Travel Books

>No one cares what books I read.
No one cares about you at all. You're boring.

>sobs

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>You suck
Yes I do, and your blood is delicious :3

Theogeny is good, but I would choose something longer based on the context you gave. You would get many more hours of study and enjoyment out of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

I can't believe I forgot that. It probably would be more what I'm looking for, although I have no hard cap on what I can take, so both may be an option

>I'm trying to find things that can be studied and re-read with as much piercing insight as is possible in a single book.

Gravity's Rainbow

Well, that's two for Gravity's Rainbow. I know it falls in the meme trilogy, but I would be willing to read it. I just want to know, and please be authentic as possible for a single post; is it worth it? I know this is a generic question, but please humor me

Only Revolutions is insanely deep if you can stomach its style. Hours could be devoted to identifying every circle and symmetry, or to identifying every dissymmetry, or to untangling the dialogue and structure of chapter 3.5 (page 176-184), or to categorizing every Hope, or to deciphering the sidebars, etc

>No one cares what books I read. They hate them.
Goddamn you're such a fucking attention whore, you're the worst goddamn poster and are making this board worse
Kill yourself

Would Hegel be a good choice for this?

The Daodejing
Crime and Punishment as the others have said (Be sure to also have an axe on hand)

>I'll take one language book
That's really dumb. You won't learn Russian or Icelandic by reading the same book multiple times. You clearly have never attempted to learn a foreign language.

Lucretius -- On the nature of things. Get the Loeb translation for size. Next pick up a copy of Herodotus — Everyman’s Library edition. Then you’re done. Possibly Montaigne’s Essays but size is a constraint.

One shouldn't make "pretentious" choices, i.e. "I'll take these super deep books I never want to read normally, so I'll end up more cultured".

Take the kind of books you already read irl.

But I want books that 1) can teach me something and 2) keep me engaged with the text. Nothing posted is what I'd call "pretentious."
I assume you mean like a complete Herodotus' collection?
I already conceded this
Good
Now that's interesting. I'll look into that

If you're traveling then I'd recommend something a bit lighter. I think you'll be able to enjoy it more while traveling than held up in your room. For this, I recommend: Montaigne's Essays, Don Quixote, either War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov, Shakespeare, and one of those books that has both the Iliad and the Odyssey. If you're serious about philosophical works then I like your idea of the Enneads and Brahma Sutras. In addition to that consider the complete works of Nietzsche and some books from Jung. Also make sure you're going into this with the required prerequisites. You should have read Plato before you read Plotinus, obviously.

Yes

Memoires d'Outre-Tombe

magic mountain, infinite jest, phenomenology of spirit, being and time, the bible

>Enneads
Plotinus is like the poster child for why Kant was necessary for the West

What's that supposed to mean? That he was too mystical or something

Good choice desu.

I'd mix it up a bit with some history that you're weak on or something, so you at least have a range of genres.

This is good. I also forgot that I should have a book on edible plants and such, so I might lose space for that too. Not really sure where I'm weakest, though. I'd probably pick bronze age or napoleon because those two both interest me but I lack any real depth in them

Read shit that takes place or was written in the places/countries you are going.

The practical benefit of reading Plotinus is that his philosophy of mergence is actually very inspirational; reading him can set one's mind on fire, make it come alive, prompt one to want to write, even. It does honestly what poetry does dishonestly, if that makes any sense. Not that poetic dishonesty's so bad a thing.

Take along a pocket KJV. Doesn't matter whether or not youre religios btw.

Not to be cynical, but if you have any access to electricity, you're probably better off lugging around a kindle and charger than 4-5 books that you'll probably grow sick of quickly.

But for actual advice, I've gone on a couple of boat trips where I pretty much had just books for entertainment for a couple weeks, and I really enjoyed working through the Poetic Edda most of all. But if there was one book that I felt I could continually get value from re-reading, it would probably be The Brothers Karamazov.

Pilgrim at tinkers creek. Read it in the beginning and at least twice near the end

Russian here, if you want a good Russian book that isn't Crime and Punishment I'd recommend Fathers and Sons. It's an interesting books that explores nihilism and goes even deeper than that.

Also, I would recommend Sotnikov, incredibly melanchcolic book about two partisan soldiers captured by Russian soldiers who defected to the nazi side. I don't want to give too much away, but what is to come is not hard to figure out. In my opinion it's very rich with themes of legacy, inspiration and it's ultimate answer to why you should never pretend to be retarded. The only problem is that I am not sure if it's translated into English, I only now of French version. The movie version is great too, but it tried to bring religion into its themes (to the point that while casting director asked for someone that looks like Jesus for lead role)

And last book is Dog's Heart, it's one of my favorite books ever and it's about this doctor who turned a dog into human and how the human dog lives in society. I know it's translated into English and it's an excellent book. Movie version is most excellent too.