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Comment by grey-area | Hacker News Reader

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - a wonderfully simple explanation of what is truly important in life.

The Order of Things or Madness and Civilisation by Michel Foucault - a look at how our culture and time limit the horizons of our world view.

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy - a complicated set of love stories set in 19C Russia - brilliantly observed.

Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter - an exhilarating skip through the wonderland of western maths, art, music and philosophy.

Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston - a great insight into the first computer revolution - interviews with a lot of very interesting people.

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Meditations: Read this thinking about the power held by the hand writing it. Absolute control of the Mediterranean world! Incredible!

It's also good to think /why/ Marcus wrote the things he did, why they meant so much to him that he felt it necessary to do so.

I also read Anna Karenina (I am a big fan of Russian literature) - but none the less (or maybe rather b/c of that) I am curious to learn how this book did change your perspective on your life?

I first read it when quite young, so probably it provided an emotional education, but also a lesson that literature can be more than just a clever plot - it's full of wonderful observations of human character, even characters that Tolstoy was not particularly sympathetic to (e.g. Stiva, who chooses his opinions as he chooses his hat, from the selection available, or Anna, the tragic focal point of the novel) - there are no villains and no heroes, only bumbling humans dealing with problems entirely of their own creation.

I also liked Madame Bovary from the same period, another riff on doomed attempts to escape unhappy circumstances - perhaps all happy novels are alike, whereas every unhappy novel is unhappy in its own interesting way?

I literally jumped in my chair and facepalmed myself when I saw you'd included Meditations and I'd left it out. Damn. Thank you for reminding me how great that was. Putting it in now :)

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