Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? - <AUTHOR> Now that the decade is coming to a close, what where the most (personally) influential books you read? Which impacted you the most either personally or professionally? The ones you learned the most from? <comment><USER8> Since 2007, I've taken detailed notes on every book I've read, then posted them on my site with my top recommendations up top:

[https://sivers.org/book](https://sivers.org/book)

My top recommendations here for the Hacker News crowd - with a nudge for the under-rated, are:

The Time Paradox - by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd

[https://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox](https://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox)

Profound idea that everyone has a primary time focus: either Future-focused, Present-focused, or Past-focused. Fascinating implications of each. Because I'm so future-focused, reading this book helped me understand people who are very present-focused. Also great advice on shifting your focus when needed. I read it 7 years ago, but still think about it almost every day.

\--

Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want - <USER2> Nicholas Epley

[https://sivers.org/book/Mindwise](https://sivers.org/book/Mindwise)

Many new brilliant insights, especially about over-estimating the differences between you and others, thereby separating into us-vs-them tribalism. Scan to the end of my notes, to see. If you know more books like this, please recommend them to me. I adore this subject.

\--

The War of Art - by Steven Pressfield

[https://sivers.org/book/WarOfArt](https://sivers.org/book/WarOfArt)

Have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what "Resistance" is. This book is about that. Read it.

\--

E-Myth Revisited - by Michael Gerber

[https://sivers.org/book/EMythRevisited](https://sivers.org/book/EMythRevisited)

Absolutely everyone who is an entrepreneur or wants to be one needs to read this book. I first read it after 10 years of successfully running my company, and was still blown away and totally humbled by its wisdom. Re-reading it today, I'm amazed how my view of business was completely changed by this one little book. See my notes for examples, but definitely read the book itself to get the real impact.

\--

The Courage to Be Disliked - by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

[https://sivers.org/book/Disliked](https://sivers.org/book/Disliked)

Wow. A profound little philosophy book from Japan, communicating the psychology of Alfred Adler - a rival of Freud. Told as a conversation between an angry student and a patient teacher. A little book so good that I rushed home from other activites to keep reading it, and finished in a day. A surprisingly fresh perspective on how to live. (The "disliked" part is not the point, so don't let the title distract you.)

<comment><USER9> Didn't expect to find Derek Sivers on HN. h/t for being awesome

Seriously HN, listen to this guy about books, and check out his site.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The Count of Monte Cristo - This is one breathtaking epic. I have been putting off reading this novel for quite some time and occasionally see this name popping up in HN too, but never gave a serious thought for giving it a go. Was I wrong! This is an epic in its true sense, and you will feel a sense of amazement as you progress through the novel. I'm quite a reader, and I have not experienced such amazement when reading any other book (atleast in recent times). Perhaps, I read this book when I was pretty down and kind of hopeless where my life is taking me, because this book is all about HOPE. Even if you are not a reader, the storyline itself will beat any of the entertaining stories out there. But this book is more than its storyline. At the minimum, you will learn to hope which is a big takeaway from this novel. If you are on the fence reading this, just go for it.

Other books which I find interesting

\- The Slight Edge

\- Sapiens

\- The Master and Margarita (apart from the fact it is a great novel, this is so wickedly funny )

<comment><USER11> Completely agree for the Count of Monte Cristo, but wanted to add that I had a similar experience more recently with Shogun (James Clavell) which I found equally inescapably immersive.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the suggestion. Adding 'Shogun' to my reading list

<comment><USER12> If you are adding Shogun then surely you also must add Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. A sprawling epic loosely based on history, with real historical people as characters

<comment><USER10> Thanks for suggestion. Added to my reading list ...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> [https://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language- Lif...](https://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Life- Changing-Relationships/dp/189200528X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk)

Nonviolent Communication.

I think it was linked on HN where it caught my attention. This book teaches a great way to communicate, but for me, it has also helped me think about my feelings and how I can communicate those feelings better. I feel more in touch with my feelings and more empathetic as a direct result from following what the book is teaching.

