bookofjoe

Here are 3 non-fiction suggestions:

1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert Pirsig. I read it in 1974 when I was in medical school.

2. The Power of Positive Thinking — Norman Vincent Peale. I read it when I was 14 years old in 1962 and it profoundly changed my life for the better. I wasn't "born again" nor did I become religious, rather it abruptly and completely changed for the better how I interacted with others.

3. Alive — Piers Paul Read. Published in 1974.

I am and always will be in a NOCODE zone. When I remark in passing here that I don't use an ad blocker the responses are a combination of admonishment/disbelief/dismay. Full disclosure: I have a $200/year subscription to Perplexity Pro and interact with it 5-10 times/day. It's WONDERFUL!

Wow. I'd have thought NO ONE under 30 — maybe 40! – knew who Marty Robbins was.

I can only get you so far...

Here's a preview: https://imgur.com/a/1k0yZb7

Variation on your theme: I always have two books going, one fiction and one non-fiction.

"Normal Accidents" is a profound, mind-bending book. I lectured on it during Anesthesiology Grand Rounds [University of Virginia School of Medicine], using it as an armature with which to view the making of disasters in the OR.

This is fantastic!!! Thank you! Gonna feature it on my blog [https://bookofjoe2.blogspot.com/] next week.

Diff'rent strokes. In the depths of a 1.75-year-long major depressive episode in 2015-2016, one of the VERY few books that completely made me forget my misery while I read it was "The Goldfinch." The others: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series.

"Exit Party," Emily St. John Mandel's ["Station Eleven," among others] new novel. It's her best yet which is saying A LOT.

Yes. This one: https://bookofjoe2.blogspot.com/

Full disclosure: It's mine (daily since 2004)

Or scheduling a series of major organ transplants...

Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel were once "lowly undergraduates with no influence."

Truth. When I cross-post something on my blog that gains traction on HN, a huge spike from HN dominating my traffic origins appears in my Blogger stats.

>... HN has millions of visitors who never log in...

That's something I hadn't considered; when something appears that gains no traction and vanishes in minutes from the "new" front page, that fleeting 30-45 minute-long residency may well catch the eyes and minds of individuals in a position to look more deeply and act.

JUMP!