Ask HN: Which books changed your life?

11 points by aadilrazvi 12 years ago | 16 comments

What books inspired you? Changed your worldview?

user_235711 12 years ago |

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...

timonv 12 years ago |

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.

johnatwork 12 years ago |

"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...)

sobbybutter 12 years ago |

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

dmak 12 years ago | |

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

timonv 12 years ago | | |

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

Nicholas_C 12 years ago | | |

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.

DonGateley 12 years ago |

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

deadfall 12 years ago | |

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.

DonGateley 12 years ago | | |

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.

dmak 12 years ago |

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

bensw 12 years ago |

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

meerita 12 years ago |

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.