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From Mein Kampf to The Unabomber Manifesto, what is the best banned book or controversial book you have read? This could also be something you don't agree with but still think is worth reading.

From _Mein Kampf_ to _The Unabomber Manifesto_, what is the best banned book or controversial book you have read? This could also be something you don't agree with but still think is worth reading.

20 comments

The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson is probably my go to answer on this question. It's easier to read than The Illuminatus! Trilogy (though it still requires a bit of period knowledge) and is arguably one of the more profound social commentary pieces/quantum puzzles that's ever been presented in literary form. Pretty much everyone I have handed this book to has handed it back to me after about 60 pages, telling me that it's unreadable. Except for the last person...which explains why I do not have a printed copy of it at the moment.

If you've read it, there are actually individual unabridged versions of the books out there. I have never laid eyes on them, but they allegedly contain quite a bit more material and are a wholly different experience to paw through.

[–] Middle_Pillar 3 points (+3|-0)

I've only read his Prometheus Rising. I definitely want more RAW in my life.

RAW is the man! He lives on! His mission accomplished, we still talk of him!

[–] Middle_Pillar 2 points (+2|-0)

He really is awesome. I find myself holding the same philosophy (or absence of) the more I go through life.

[–] Sarcastaway 3 points (+3|-0) Edited

Twilight. My friends didn't blink at me talking about manifestos or communist literature I'd read, but apparently twilight was enough to offend their sensibilities. I'm still living that one down, and its been years.

Edit: I read "best" as "most," but I'm gonna let this comment stand.

[–] GumpyBastard 2 points (+2|-0)

Fahrenheit 451, just for the amount of irony that some schools would ban such a book.

[–] salty 2 points (+2|-0)

Hitlers Table Talk pretty interesting insight into fairly mundane subject matter.

[–] Grammar-Rabbi 2 points (+2|-0)

Top 3, in no particular order:

Well, there was nothing in there that should have been controversial, but since Jordan Peterson is pretty controversial on both the far Left and Right, I guess I'd put 12 Rules For Life on this list.

Ride the Tiger by Julius Evola.

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.

Anarchist Cookbook.
It was very primitive by todays standard. But it was an encyclopedia of the black arts when it was published.
It helped lay a solid foundation for my delinquency.

[–] mindtrip 1 points (+1|-0)

Mein Kampf was dull and the fact he was pacing up a down a cell while ranting comes through very well, don’t know why they bother banning it. Only part way through Das Kapital by Marx but it seems overly whiney and contemptuous. Probably the most retarded things I’ve read come from peer reviewed and published feminist research literature. It’s so unscientific it hurts and it’s all about twisting words.

[–] CDanger [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

Well that answers which controversial books are overrated, but which are good in your opinion?

[–] mindtrip 1 points (+1|-0)

I’m trying to think of some. I’d lean towards some of the manosphere shit like The Game by Strauss or The Book of Pook etc. A lot of bullshit in there but some hard truths as well.

[–] [Deleted] 0 points (+0|-0)

Lolita by the great Vladimir Nabokov. Please don't label me! I am not a pervoid! Nabokov is a genius with words and it is a magnificently written book. Yeah there are a couple disgusting moments but the book itself is pure genius.

[–] CDanger [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

No labeling here. What amazes me about authors such as Nabokov and Conrad is that they're able to write literature in multiple languages. Writing another language is difficult enough, so only a genius could write literature a foreign tongue.

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