On the communication side, it has helped me put more structure around tough conversations, personally and professionally. It has helped me understand others more and vice versa. It's also helped me see toxic traits in others. Such as people who aren't interested in understanding or people who struggle to understand their own emotions.

<comment><USER14> The co-author of this book is (seems to be) Deepak Chopra who acquired quite a fame for his liberal use of quantum physics terminology (quantum woo-woo) and for producing thoughts and ideas which typically turn out be not very coherent under a closer scrutiny ([https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra)), i.e. for "sounding deep while saying nothing"

I wonder how his co-authorship affects contents of the book. I bought the book (b/c of this thread, not even looking at the authorship), and I will judge the book based on its contents, but suporting financially a de-facto cult leader of a not very rational movement doesn't sound like a good move from my perspective.

<comment><USER15> "Foreword by Deepak Chopra" is hardly co-authoring.

<comment><USER14> The amazon book page is confusing, it lists him as a co-author. The book's cover says it's just a foreword, so I guess you're right.

Still, not to surrender in this thread completely, letting such type of person to write a foreword for a book is not a very good initial signal in itself - it casts doubt on the main author's judgement with regard to whom she considers an authority in matters of communication (or, in any matter other than producing confusing statements).

<comment><USER16> I haven't looked too closely, but the author was already dead by the time this edition came out so it's quite possible he had no say in the matter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> From a few angles:

* I read the Bible out of curiosity and ended up joining a church, so that's pretty consequential.

* Moby Dick and Journey to the West were probably the most sheer enjoyment I got out of books

* Learning C# 3.0 by Jesse Liberty is extremely dated at this point, and was dated even when I read it, but was the first book that made me "get" many basic OO concepts and taught me a language I've gotten a lot of professional mileage out of

* Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual and Sedewick/Wayne's Algorithms. Most people do algorithms in school. I learned about it while I was already writing programs for money all day, which means it deeply impacted the way I think about my work.

* Discrete Math with Applications by Epp -- I didn't read it all the way through but gave me the foundations to actually understand what the hell the books in the last bullet were talking about

* Battle Cry of Freedom by MacPherson was the first really meaty historical book I read. Turns out I like those a lot.

So many more but this seems like a reasonable place to stop for this discussion.

<comment><USER18> > I read the Bible out of curiosity and ended up joining a church, so that's > pretty consequential.

Is there a bigger story here? I'm not the type that would find reading the Bible appealing but I can say without a shadow of doubt that if I would, it would not awaken any latent desires for religion.

<comment><USER19> I've read 3 different versions of the bible and it converted me from an agnostic to an atheist. I think GP may have been predisposed to religion (or at least to the social aspects of joining a church) as the bible, as interesting as it is, is only as interesting as any other selected and vetted collection of philosophy and story telling. Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam also have very interesting texts worth reading.

This isn't meant to be insulting or dismissive, I have nothing but good will to GP, but statistically just reading the bible doesn't usually lead to joining a church. If it did, you could lose the rest of the evangelism and missionary practices and not really see a dent in the population of Christianity.

<comment><USER20> > it converted me from an agnostic to an atheist

I don't think these are necessarily mutually exclusive, but treating them as if they are, I'm curious why. I would presume your definitions, based on this, that:

* agnostic = "I don't know if there is anything" * atheist = "I _do_ know that there is nothing"

I have mostly met agnostic atheists, being "I don't know if there is anything, but I believe there's nothing", whereas it seems you are a gnostic atheist.

I'm curious because I somewhat took an opposite path in my life - <USER3> Godel's Incompleteness Theorem exposed myself to the idea that I can't ever know what's out there, so it lead me to agnosticism.

