Just one book, The Life Divine

[Four Critiques of Badiou’s Ontology: Part 1
from Larval Subjects. I would argue that any and all materialist positions are committed to this thesis: Namely, to the thesis that it is the world, existence, that calls the shot, not thought... – and make no mistake, I believe he has made a profound contribution to ontology – ... Contrary to Badiou’s Platonist orientation of thought, I cannot help but adopt– at least at this point –an Aristotlean orientation of thought… That is, an orientation premised on things, objects, substances, rather than maths. larvalsubjects Says: November 22, 2008 at 12:35 am
One of Badiou’s central moves is to argue that ontology falls outside of philosophy and belongs to the domain of mathematics. larvalsubjects Says: November 22, 2008 at 12:59 am Badiou’s move is to shift away from questions of access altogether to decision and what follows through a series of entailments from that decision. An axiom is a decision, something performed, not a given that is received. With this he introduces something entirely new into the history of philosophy– at least, to my knowledge –that only Spencer-Brown approaches in his theory of distinctions (i.e., distinctions not as something that are already there in the world, but rather as something drawn thereby allowing a world to come into being)... larvalsubjects Says: November 22, 2008 at 2:56 am (Deleuze, it might be said, is attempting to form an ontology that would both be consistent with the thesis that being is and that avoids this trap) ... I have a difficult time answering your question about Spinoza because his ontology is so wild and wooly. He really doesn’t fit any category. Certainly his position is perfectly consistent with a materialist ontology such as we find in Lucretius.]

Despite all reverence to such an “educational culture,” one feels impelled to recommend just one book, The Life Divine. [TNM]