I've just finished a novel 'Ubik' after a long stint of factual books.
Im in need of something new to read.

I thought the DMT NEXUS community would be an excellent place to ask for book recommendations.

If you have a moment, please list any books that you can think of that made a real impact on you.
Maybe give a short all time top 5 (in your own opinions).

Ill give a few of my favorites:

The Teachings of Don Juan (and the rest) - Carlos Castanada
Fingerprints of the Gods / Supernatural - Graham Hancock
Cosmic Trigger - Robert Anton Wilson
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA & The Origins of Knowledge
DMT - The Spirit Molecule - Strassman
The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying
The Magus of JAVA
The Art of War - Sun Tzu
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson
Food of the Gods - Terrence McKenna
Inner Paths to Outer Space - Strassman & co.

Herman Hesse - Der Steppenwolf
Iluminatus Trilogy

Not read yet but this author seems really interresting :

http://www.consciousentities.com/dennett.htm

cosmic trigger - robert anton wilson
beelzebub´s tales to his grandson - gurdjieff
siddharta - hesse
masnavi - Rumi
plants of the gods - hofmann and schultes
pleasantries of the incredible mulla nasrudin


maybe I remember more later

The War of Don Emmanuels Nether Parts - by Louis de Bernieres. And the other 2 in thetrilogy.

Good stuff so far...
Its interesting to see a nice diverse range like this...

Definitely going to read some 'Hesse'.
I've also only heard about this "Ken Wilber" guy today, need to find a good book of his to start on.

my most favorite fictional books in the entire world are dune and lord of the rings.

Read Hesse..read read read.

Ken Wilber is definatly "interesting" but to my taste a little bit to arrogant when it comes to his worldviews ..I've finished only half of his book....a story of everything or something like that.

For Hesse, I have to recommend the Glass Bead Game (also sometimes sold as Magister Ludi). It's a masterpiece. I've enjoyed his other stuff as well, but the Glass Bead Game is amazing.

Most Tom Robbins books are also quite worthwhile... Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas, Skinny Legs and All, and Still Life With Woodpecker are all excellent reads.

To the OP: Why Castaneda? The fact that he made up all of his fieldwork somehow put me off of the dude...

Great thread.

Farther Shores - Yvonne Kason
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditation and Other Devices - Christopher Hyatt

The alchemis - Paulo Coelho
siddhartha & steppenwolf -hermenne hesse
On the road & dharma bums -jack kerouac
doors of perception & The Book -Alan Watts
crime and punishment & notes from the underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Alien Agenda - Jim Maars (just read this one.Really.really interesting)

The Merck Index

hyperspace ~ michio kaku

"Modern Coin Magic" by J.B. Bobo. Maybe not the most enthralling read. There is no plot or story line. There is no attempt to create any depth to the characters, who are allways refered to as the audience. There is no attractive script or prose. Nor does the author bother to create a climax to the read, it ends abruptley on the last page. However, it changed my life. I have made lots of new friends and earned quite a lot of money from knowing the secrets within its covers.

Guns, Germs & Steel, Jared Diamond
Earth: An Intimate History, Richard Fortey
The Ancestor's Tale, Richard Dawkins
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable - "The Trilogy" - Samuel Beckett
Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar

You're right......
I read the first 4 books in a row, then did a fair bit of research on Castaneda and watched the documentary on him.

While at first it was disappointing to find out that most of his writing was fictional, I thought, well either way his books are great at least for the philosophical and spiritual insights. I always got something out of a Castaneda book, so i still maintain that he is a great author.

There is a lot of truth dressed up in his fiction.

P.S - Reading Steppenwolf.
Thanks for putting me on to HESSE - Nobel Prize for literature?! Cant be too shoddy.

you guys didn't know his writing was fictional?
they're epic fiction, sort of like Homer's Iliad/Odyssey

check out:
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Its kind of a documentary on Ken Keasy and the Merry Pranksters, turning on the world and freaking out the squares back before acid was illegal, in the early 60's.
It really does a great job of showing the universal mind of the pranksters!!

This book reminded me so much of the summer of 1993. I was 19, just graduated high school and the small town I lived in was flooded with very strong, very clean, very pure LSD. By mid summer there was a group-mind that we all were sharing, no words were necessary!! And not only when we were tripping!!
Not just my freinds & I, almost every young person in town was turning on!! It was like our own "Summer of love"!!

Acid Test explains this in such a fun & interesting way way!!

Cheers

WS

very similar to my own situation, a year later. kaleidoscope blotter and white fluff were running rampant (I think utah was the origin). man, good times.

speaking of fiction.

Clive Barker
Great and Secret Show and Everville, there was supposed to be a third but don't know if that will happen.
The series is based on the production of a super drug and the effects on two individuals (well at least the first book, it gets nice and strange after that).

The Mushroom Cultivator by Paul Stamets and JS Chilton. It's getting a little outdated, but it will get you by very nicely.

The Tao of Pooh/The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff. Amazing book. You will never look at childrens' shows the same. And on that note...

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh/The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. The entire world is explained in this book, in the simplest of terms, yet it's one of the hardest-to-understand books I've ever read. It's like Taoism's art film compared to Christianity's action flick of a bible.

Choke by Chuck Palhinuk. Really, anything by him is good.

Of course PiHKAL and TiHKAL by Alexander & Ann Shulgin. If I have to explain why, then you need to buy them.

The Idiot's Guide To Faith by some random Christian. I found this in a grocery store once with the tabloids. Fucking hilarious.

Not Always So by Shunryu Suzuki. Damn good intro to Buddhism. I like the fact that it says to put the book away, never read on Buddhism again and just live it.

I know there are more, but I can't think of any right now.