<comment><USER21> Philosophically I call myself agnostic. But colloquially I call myself an atheist. Also while I'm agnostic about there existing _any_ powerful being (god), I'm pretty dang confident that the gods described in religious texts do not exist. So in that sense, I am atheist (towards human religions). And it is in this last sense that I could see someone going from agnostic-to-atheist by reading the Bible or in other ways learning more about religion/psychology/history.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Probably Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger or Prometheus Rising back in 2010. The "reality tunnel" concept has defined much of my personal and intellectual exploration of the past 10 years.

" When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented. We tend to think they are mad, or that they are crooks trying to con us in some way, or that they are hoaxers playing a joke. Yet it is neurologically obvious that no two brains have the same genetically-programmed hard wiring, the same imprints, the same conditioning, the same learning experiences. We are all living in separate realities. That is why communication fails so often, and misunderstandings and resentments are so common. I say "meow" and you say "Bow-wow," and each of us is convinced the other is a bit dumb."

<comment><USER23> _Cosmic Trigger_ was great, but I must say it's hard to speak of Robert Anton Wilson without mentioning his magnum opus, _The Illuminatus Trilogy_.

<comment><USER24> The Illuminatus Trilogy is my favorite book of all time.

A lot of people have a hard time with it, considering it nonsense and giving up a fifth of the way through. I'd strongly suggest sticking with it. There is a reason is seems like nonsense and the reason is given at the end of the book - the whole purpose of all of it is to reprogram your brain. It's a journey worth taking.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, because it made me a better father; Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because it taught me of the importance of something that I'd occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it taught me how despite big changes in technology and society and way of living, very little changes when it comes to our personal struggles and concerns; Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, because it helped me realize that in any situation, my attitude is what I always have control over; and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey because it greatly contributed to my mental framework for how to be productive and for this quote, which is probably my favorite of the past decade:

"In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon."

<comment><USER26> Re: _Why We Sleep_ by Matthew Walker, this critique of the book is worth a read: [https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/](https://guzey.com/books/why-we- sleep/)

<comment><USER27> Disappointing... That book has been highly recommended ad infinitum on HN, to the point that it was sounding like gospel. Maybe that should've been a hint, heh.

Has Walker responded to that critique?

<comment><USER28> Another post:

[https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/12/27/why-we- sle...](https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/12/27/why-we-sleep-data- manipulation-a-smoking-gun/)

Now that looks quite bad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Professionally influential:

      - High Growth Handbook (general company building tips)
      - Traction (the one by Weinberg and Mares; engineer-friendy guide to marketing and growth)
      - Understanding Michael Porter (great intro to business strategy)
      - Monetizing Innovation (pricing advice)

Personally influential:

      - Thinkertoys and Cracking Creativity (how to be more creative)
      - Atomic Habits (how to establish good habits)
      - A Guide to the Good Life (friendly intro to stoicism)
      - What Got You Here Won't Get You There (building self-awareness)

Fun:

      - Richard Feynman autobiographies
      - The Martian
      - Shadow Divers
      - Ready Player One
      - The Myron Bolitar Series (mysteries with a good sense of humor)

<comment><USER30> Is High Growth Handbook for later-stage companies (say 1M+ ARR)? Or not necessarily?

<comment><USER29> Part of what makes the book good, in my opinion, is that it has useful advice across stages. Some of it applies to very early stage companies. The other thing is that having a good sense of what to expect at 25 or 50 people will have some influence on what you do when you're three people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Fiction: _Unsong_ by Scott Alexander. The funnest and funniest sci-fi yarn since Douglas Adams, amidst tantalizing explorations of theodicy and existential absurdicy. It's even free: [http://unsongbook.com](http://unsongbook.com) [https://github.com/moorederodeo/Unsong-In-Ebook- Format/relea...](https://github.com/moorederodeo/Unsong-In-Ebook- Format/releases/)

Non-fiction: _The Righteous Mind_ by Jonathan Haidt. Of all the books of the last ten years, I can't think of one that more transformed my understanding of (and compassion for) my fellow thinking, feeling, moralizing, tribal primates. [https://righteousmind.com/](https://righteousmind.com/)

<comment><USER32> I can second The Righteous Mind. Currently almost done with it. Has given me many thing to think about.

