I recommend all these books, if not by virtue of having read them myself, then by virtue of researching them. Here we go!
Field Guides
Army Ranger Handbook: $20 new, $40 used (wtf). There is also a seller on Amazon selling them for $8.50. The U.S. Army publishes all sorts of survival handbooks, some of which are readable online. However, this one is, as far as I can tell, the best of the lot (I obviously haven’t bought them all, geez).
Where There Is No Doctor: $20 new, $21 used (really, Amazon?). A great, great reference for all sorts of doctoring. If you plan on going…well, where there is no doctor, you should have this book. First written in the 1970s, updated over the years and most recently in 2007. I own a copy and take it with me on trips everywhere. It has info on everything from gangrene to various bites to hypothermia and cholera.
Pocket Ref: $9.32 new, don’t buy used. This book, by some miracle of small font and thin pages, crams TONS of information into a book that will easily fit in your pocket. I recommend clicking on “Look inside this book” on Amazon and checking out the table of contents and stuff. Funny story: When I was going to buy this, I figured that I would check to see if it had something random I wanted to know. If it did have it, I would buy it. I wanted to know about cloud formations and what weather they signaled. Well, it didn’t have it but I bought it anyways. Then, when it arrived, I checked again and it had three pages about various cloud formations. Jackpot!
The Zombie Survival Guide: $10 new, $6 used. You might need this sooner than you think. Very comprehensive.
Programming/Math
Programming Pearls, 2nd edition: $30 new, $20 used. This book is an amazing collection of various code examples that illustrate all sorts of algorithms and techniques. A great read.
Edward Tufte’s books on data visualzation: I like Edward Tufte’s books. They have some amazing stuff in them. However, unless you’re hardcore into statistics and data visualization, you could settle for Envisioning Information ($35 new, $17 used) and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (2nd ed. $28 new, $17 used).
Schaum’s 3000 Solved Calculus Problems: ($19 new, don’t buy used). Worried about your Calculus skills going to waste when you have no math-related classes? I do. Hence this book, recommended by my Calc prof. Do a couple problems a day and you should be good to go.
Bathroom Companions
Mental Floss: Condensed Knowledge and others: $10 each. Great books by the mental_floss magazine, which is itself pretty excellent. Full of fun trivia and informative tidbits! All you need to do to appear cultured is to remember half the material in one of these books.
MAD Bathroom Companion: The Mother Load: $20. MAD Magazine compiled a bunch of stuff into this ridiculous, funny, huge book consisting of hilarious comics and crude jokes. As its name suggests, it truly is a great bathroom companion.
Philosophy
Koran (Qu’ran) [alternate translation]: $10.00 new, $5.00 used. alternate translation $5.00 new. I’m disappointed by the number of Americans who blindly judge the Muslim faith. This text is the Muslim text, and honestly if you read it, it’s not at all bad. It is a very open religion, and it’s only the jihadists who, like the Catholic inquisitors, break the very tenets of their faith in blind misguidance. If nothing else, it’s a good read.
Tao te Ching and Chuang Tzu: $10.00 each new. Taoism is a religion that has got it right, if you ask me. These two texts are central to the Taoist faith. Whether or not they make sense depends on how slowly you read them, but the Taoist philosophy is outlined here, as a gem in the rough, that can help anyone with some spiritual improvement.
Bhagavad Gita: $10.00 new, $7.00 used. An excellent translation by Stephen Mitchell, this book provides a surprising insight into Asiatic and Indian religion. The Bhagavad Gita is the central text of Hinduism, from which both Taoism and Buddhism have sprung. It has lots of good ideas, and understanding the Gita is important if you want to understand Indian culture (this is less true now, but still).
King James Study Bible: $30 new, $25 used. Although I haven’t bought this bible myself, having inherited two or three bibles from my parents, I plan on getting it eventually. The Bible is a great story, and it presents interesting ideas. I wouldn’t base my life on it, but oh well. Study bibles have tons of additional stuff. This particular bible has over 2,000 pages!
Plato’s Republic: $13 new, $4 used. I don’t know what to say about this one, to be honest. It’s one of the books I just bought. Apparently one of the best translations of Plato, and it comes with a glossary and introduction and essay and stuff (standard fare). Plato’s Republic is probably the most well-known piece of Greek philosophy, although not the most recognized piece of literature (that would probably be the Odyssey, which, along with the Iliad, also has an entry on this list). Like most (all?) of Plato’s work, Republic is a Socratic dialog: Socrates and various other people talking. Republic had a pretty major impact on politics and political science, including setting the groundwork for our society today.
Comics
Bone: One Volume Addition: $25 new, $15 used. An absurdly excellent comic with an epic plot and hilarious writing. Highly recommended! It’s sort of a “thinking man’s comic” if said thinking man likes to crap his pants from laughing.
Fiction
The Iliad and The Odyssey. $10 each new, $3-4 each used. Classics in every sense of the word, these epic poem/novels are not only ancient but they are still very engrossing. In the Iliad, relive the epic of the Trojan War in a way that no later book has been able to reproduce. In the Odyssey, follow the journey of Odysseus through many perils to his front door, and then observe as he acts really sneaky and kills lots of dudes in his house.
