orthodoxy (1908) by G.K. Chesterton The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky

GK Chesteron's Orthodoxy: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/130/pg130-images.html

The only reason anyone needs to never read anything by Dan Brown is Dan Brown's writing. I'm terrible at random-access, on-demand list building like this, but I strongly agree about a few of the other things mentioned here: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis Walden by Thoreau A few of the better and more philosophical bits out of the bible (especially in a good modern translation), including Ecclesiastes and 1 Corinthians 13 To this list, I would also add Ralph Waldo Emerson's classic essays, including Self-Reliance and Experience

I thought the same of Orthodoxy. Chesterton just has a way with words and thoughts.

"Orthodoxy" - GK Chesterton "The Abolition of Man" - CS Lewis "The Master and Margarita" - Mikhail Bulgakov "The Brothers Karamazov" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

How can there be 71 comments and not one mention of G. K. Chesterton? Go out, right now, and check out The Everlasting Man and Orthodoxy from your local library. I would also throw out there Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford, as something to inspire makers & engineers without being a technical book. If you like history, David McCullough's biography John Adams is a masterpiece (also see 1776 by the same author). I can't think of anything else that hasn't already been mentioned.