Alpha recommended reading/books and authors

[alex]

Apologies if this has been discussed before.
I'm personally looking for fictional book & author recommendations but everything is good

[Cone]

George Lucas is supposedly INTj.

[Waddlesworth]

Orwell perhaps ENTp or INTj. Maybe INTp but I doubt it strongly. Never studied him too deeply so I could be wrong.

[Rocky]

Steven King- ILE.

[MysticSonic]

Steven King-ILI

Ursula Le Guin-LII?

[Rocky]

Steven King-ILI

aarrggghhhh....

[XcaliburGirl]

victor hugo. hunchback rocks by the way.

I keep meaning to read that. I loved Les Miserables, but he had this ridiculous habit of going off on tangents. I learned a lot about the sewers of Paris, though.

[alex]

Quickly gathered from reviews at amazon.com, Ursula K. Le Guin seems to be heavily influenced by Jung. Interesting

Maybe I'll check out Hunchback

[Rocky]

Oh, that just reminded me... this guy William Burgess also seems like an LII to me.

http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=27430

[discojoe]

Agatha Cristie - INTj (famous for her 70+ mystery novels)

C.S. Lewis - INTj (famous for the Narnia books and his other Christian writings)

George R.R. Martin - INTj (author of the incredible "A Song Of Ice And Fire" series)

Greg Keyes - ENTp (Author of the amazing "The Briar King," first in an excellent series)

J.R.R. Tolkien - INTj (duh)

EDIT: Ursula LeGuin is definitely INTj, Stephen King is INTp, imo.

[alex]

George R.R. Martin is amazing. Song of Ice and Fire 'affected' me or something haha

[MysticSonic]

"neither tolkien nor lewis are intj. they both have Ni quadra values'

Agreed.

[discojoe]

"neither tolkien nor lewis are intj. they both have Ni quadra values'

Agreed.

Elaborate? They seem like pretty clear-cut examples of INTj to me, and I'm hardly ever wrong. :wink:

EDIT: Maybe Tolkien was another type, but my insists that Lewis was INTj.

[MysticSonic]

That's just my general perception of them, but it's been a while since I read any Tolkein, and I haven't read any Lewis since the second grade.

[discojoe]

Elaborate?

their works have Ni concepts like the numinous as their foundations.

I'm deeply attracted to that sort of thing. Does that make me ENTj?

[Creepy-K]

Agatha Christie was INTp and her famous detective Hercule Poirot was the same. Famous Russian writer Tshechov was INTj. I suggest to read him.

[Creepy-k]

Definetly. Tsechov is translated into many languages. I know that some of hes stories are in the web also. Sorry, but I am not an English speaking person, so I might have wrote hes name wrong. But try to search from the google under name Tshechov. I know that there is a page, where they have put classics up to read for everione. Sad, that I don't know it's real adress.

[eunice]

Any recommendations?

[Creepy-bg]

[Logos]

Any recommendations?

Fiction or non-fiction?

[eunice]

Any recommendations?

Fiction or non-fiction?

Both.

[Creepy-bg]

Everything written by Rudy Rucker (most especially the Ware series)

[cracka]

Malcolm gladwell, The Tipping Point or Blink. Fun reads, the both of them.

[eunice]

Malcolm gladwell, The Tipping Point or Blink. Fun reads, the both of them.

My INTj dad bought them for me last week (together with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The 8th Habit, and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. ) I'm only half way through Seven Habits. (*yawn*)

(Do INTjs love to give books as gifts? )

[Logos]

Malcolm gladwell, The Tipping Point or Blink. Fun reads, the both of them.

My INTj dad bought them for me last week (together with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The 8th Habit, and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. ) I'm only half way through Seven Habits. (*yawn*)

(Do INTjs love to give books as gifts? )

Not as much as receiving them.

[Socionics Is A Cult]

This thread isn't really getting going - I know what books I like, but I'm not sure if they are Alpha...i.e. I don't think that just because a book is 'a bit dark', its not going to appeal to Alpha types .

Anyways, one of my fave books in recent times was Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - its about two rival magicians (the only two, in fact) in England during the time of the Napoleonic Wars - but don't let that put you off . The writing style is very tongue-in-cheek, rather than detached from the story, which is rather brilliant - it seems like a narrative of real events .

Chapter 1
The library at Hurtfew
Autumn 1806-January 1807

SOME YEARS AGO there was in the city of York a society of magicians. They met upon the third Wednesday of every month and read each other long, dull papers upon the history of English magic.

They were gentleman-magicians, which is to say they had never harmed anyone by magic - nor ever done anyone the slightest good. In fact, to own the truth, not one of these magicians had ever cast the smallest spell, nor by magic caused one leaf to tremble upon a tree, made one mote of dust to alter its course or changed a single hair upon anyone's head. But, with this one minor reservation, they enjoyed a reputation as some of the wisest and most magical gentlemen in Yorkshire.

A great magician has said of his profession that its practitioners ". . . must pound and rack their brains to make the least learning go in, but quarrelling always comes very naturally to them",l and the York magicians had proved the truth of this for a number of years.