However, I feel like the author sometimes falls into the same biases/flawed thought patterns he spends the book describing. Because of this, I'd rate it as very good instead of great.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> "Invention of Nature"; nonfiction; about the life of Alexander von Humboldt; Darwin said of him "if it hadn't been for AVH, I would have never stepped foot on the HMS Beagle"; profoundly important to modern science, an adventurer, yet little known in modern times

"Stoner" by John Williams; fiction; this book knocked me on my butt and I read it all in almost one sitting; about an English professor who refuses to relinquish his integrity in the face of great adversity

"Light Years" by James Salter; fiction; inexpressibly beautiful novel that takes place largely on the Hudson River above New York

"Narcissus and Goldmund" by Hesse; fiction; a fun yet literary adventure novel about the importance and fun of living life with integrity

"When Things Fall Apart" by Chödron; non-fiction; Chödron proposes that leaning into suffering, experiencing it as directly and fully as possibly and without resistance paradoxically leads to profound relief from suffering

"Enlightenment Now" by Pinker; non-fiction; proposes, convincingly, that life nhas drastically improved for nearly everyone on earth due to a shifting philosophical orientation towards enlightenment values; proposes that although much is problematic, there is reason for great hope, too

<comment><USER23> _Narcissus and Goldmund_ is probably my favorite of Hesse's novels, but also great is _The Glass Bead Game_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> _On The Shortness of Life_ by Seneca.[1]

 _Man 's Search for Meaning_ by Viktor Frankl is also excellent.[2]

[1] - [https://tripinsurancestore.com/4/on-the-shortness-of- life.pd...](https://tripinsurancestore.com/4/on-the-shortness-of-life.pdf)

[2] - [https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor- Frankl/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor- Frankl/dp/080701429X)

<comment><USER34> It seems Frankl has been somewhat exposed/debunked. I loved his book too as a teenager; it pained me to read sources mentioned on his wikipedia page. Would you believe he was at Auschwitz for only a few days, performed medical experiments on Jews himself, and it appears his main thesis about attitude mattering above all else for survival in the camps is simply false.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl#Controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl#Controversy)

<comment><USER35> Wow. I'm shocked. I had never heard of these controversies, despite spending some time interested in Frankl a while back.

They seem plausible at first read, and should receive more attention. Thank you for highlighting them.

<comment><USER36> Please be careful... Investigate these claims more fully than Wikipedia, these claims can be exaggerated / out of context

<comment><USER37> As far as I can tell, these claims are backed up by Frankl's own autobiography and interviews. See quotes:

[https://existentialstoic.wordpress.com/2018/02/18/victor- fra...](https://existentialstoic.wordpress.com/2018/02/18/victor-frankls- disturbing-book-mans-search-for-meaning-has-no-meaning/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> _The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure_ [1] by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

I didn't necessarily agree with all of it but it helped me understand the changes I've seen across workplaces, colleges and beyond. It was also a nice way of thinking more "grey" in terms of the current political climate, and trying to understand the reasons behind people's actions regardless of their political stance.

[1] [https://www.thecoddling.com/](https://www.thecoddling.com/)

<comment><USER27> Another Haidt book well worth checking out is "The Righteous Mind".

Great for grey thinking and better understanding. And I think it's one of those books that if everyone read it, we'd all be better off. Like an antidote or inhibitor to tribalism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I know "Getting Things Done" by David Allen is a book the HN crowd occasionally loves to hate, but I came across it at the right time in my life and was the impetus I needed to reorganize my life and put systems in place to ensure that I ... well ... started to really get things done. Since then, I've built up my Emacs ecosystem to support a GTD-derived workflow and I've never looked back.

Also on my list are the already-mentioned "Getting To Yes" and "Nonviolent Communication". I also really enjoyed "Good for You, Great for Me" by Lawrence Susskind, which is a slightly more real-world take on the ideals put forth in "Getting to Yes".

