Ask Lemmy

Old man and the sea

If it's a book, and it's in 20-70 years from now, maybe Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. By then, those books will probably read as a history and you can marvel at Octavia Butler's prescience.

Im going to deviate slightly. I'd say the last film I want to see is Synecodoche, NY. I hope that, on reflection, my life's work is as grand as that of PSH's character in the film.

I just hope that, despite the work, I get out more often.

Personally I'd recommend the Quran. Although I wouldn't recommend delaying reading it.

I wouldn't wait to read something I actually want to read, because life and death is unpredictable.

I would rather plan to reread a book at different stages of life and find out how much I've changed by how differently feel about the same story.

Or I'd (re)read something like House of Leaves, just because it'd be very funny to have that type of book be the thing that finally kills me.

Something lighthearted and not depressing. Anne of Green Gables

I don't have a real recommendation, I just want to say that I think this is a bad idea; What if the highly recommended book turns out to be one you find mindnumbingly boring and/or stupid? I can see this working if it's the last book in a series you already like, but otherwise it's risky.

Read what you want, and don't hesitate.

Also, phonebook.

You want to save a book you want to read till you're super old?

Accidents happen...

If you want to read a book, read the book. Don't plan to read it in 20-60 years

I'd read an encyclopedia of the history of my lifetime to remember things I might have forgotten.

That and a photo album of my life.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It's a farewell and reflection on his life as he faces his inevitable death from cancer. It's beautiful and sad and insightful

There's no way I'll want to read heavy shit when I'm already staring down the barrel of mortality. I'm going for some YA pulp nonsense that I can clown on with my contemporaries. maybe the Twilight saga.

Respectfully, how do you know your mind will start to fail after your body? If you keep avoiding not reading that book, your odds of permanently depriving yourself of it continue to increase... Read the book, discuss it with your loved ones.

I feel like that's such a personal choice as to what you'd like your final thoughts to be. I, "funny" enough, was just talking to a friend with terminal cancer about what they're reading yesterday. It was "The Once and Future King," a childhood favorite. Nostolgia aside, they love the sweet tragedy of the story, the silly and earnest warmth of it.

For me, maybe something like the Doadejing or Siddhartha, something reassuring that life had been good and that a peaceful end is the best outcome to a well-lived life.

Irvyn Yalom - Staring at the Sun

Look to Windward by Iain M Banks.

Tuesdays with Morrie. One of my favorite books.

The far side comic collection

Allegedly Shakespeare said not to see King Lear until you’re old. It’s pretty brutal. I recommend it sooner.

Depends what you're interested in?

Poetry, I would suggest quite a few poets. If I had to pick one it would the French Paul Eluard... which is not even the greatest poet in my opinion, just the one I first fell in love with as a young reader. If not him I would pick Baudelaire (another French poet) or maybe René Char. In English this time, the amazing Emily Dickinson. Those wrote verses I would love to read one last time when time comes.

Philosophy? Here again it all depends the languages you can read. Spinoza, Nietzsche, Plato, Aristotle. a few selected pages from Marx. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Diderot are way too often not read by too many people that so poorly speak of them and their ideas. Which is kinda sad but also very telling our days. I would consider re-reading Emmanuel Levinas.

Spirituality? I mean, the New Testament is a great text whether you believe in a god or not. So is Marcus Aurelius, or Saint Augustin.

Novels? Tolstoy 'War and Peace' and his 'Anna Karenina' (the best novel that was ever written), or my dear Flaubert 'Madame Bovary' (or his "La tentation de Saint Antoine"), Marcel Proust "A la recherche du temps perdu" (but here one would need to die real slow to be able to read it from start to finish ;)

Plays? The complete work of Molière, which is still the best playwright ever along with Racine, Shakespeare and the Ancient Greeks.

Or maybe get a taste of the root of all Western literature? Read Homer. Or a personal lifelong companion of mine: Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', a book that quite literally...metamorphosed my life.

Or maybe some comics? Watterson's "Calvin & Hobbes" would be my first pick. Then some Asterix (from the time their original creators were both alive, not their modern reboots)

I heard an owl call my name

The Road.

By the time you finish it, you’ll be glad you’re almost dead.

Whatever book you remember reading first, read it again at the end.

well, the best book I've EVER read was Abandoned by Anya Peters. So sad. I'm glad she came through okay and lived a better life.