Here is my small selection from many great books that I have had the pleasure of reading. These are serious books where the focus is on society and future. You will be surprised by the immense residual-impact
that these books can have on your whole personality and your way of thinking forever.
1. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
This has got to be the one and only book that you must read if you really want to understand your relationship with the world, society, governments and how the modern living environment around you has affected your way of thinking.
2. Power Shift by Alvin Toffler
This is a very complex book with so much stuff in it that can only be extracted by reading a shelf-full of books. Just look at the length of bibliography in this book, and you will understand what I mean. By the time you finish it, you would want to go back and read it once more.
3. When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten
It is difficult to get past the first 100 pages in this book, but once you do that, you have entered into a new area of knowledge about how the current global economy has evolved and how it affects your day to day life. Trust me, the insight that you gain from this experience cannot be gained by just reading Financial Times, or watching such TV channels, etc.
4. Made in Japan by Akio Morita
This is a nostalgic biography from the legendary Akio Morita. It fixes any flaws in your perspective if you think that US or Western Europe are inherently superior to everyone else. I wish someone in India writes "Made in India", perhaps in another 25 years.
5. Macroscope by Piers Anthony
I got this book while I was still in high-school, and after STAR Trek this was the book that paved the way for my life-long interest in sci-fi. It helped me understand our place in the Universe without going into the details of Drake Equation.
Has anyone read any three of the above books?
The books mentioned above are mostly general purpose books, which anyone with an open mind can enjoy. Below is another book that I cannot leave without mentioning here.
0. Topics in Algebra by i. n. herstein
This is the most serious of all books, and is typically read by mathematics undergraduate students as part of their curriculum. Of all the books that I have ever read as part of any academic life, I find that this book was simply the BEST.