I also studied Physics in College and my course on Classical Mechanics was really the impetus to continue down that path for a while. Textbook was "Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems" by Thornton and Marion.

<comment><USER40> Only reason I didn't mention GTD is because I read it more than 10 years ago. It was very influential indeed. Probably the most important book I read in the decade before this one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Out of Control by former Wired editor Kevin Kelly. This book was a labor of love and it shows--every chapter explores some fascinating new topic on the intersection of biology and technology. Even though the book was written 25 years ago it feels completely fresh. I'm sure anyone who reads this site would enjoy it.

David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity. If you know him, it's probably because Deutsch did some pioneering work in Quantum computing back in the day, but this book covers everything from physics to biology to computing to art with a grand sort of theory of everything. There are few popular science books more densely packed with original ideas.

Borges' collected fictions. There probably isn't much that needs to be said about this that hasn't already been said. Borges was a visionary.

Proust.

Stanislaw Lem's Solaris. Completely changed the way I think about sci-fi.

Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence. I think this is still the gold standard of speculative AI books.

Sapiens. Like everyone else I loved this one.

<comment><USER42> Didn't care for Sapiens. Very pop-science with the author's opinion littered throughout alongside wild predictions on AI, automation.

The only other book I read this year was Evicted by Matthew Desmond. It was an excellent account of poverty cycles as it relates to housing.

<comment><USER43> I felt the same way. Romanticizing hunter/gatherer society and downplaying positive effects of agrarian society or any notion of evolutionary psychology. It started OK and about halfway through it seemed like he was just giving thoughts and theories on various things, without any references.

Though more focused on cultural evolution, I much preferred Joseph Henrich's "The Secret of Our Success".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> 2010 - Outliers, Malcom Gladwell

2011 - In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

2012 - Born to Run, Christopher McDougall

2013 - Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss

2014 - Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon

2015 - Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins

2016 - Black Swan, Nicolas Taleb

2017 - Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman, Richard Feynman

2018 - The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

2019 - Three Body Problem (series), Liu Cixin

These aren't publishing years, just the year these books transformed me.

<comment><USER44> I'm finishing the Four Hour Work Week.. this book just reads like a "get rich quick"/scammy collection of snippets. It's conflicting at times ("money isn't the end-all be-all" v/s "how I made 10k$ a month sipping piña coladas"). The only useful takeaway was not to waste your life 1) wasting time and 2) working, which is fair.. but the message is wrapped with so much ego I ended just being annoyed through most of the book.

<comment><USER9> The title and intro is unabashedly "get rich quick" fodder. But hidden inside, one can find practical applications of Pareto principles to work _and_ life choices, in ways that made me question how I approach _everything_. Better books have followed in this zeitgeist. This one found me first.

<comment><USER45> > Better books have followed in this zeitgeist

Any suggestions?

<comment><USER9> Deep Work (Cal Newport) and Strengths Finder (Tom Rath) helped me achieve far more practical returns on work / lifestyle design.

I even found Tim's later books (4-Hour Body, 4-Hour Chef) to be far better.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> The best books in the past decade, that's a hard one! It's also hard to pinpoint what I learned where, but I'll just list the most memorable ones. I read a lot of software engineering books to learn language X or technology Y. But that's just o'reilly books and probably not that interesting to list here.

\- Jobs by Walter Isaacson. To learn about the Apple and Steve Jobs himself. I thought it was great

\- Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It's older than a decade (about 4 decades old actually) but I only read it a few years ago when I studied philosophy and it left quite an impression on me, food for thought.

\- The Dip. It's motivational, I think back on it every now and then when pushing myself through a rough patch in the gym or professionally.

\- Turing's Cathedral, it's a history of computers basically. Recommended if you're into software/computers.

<comment><USER47> Will have to check out Jobs. I enjoyed his Leonardo DaVinci.

