Ask HN: Which books changed your life? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which books changed your life?

11 pointsaadilrazvi16 comments

What books inspired you? Changed your worldview?

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Universe by Freedman and Kaufmann http://www.amazon.com/Universe-Roger-Freedman/dp/142923153X

Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre http://www.amazon.com/Existentialism-Dostoevsky-Sartre-Revis...

A Kierkegaard Anthology http://www.amazon.com/Kierkegaard-Anthology-Soren/dp/0691019...

Party of One: The Loner's Manifesto by Anneli Rufus http://www.annelirufus.com/partyofone/

The Mindbody Prescription by John E. Sarno http://www.amazon.com/The-Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body...

In no particular order:

Politics and philosophy:

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn (even though in the end, it's just a cute, in essence a softies introduction to anarchist communism)

On property - Proudhon (Meta, ye oldist anarchy) Das Kapital (If you read Marx, also read on Marx, can't stress this enough)

Beyond good and evil (but in his thought in general) - Nietzsche (Mainly for showing there are no absolutes, moral is what we make of it, and in that moral we can excel)

And so, so many others, philosophy really adds up, just keep on reading, there's fundamental books for sure, but every publication adds up in some respect.

Sports and nutrition:

Starting Strength (for making me bad ass strong in the last couple years)

'Paleo' diet (for showing an extreme solution for a more simple problem, that actually worked and made me not fat anymore)

Some random books that made a huge impression the last years:

The Alchemist, for showing how humble you can experience the wonders of life

Siddhartha, same really.

A short summer of anarchy (biography of Durrutti, rise of anarchism in 30s Spain, out of print)

Crime and Punishment and Karamazov (There's beauty in the darkest corners of the human spirit, and so much more)

The Prince

Butler (For using Nietzsche's deconstruction to argue against 'genetic' discrimination, controversial, but very good)

Metamorphosis - Kafka (I don't have a one liner to summarize this. Just read it, it's < 100 pages)

Funny enough, as far as Tech and Business goes, I skim books to get some details, but at the end of the day most value comes from hacking around. For both.

"Who moved my Cheese" (http://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-Amazing/dp/0399144...)

And in conjunction to that, this article "Someone is Coming to Eat You" (http://randsinrepose.com/archives/someone-is-coming-to-eat-y...)

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Il deserto dei tartari (The Tartar Steppe) by Dino Buzzati

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

I second this book: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

After seeing this on so many Hacker News comments to threads like this I finally gave in and started to read it. It has definitely opened my eyes to how I interact with people and made me a lot more self aware.

Warren Buffet credits it for much of his success. I don't much like the bastard but he learned his lessons well.

Why is he a bastard?

His views and past behavior with respect to employees below top management. He seems to believe that only owners should profit from success because only they create it.

This comes from my reading of Schroeder's authorized biography.

I agree it's great, but the summary serves just as well! http://sameffect.com/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people...

Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe

Be Here Now - Ram Das

Whole Earth Catalog - Stewart Brand

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

Savage Continent - Keith Lowe

Forged - Bart D. Ehrman

Young Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore

Court of the Red Czar - Simon Sebag Montefiore

Ram Das has such great lectures. I have yet to read his books. I am reading The Power of Now and I wonder how different it is to Be Here Now.

The message is pretty much the same but the presentation is considerably different. After the wordy introduction which is more or less the story of his transformation from Richard Alpert to Ram Dass, Be Here Now is as much a work of art as it is a book. It tries to reach around your intellect.

I haven't had a copy for many years and just ordered one from Amazon because you made me think about it fondly again. I first read it shortly after it was published in '71 and it's time to read it again. :-)

There is a trap in the thinking that it took me a long time to understand. The present is a consequence of past behavior that cannot be safely ignored. The future is a consequence of present behavior and cannot be safely ignored. Discarding that caution brought me a lot of trouble I would have been better off avoiding. This is obvious but excess enthusiasm for mindfulness of the present can easily lead one to places that one wouldn't want to be.

Steve Job's book was very inspiring and motivational for me. The way he saw the world was very enlightening. Here's a video of what I thought was really profound for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfNvmF0Bqw

Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall For Harmony And Strength by Thomas Rohlen

In no particular order:

What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness

1984

Farenheit 541

Foundation (all saga)

The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings (all saga)

The Prince

De Bello Gallico and Other Commentaries

The Design of Everyday Things

The Riverworld (an entire saga of 5 books)

On the Good Life

Treatises on Friendship and Old Age

Asimov On Numbers

Asimov on Chemistry

The Roman Republic

And hundreds more I cannot list.

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