In the autumn of 1806 they received an addition in a gentleman called John Segundus. At the first meeting that he attended Mr Segundus rose and addressed the society. He began by complimenting the gentlemen upon their distinguished history; he listed the many celebrated magicians and historians that had at one time or another belonged to the York society. He hinted that it had been no small inducement to him in coming to York to know of the existence of such a society. Northern magicians, he reminded his audience, had always been better respected than southern ones. Mr Segundus said that he had studied magic for many years and knew the histories of all the great magicians of long ago. He read the new publications upon the subject and had even made a modest contribution to their number, but recently he had begun to wonder why the great feats of magic that he read about remained on the pages of his book and were no longer seen in the street or written about in the newspapers. Mr Segundus wished to know, he said, why modern magicians were unable to work the magic they wrote about. In short, he wished to know why there was no more magic done in England.

(the next 15 pages are here)

[Socionics Is A Cult]

Another book I have liked recently is Kitchen by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto. Its about this girl who is trying to get to grips with the death of her grandmother, and then later, the death of her friend's transsexual father. It's very descriptive in terms of emotions and sensations and so on - not a lot happens in the book, but its a good mood piece. If you like kitchens and food, you probably don't like them as much as this character :wink: - she's obsessed! I think ISFps and INFps would probably like it in particular, but I liked it, so what am I talking about?

In this novel, a young Japanese woman named Mikage Sakurai struggles to overcome the death of her grandmother. She gradually grows close to one of her grandmother's friends from a flower shop and ends up staying with him and his transsexual mother.

The novel centers around food and its preparation. From Mikage's love of kitchens to her job as a restaurant critic to the multiple scenes in which food is merely present, Kitchen is a short window into life of a young Japanese woman and her discoveries about food and love.

[Logos]

- A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)
- Freakonomics (Steven Levitt)
- Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen)
- A Critique of Pure Reason (Immanuel Kant)
- The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx)
- Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
- anything by Dr. Seuss

[Elro]

- A Critique of Pure Reason (Immanuel Kant)

grr

[Elro]

My own favorites (assuming I'm Alpha):

-Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
-The Discworld series
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
-Alice in Wonderland
-Ender's Game
-Fahrenheit 451
-Calvin & Hobbes ()
-Lots of stuff by Roald Dahl

And philosophy-wise I far preferred David Hume (Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding) to Kant, who I found unreadable.

[Logos]

Mine were just lists of books that are Alpha and not necessarily recommendations. I do not recommend books just because they are Alpha. I just recommend books if I think that people will enjoy them.

[Logos]

- A Critique of Pure Reason (Immanuel Kant)

grr

I can't read Kant, this means something right?

It means only that you can't read Kant.

[Elro]

- A Critique of Pure Reason (Immanuel Kant)

grr

I can't read Kant, this means something right?

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liber...y/kantsong.mp3
Listen to that 40+ times, that's how I got through it.

You'll need to check a philosophical dictionary, too... godspeed.

Edit: The singer sounds a little like Kermit.

[Logos]

These books are not necessarily Alpha, but simply books which I happened to enjoy reading even if they belong to another Quadra.

- For the Time Being (Annie Dillard)
- The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch)
- The Prince of Nothing Trilogy (R. Scott Bakker)
* The Darkness That Comes Before
* The Warrior Prophet
* The Thousandfold Thought
- If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor (Bruce Campbell)
- The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien)
- Dune (Frank Herbert)
- A Song of Ice and Fire Series (George R.R. Martin)
* A Game of Thrones
* A Clash of Kings
* A Storm of Swords
* A Feast for Crows
- The Gnostic Gospels (Elaine Pagels)
- The Gnostic Scriptures (Benton Layley)

[eunice]

Great titles! I have always known that Alpha types have very good taste in books. :wink:

- Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)

Why Alpha? I only watched the musical so far, and I have always thought that it seems Gamma. Serious>Merry, , imo. However, I have to admit that an ISTj acquaintance once said that he liked it because it is "emotionally uplifting".

[Logos]

Great titles! I have always known that Alpha types have very good taste in books. :wink:

- Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)

Why Alpha? I only watched the musical so far, and I have always thought that it seems Gamma. Serious>Merry, , imo. However, I have to admit that an ISTj acquaintance once said that he liked it because it is "emotionally uplifting".

1) The author gives his name to the ESE. :wink:
2) The book is a social commentary on law, justice, compassion, love (platonic and romantic), and redemption. Fe>Fi, Ti>Te, and Si>Se points to Alpha.

[implied]

the love letters of victor hugo, btw. but i think this goes without saying.

[Darkstar]

Don quijote

[munenori2]

Another book I have liked recently is Kitchen by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto. Its about this girl who is trying to get to grips with the death of her grandmother, and then later, the death of her friend's transsexual father. It's very descriptive in terms of emotions and sensations and so on - not a lot happens in the book, but its a good mood piece. If you like kitchens and food, you probably don't like them as much as this character :wink: - she's obsessed! I think ISFps and INFps would probably like it in particular, but I liked it, so what am I talking about?

No way! You're the only other person I've met who's read this. I want to say I read another of her books, but looking over the list none of them look very familiar.

Other alpha books, hmm. I think maybe the Red Dwarf books could qualify (I guess the tv show, but I thought the books were far superior). Maybe Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman could qualify, but I'm less certain on those.

[Elro]

Don quijote

I have tried like three times and just can't get through that book.

I'd say Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are Alpha also, though I haven't gotten through any of the latter's books either. (Only tried one though.)

I got through Catch-22 semi-recently and recommend that (although it will take a while to understand what is going on, unless you're way quicker than I am). Not sure about the book itself, but I think Yossarian is probably Alpha (SEI?).