In this article, we will talk about “Intellectual Books To Read Before You Die — Best Intellectual Books”. Intellectuals refer to those mental workers who have a higher degree of cultural expertise among contemporary social workers, and whose specialized profession is to create, accumulate, and disseminate cultural expertise.
Intellectuals are a historical category, which arises with the emergence of classes and the separation of manual and mental labor, and it will also disappear with the abolition of classes and the elimination of the difference between manual and mental labor.
Therefore, it is a social mental worker stratum formed in a specific historical stage due to the division of labor, the lack of cultural education, and the lack of science and technology. In different countries and different historical periods, the criteria for determining intellectuals are different.
The criteria for determining intellectuals at the current stage in my country are mental workers who have an educational level of technical secondary school or above and are engaged in scientific research, education, cultural communication, technology application, business management, and other professional and technical work.
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Intellectual Books To Read Before You Die — Ultimate List 2021
Table Of Contents
- 1. Talent Is Overrated
- 2. The Art Of War
- 3. Thinking, Fast and Slow
- 4. A Short History of Nearly Everything
- 5. The Greatest Secret in the World
- 6. Cosmos
- 7. The Tempest
- 8. The Republic
- 9. A Tale of the Two Cities
- 10. A Brief History of Time
- 11. Pride and Prejudice
- 12. 1984
- 13. One hundred years of solitude
- 14. Letter to Garcia
- 15. Les Miserables
- 16. The old man and the sea
- 17. Republic
- 18. Grapes of Wrath
- 19. Death of a salesman
- 20. The catcher in the Rye
- 21. The Analects
- 22. War and peace
- 23. The social contract
- 24. Hamlet
- 25. The Great Gatsby
- 26. The little prince
- 27. Meditation
- 28. Capital
- 29. Walden Lake
- 30. How to Read a Book
- 31. 2666
- 32. Desert Solitaire
- 33. Disgrace
- 34. Geek Love
- > This is Why You Should Read Books — Benefits of Reading Books
- > Why reading matters
1. Talent Is Overrated
by Geoff Colvin
Why are certain people so incredibly great at what they do? Most of us think we know the answer — but we’re almost always wrong. That’s important, because if we’re wrong on this crucial question, then we have zero chance of getting significantly better at anything we care about.
Happily, the real source of great performance is no longer a mystery. Bringing together extensive scientific research, bestselling author Geoff Colvin shows where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable. It isn’t specific, innate talent, nor is it plain old hard work. It’s a very specific type of work that anyone can do — but most people don’t.
2. The Art Of War
by Sun Tzu
The title of the book is so funny… “They criticized me again, saying that I directed the war with the romance of the Three Kingdoms and the art of war of Sun Tzu.
In fact, I didn’t read Sun Tzu’s art of war at that time; I had seen the romance of the Three Kingdoms several times, but when commanding the war, who could remember the romance of the Three Kingdoms. I asked them: since you said that I was under the command of the art of war by Sun Tzu, I think you must have read it.
3. Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking.
He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives―and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Topping bestseller lists for almost ten years, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a contemporary classic, an essential book that has changed the lives of millions of readers.
4. A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail — well, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand — and, if possible, answer — the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us.
To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, traveling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.
5. The Greatest Secret in the World
by Og Mandino
One of the world’s most influential writers shares one of the world’s greatest secrets for your personal and financial success . . . in his dynamic sequel to The Greatest Salesman in the World, Og Mandino’s Spellbinding Bestseller.
“This tremendously challenging book will inspire the reader to realize his moral, spiritual, and financial goals!” — Wallace E. Johnson, Vice Chairman, Holiday Inns, Inc.
“It’s inspiring. It’s terrific! It motivates the reader.” — W. Clement Stone, Chairman, and CEO, Combined Insurance Company of America
6. Cosmos
by Carl Sagan
Cosmos retraces the fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution that have transformed matter into consciousness, exploring such topics as the origin of life, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, spacecraft missions, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies, and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science.
7. The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
The characters exceed the roles of villains and heroes. Prospero seems heroic, yet he enslaves Caliban and has an appetite for revenge. Caliban seems to be a monster for attacking Miranda but appears heroic in resisting Prospero, evoking the period of colonialism during which the play was written. Miranda’s engagement with Ferdinand, the Prince of Naples, and a member of the shipwrecked party helps resolve the drama.
This edition includes:
- Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
- Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
- Scene-by-scene plot summaries
- A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
- An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
- An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
- Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
- An annotated guide to further reading
8. The Republic
by Plato
Originating in approximately 380 BC, Republic is a Socratic dialogue written by the famed Greek philosopher Plato. Often referred to as Plato’s masterwork, Republic’s central goal is to define the ideal state. By conceptualizing this model state, Greeks believed it would lead states formed with its principles in mind to function the most efficiently and fairly, striving toward justice and the greater good of society.
This edition includes a foreword by British American philosopher and Plato expert Simon Blackburn. Widely read around the world by philosophy students and academics alike, Plato’s Republic is sure to pass on its invaluable lessons and enlighten the next generation of thinkers.
9. A Tale of the Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
A novel by Charles Dickens published both serially and in book form in 1859. The story is set in the late 18th century against the background of the French Revolution. Although Dickens borrowed from Thomas Carlyle’s history, The French Revolution, for his sprawling tale of London and revolutionary Paris, the novel offers more drama than accuracy.
The scenes of large-scale mob violence are especially vivid, if superficial in historical understanding. The complex plot involves Sydney Carton’s sacrifice of his own life on behalf of his friends Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette. While political events drive the story, Dickens takes a decidedly antipolitical tone, lambasting both aristocratic tyranny and revolutionary excess — the latter memorably caricatured in Madame Defarge, who knits beside the guillotine.
The book is perhaps best known for its opening lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” and for Carton’s last speech, in which he says of his replacing Darnay in a prison cell, “It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” — The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
10. A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawkins
A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as How did the universe begin — and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending — or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?
Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God — where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.
BEST and Great 
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