Never had the will to go through this topic, neither the one to write in it, so now that I do; Beware of the massive Post!!!
Witch you post books that seems really cool about anthropology, shaman, vodoo and stuff like that, gonna read them soon!
In your honor, I will start with...
In anthropology:
I liked Levy-Strauss, "Tristes Tropiques" "sad tropics", where he's telling the stories he had in south america mixed with his anthropology theories. And sadly, I didnt found any translation of this documentary but it's the best I've seen about vodoo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1MgBFszWhs "Les animaux dénaturés" Jean Bruller alias Vercors: Fun book reflecting about what defines humanity, but the reflection is inserted in a story where a species that is the link between humans and apes is discovered in an island.
Absurd:
"Il cavaliere inesistente", Italo Calvino: The story of a knight that doesn't exist and of his squire that mistakes himself with the things he sees (yeah that's exactly what i meant). Very fun to read like every Italo Calvino but this one is the best!
"les rhinoceros", Eugene Ionesco: Fascism explained by rhinoceros, classic!
Philosphy:
"What the Buddha taught", Walpola Rahula: A very philosophical approach of Buddhism, and a very convincing explanation of what it was truly about at the start, this is the book that really made me enter in the buddhist philosophy.
Adventure:
"latitude zero", Mike Horn: The author tells the story of his crazy adventures around the globe, as he decided to circle the world by the equator. Where he has to travel oceans or pass across the Amazon jungle alone or face guerillas in Africa and south America. Plus it's a swiss author!
On economy:
"Capital in the Twenty-First Century", Thomas Picketty: Amazing book, not difficult to read as the autor use some humor sometimes, references to litterature character and explain everything very well. There is a crazy amount of important informations about the history of society and economy and how the economy works. Everything purely based on facts (records of fortune and historical sources). Changed my perspective on many things and reaveled a lot to me.
In sci-fi:
"Do androids dreams of eletric sheep?", Philip K. Dick: The book that inspired Blade runner, but the book is a thousand times better than the movie!
And I will end up with my favorite author,
Haruki Murakami. He manages to put the perfect transition from reallity to fantasy by small steps almost invisble and you end up in a completly different world parallel to ours!
Imo the best of his book is "Kafka on the Shore" and then the serie "1Q84"
edit: not so massive post in the end.
