 | Oxford Dictionary of English
Essential for anyone interested in anything to do with the written English word. Forget rogets and co. Spend the extra and avoid the concise version too,£24 is very reasonable considering what you get
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 | Oxford Thesaurus of English (Thesaurus)
Buy used from: £9.11 essential for anyone interested in any sort of creative or intelligible writing. Also has doorstop value due to immense size.
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 | Fowler's Modern English Usage (Re-Revised 3rd Edition) by R.W. Burchfield
Buy new: £13.99 / Used from: £11.36 Highly recognised authority on the meaning of words. Sometimes criticised since Burchfield took over, but still the leading authority to most.
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 | A Glossary of Literary Terms
Buy used from: £2.54 Essential for anyone serious about literature. A dense collection of almost everything technical you need to know.
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 | Complete Works by Plato
Buy new: £23.10 / Used from: £18.73 Best complete book on Plato. The best way to get a good knowledge base in most areas of philosophy from one book. Although not exhaustive in the field.
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 | The Divine Comedy (Everyman's Library Classics) by Alighieri Dante
Buy new: £9.74 / Used from: £6.81 The poetic magnum opus of my favourite of the three great poets. Realised how good this translation is upon reading some others. The definitive version. Although lacks some of the minor bottichellis.
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 | Sandro Botticelli: The Drawings for Dante's "Divine Comedy" by Hein-Th. Schulze Altcappenberg
Buy new: £33.42 / Used from: £34.12 Perfect companion to the Divine Comedy. The annotations also make it a perfect way to remind yourself of the poem that it illustrates.
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 | La Vita Nuova (Dover Thrift) by Alighieri Dante
Buy new: £0.01 / Used from: £0.01 79p for 64 pages. If you don't like it, you can use it as toilet paper... but you will like it. Dante (and the world's) best romantic poetic work.
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 | Faust: Pt.1 (Oxford World's Classics) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Buy new: £1.93 / Used from: £1.16 Another romantic and moral work based on a different eternal feminine. The best and most adult version of Faust-lore.Pt2 is an optional extra, as not a true sequel.
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 | Faust: Part 2 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Buy new: £3.46 / Used from: £2.13 More of a tribute to Greek drama which features Faust than an actual sequel to Faust pt1. Goethe himself never came to a decision as to whether the books were linked. Worthwhile, but heed this warning
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 | The Annotated Alice: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" AND "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £5.59 The definitive alice. Often over-looked by those who deem their mind too adult. A book that is as deep as you are able to see in to it. Also includes the best (original)illustrations+explanatory notes
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 | Hannibal Lecter Trilogy by Thomas Harris
Buy new: £10.50 / Used from: £5.01 The best work of modern fiction. More entertaining than a film, and thus never leaves you mentally drained as some books do because of it's fluid and engaging style.
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 | Dracula (Penguin Popular Classics) by Bram Stoker
Buy new: £1.80 / Used from: £0.01 Stoker's only real success. The fact that it alone made him a legend speaks for itself. Renfield + Count Dracula = inspiration for Hannibal Lector?
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 | The Black Paintings of Goya by Juan Jose Junquera
Buy new: £7.92 / Used from: £7.35 Goya stands out from the rest as an emotive artist and has an impregnable air of mystery. His black paintings make up the bulk of his best work. All printed here with notes for a bargain price.
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 | The Poems of Wilfred Owen (Wordsworth Poetry Library) by Wilfred Owen
Buy new: £0.51 / Used from: £0.20 The complete(?) poems of Owen's short life. Unarguable a flawless case against the unjustifiable monster that has risen out of warfare in the last century.
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 | DSM-IV-TR: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM Hardcover)): Diagnostic and ... Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM Hardcover)) by American Psychiatric Association
Buy new: £45.60 / Used from: £63.81 Both price and esoteric complexity make this exclusively for the more serious reader. Flawed in many aspects, but is probably the best attempt to ever be made at the human mind in one holistic volume.
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 | 120 Days of Sodom (Arena Books) by Marquis De Sade D.A.F.
Buy new: £9.74 / Used from: £4.48 A study of French literature, perversion and (anti)morality that outdoes anything by Nietzsche. Also crammed with additional writings by the Marquis that will prove that this book is far from filth.
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 | 101 Philosophy Problems by Martin Cohen
Buy new: £2.06 / Used from: £0.01 A basic (but vague) introduction to the key areas of philosophy or a light work out for philosophy veterans. Hugely reliable in content and a hugely entertaining break from heavy going philosophising
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 | 101 Ethical Dilemmas by Martin Cohen
Buy new: £6.67 / Used from: £4.46 No where near as good or as impartial as the aforementioned by the same author, but well worth reading. Questionable tendency to put absolute answers to some of the dilemmas.
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 | The Sound of Water: Haiku - By Basho, Issa and Other Poets (Centaur Editions)
Buy used from: £19.95 Gorgeously printed pocket size book of Haiku from the three Haiku sensei. Read one or two a day and keep them in mind. Surprisingly cheap too considering quality and content.
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 | The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Special Editions) by William Shakespeare
Buy new: £3.99 / Used from: £3.01 No explanatory notes, so confidence in 'high style' is required. But the complete plays AND sonnets AND poems for less than £5 means no one has an excuse.
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 | The Doors of Perception: And Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
Buy new: £2.60 / Used from: £2.52 I have the flamingo version, which I assume is the same as this. Justifies hallucinogens for their perspective enhancing properties. The 'let's ban it' activists obviously don't know about this yet.
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 | Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover Thrift): A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott
Buy new: £1.47 / Used from: £0.01 Highly thought provoking introduction to H C Hinton's 4D theories. Although as Plato says; geometry is a just a hyper-real model to aid our comprehension. Still good as an attack on narrow-mindedness.
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 | A Clockwork Orange (Essential Penguin) by Anthony Burgess
Buy new: £3.58 / Used from: £0.01 This is my version, although there seem to be cheaper ones available. Good introduction to Burgess, a sharp reminder of the lack of free will and moral choice that can be CAUSED by democracy at large.
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 | Selected Poems from "Flowers of Evil" (Dover Thrift) by Charles Baudelaire
Buy new: £26.76 / Used from: £0.50 Flowers ripe with alternative ideas in response to the poets stagnating world. Echoes of De Sade. Usual 'more for less' by Dover Thrift.
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