Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

23 points by Agraillo 155 days ago | 18 comments

I read many non-fiction books, but recently noticed that only a few qualify as truly heavy, thought-provoking reads, that you literally can't finish in a manageable time because you keep telling yourself, "Wait a minute," then stop to Google something, run an experiment, or just think deeply. My current example (still unfinished) is "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer. It's mind-blowing - the entire memory universe around us that I never properly explored before.

Desafinado 154 days ago |

If you want truly, truly heavy and thought-provoking you need to get away from brick-and-mortar bookstore, commercial, non-fiction, and get into work that's produced within and for academia.

For example, I've learned more from Anthony Giddens, Crawford Young, and Peter Berger in a handful of books than almost everything I've learned from pop books combined. The real stuff you want to read is in academia and fairly hidden from public view.

Agraillo 154 days ago | |

Not to argue, but your comment was also thought-provoking, thanks :) It seems like most works of academia are not provoking; rather, they are shaping. Many are written by specialists in the area who carefully choose what to state and suggest, and very often follow the structure of a big "thought" that is further explained and explored. Few pop books that might meet my criteria are basically digests, but fact-based ones. It's interesting that "Thinking, Fast and Slow" is a middle ground in some sense. Daniel Kahneman is definitely from academia, and in my opinion, he wrote a digest of what he touched on during his career, which was also thought-provoking for me, but not on a big scale.

Can you name some works by the mentioned authors that might be called thought-provoking digests of some area of expertise?

Desafinado 153 days ago | | |

Not really, that's kind of my point. A lot of pop non-fiction takes a few, minor commercial ideas that could be an essay and stretches them out into a book with a lot of fluff.

Academic books will literally change the way you view the world in fundamental ways, they go beyond the digests you mention.

rahmanyoo 155 days ago |

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch is in same category. I have not finished reading it yet, at best i go 5 pages in one sitting. Jam packed with fascinating facts.

abdullahkhalids 155 days ago |

The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a long thought-provoking reflection on the nature of Quality - in the sense of excellence. I re-read it every few years, and still don't understand it fully.

Even more pertinent now in the age of low quality AI produced content.

aristofun 151 days ago | |

the most boring and thought-killing book I've ever tried to read

runjake 152 days ago |

Both of these are quick, easy reads. Don't read about the plots ahead of time.

Replay by Ken Grimwood: https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X

Illusions by Richard Bach: https://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Adventures-Reluctant-Richar...

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Bonus: Anything by Kevin Kelly. He always seemed to be over-hyped by influencers, so I avoided his work for the longest time. That was a mistake.

tomfox2 155 days ago |

I feel the same way. The last time I read Kevin Kelly's Out of Control, I had a similar experience — constantly searching for materials, adding supporting arguments, and feeling as if I had retained nothing after just one read.

Agraillo 155 days ago | |

After reading the description, I'd say this is one of those books that interprets phenomena around us in a novel way, without claiming we should jump off "the shoulders of giants." There have been several like it in my reading history, but since I can't name them instantly, they probably weren't that thought-provoking.

tomfox2 154 days ago | | |

Books that offer profound inspiration are truly treasures of human civilization, but nowadays, it's rare to find a physical book that makes you want to read it in one sitting, unable to put it down.

oldsklgdfth 152 days ago |

The writings of Neil Postman. Specifically,

* "Amusing ourselves to death": visual media is fundamentally different from writing and that impacts society. As a medium it supports certain messages better than other, ex. emotion.

* "Technopoly": defines the difference between tool-using and technocratic societies and impacts it has on society.

* "The End of Education": what is the purpose of an education system.

oifjoijoifj 155 days ago |

The spiritual works from major figures in the major religions, anything which discusses experience in negative terms making no positive statements, so things on emptiness/shunyata, non-duality, dependent co-arising, apophatic theology, unknowing, etc

Bad_Initialism 155 days ago |

I thought, "That sounds like an interesting book." And then I read the precis on Wikipedia.

Humans. Everything has to be a fucking competition. Turned me right off reading it. This is one of the (many) things I hate about humans. Along with ideas that go in to the brain and get stuck there and have to be defended to the death without the brain ever having thought critically about them even once.

Why gatekeep? Why compete about things that don't need to be a competition? Why let yourself be brainwashed about a philosophy or a company or a person?

Humans. Yech. Barf. I hate humans. They make me sick.

Agraillo 155 days ago | |

If you're talking about the competition part of "Moonwalking..." I hear you. Many would argue that the author's participation in the memory competition glues the book together and adds an entertaining angle. Personally, it sometimes feels boring when the author dedicates too much space to dialogs with memory athletes-focusing on mundane topics instead of techniques or what they learned about memory. Still, there are so many fascinating facts and references that I'm okay with it.

bawis 155 days ago | | |

That book doesn't really teach the tricks of the trade (and it is not promised anyway), but it is a good introduction to the world of memory for people unaware of the potential of memory.

oifjoijoifj 155 days ago | |

It was written by a journalist and a jew, not a typical human. The OP is probably an advertisement.

prospopa 151 days ago |

The Red Book by Carl Jung.

sloaken 154 days ago |

Two classic books by Douglas R Hofstadter

    Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

and

    Metamagical Themas

Both are heavy reads. But I would recommend looking at Wiki article before buying, available used. Just to make sure they fit your style of brain.