
A parody of traveler’s tales and a satire of human nature, “Gulliver’s Travels” is Jonathan Swift’s most famous work which was first published in 1726. An immensely popular tale ever since its original publication, “Gulliver’s Travels” is the story of its titular character, Lemuel Gulliver, a man who loves to travel. A series of four journeys are detailed in which Gulliver finds himself in a number of amusing and precarious situations. In the first voyage, Gulliver is imprisoned by a race of tiny people, the Lilliputians, when following a shipwreck he is washed upon the shores of their island country. In his second voyage Gulliver finds himself abandoned in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, where he is exhibited for their amusement. In his third voyage, Gulliver once again finds himself marooned; fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics. He subsequently travels to the surrounding lands of Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan. Finally in his last voyage, when he is set adrift by a mutinous crew, he finds himself in the curious Country of the Houyhnhnms. Through the various experiences of Gulliver, Swift brilliantly satirizes the political and cultural environment of his time in addition to creating a lasting and enchanting tale of fantasy. This edition is illustrated by Milo Winter and includes an introduction by George R. Dennis.
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IN_PROGRESS:
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STARTED, BUT DID NOT FINISH (That's a big add list):
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- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (feels to hard to tackle right now)
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- Demand Side Sales
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Note:
- I keep notes on books I finished on my site, but need to bring it up to date: https://www.rasulkireev.com/book-notes/
I strongly disagree. There are many counterexamples, some authors are still widely read. Besides Shakespeare, it's Defoe, his Robinson Crusoe is one of defining books for me, later I also enjoyed Journal of the Plague Year and Moll Flanders. Swift's Gulliver's Travels is in top ten list all of the books I ever read.
Although I read A LOT as a kid, I skipped most of the classics. (Meaning: anything not sci-fi, fantasy, or non-fiction.)
Around 30yo, I got Gulliver's Travels as a gift. Wow. I loved it. Provided context for so many common clichés.
So I started to check other classics off the list (as able). I wish I'd started earlier. Face palm slap.
Good, bad, or indifferent, being exposed to the origins of ideas expanded my worldview and gave me appreciation for what followed.
> Around 30yo, I got Gulliver's Travels as a gift. Wow. I loved it. Provided context for so many common clichés.
Another writer whose works are just a bunch of clichés. I was disappointed to find Shakespeare was the same. (that is supposed to be a joke, BTW).
I do not think it such a disaster to read those at 30. better to read them a bit later and enjoy them, than to read them earlier and not. What you enjoy does change over time.
I think the most important thing is to get kids to read, then to read anything reasonably good.
Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein)
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (one story in the book "Different Seasons" by Stephen King)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury)
Roadside Picnic (Strugatsky)
Frankenstein (Shelley)
Brave New World (Huxley)
Farenheit 451 (Heinlein)
Never Cry Wolf (Mowatt)
A Whale for the Killing (Mowatt)
The Machine Stops (Forster)
Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
Starship Troopers (Heinlein)
The Jungle Book (Kipling)
Lost in the Barrens (Mowatt)
The Republic (Plato)
Rendezvous with Rama (Clarke)
Ringworld (Niven)
The Stainless Steel Rat (Harrison)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson)
The Odyssey (Homer)
The Man who Would be King (Kipling)
The Pearl (Steinbeck)
Thus Spake Zarathustra (Nietzsche)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Dick)
A Scanner Darkly (Dick)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams)
Dracula (Stoker)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
The Wind in the Willows (Grahame)
A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Carroll)
Watership Down (Adams)
Gulliver's Travels (Swift)
Animal Farm (Orwell)
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
Bohumil Hrabal: Cutting it Short
Antal Szerb: The Pendragon Legend