<comment><USER46> Now I'll have to go check out his DaVinci one :)

<comment><USER48> I'll have to read both of them in the coming year 2020 :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> Principles by Ray Dalio changed my life and really helped me better understand that inwardly looking at and analyzing my emotional responses to problems at work and home set me up for failure and since reading it I've had such profound clarity of thought. I recommend that book to literally everyone.

<comment><USER47> Felt like this was helpful from a personal perspective. Not sure how many organizations could live up to this level of discipline.

<comment><USER50> TBH having worked with some ex-Bridgewater folks I'm pretty skeptical how much Bridgewater actually lives up to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> _Range_ by David Epstein [0].

It's a good middle point on the understanding of 'mastery' that Gladwell started in the late oughts and whose meme of '10k hours' kinda infected a lot of pop-psych and MBAs. Epstein argues that there are areas where 10k hours work, but limits very much exist. His thesis is that you have to know your environment and that most environments are too chaotic for just grinding out hours. A larger Range of knowledge/experience is likely a better strategy for many areas of life.

I gave copies of the book out as a thank you note/gift after an interview, as I think the book is really good and that the firm could get something out of reading it; that even if they did not hire me, it would help them.

I know that's a bit looney, but it worked. I got my _dream_ job and a hefty pay raise, great benefits, and a short commute.

Literally, the book changed my life.

[0] [https://www.davidepstein.com/the- range/](https://www.davidepstein.com/the-range/)

<comment><USER52> Econtalk had a good episode with David Epstein as a guest if anyone wants a sampler. [https://www.econtalk.org/david-epstein-on-mastery- specializa...](https://www.econtalk.org/david-epstein-on-mastery- specialization-and-range/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> My criterion is 'influential on me', they may not necessarily be the greatest works of literature.

Mastery - Robert Greene

The Talent Code - Daniel Coyle

Peak - Anders Ericsson

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine

The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning - Peter C. Brown

Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art - Stephen Nachmanovitch

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari

<comment><USER54> Peak is a great book, strongly recommended for anyone that is interested in the 10k hour concept that was 'glossed over' in Malcom Gladwell's Outliers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> Before I scan the thread for inspiration, these are mine:

1\. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; I have no words for this except that it was profound and I was ready for it.

2\. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; a classic where history knows better than we do.

3\. Special Topics in Calamity Physics; a fictional tale that shows you how damn easy it is to get lost in conspiracy and speculation.

4\. House of Leaves; you can't beat a mind-bending horror like that. I live for this stuff.

5\. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse; It's 50 pages long, just read it.

6\. Tantra Illuminated; A well researched and academic study into the history and the beliefs of Tantra

7\. The King in Yellow and its derivatives; The Hanged King lore in the SCP universe is obsessively fascinating to me.

<comment><USER56> +1 for House of Leaves! Didn't expect to see that here. Bizarre and mind- bending. Awesome experimental fiction. Really have to go back and read it again sometime soon.

(And no, there's no eBook - that I know of. You'll err... understand why when you see the physical copy.)

<comment><USER57> I loved this book, and honestly it's one of the best books I read in the past decade. There does exist an eBook, because I read it on Kindle and I remember I used to wonder how amazing it would be to read it in hard copy. Well, it's been almost 3 years now - time for a re-read in Hardcover!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> Not sure if decade, as I don't have good memory for such stuff (sorry!), but certainly at _least_ for last year, the following book that had a really huge impact on me:

 _Gai-Jin_ by James Clavell

It showed me how different cultures can have very different "codes", how they can see others as "barbarians" purely based on that; more specifically, helped me look more critically on (part of) European culture and history through "foregin eyes", and better understand some aspects of Japanese culture taking them nearly all the way from "weird" to "natural". While at the same time being just a super entertaining and engrossing story!

<comment><USER59> Shogun by James Clavell is another great book with the same side effect.

<comment><USER60> I read Shogun and Tai-Pan as recommendations from my dad and I thoroughly enjoyed both.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> As a Game of Thrones fan who likes history, I've _loved_ to read the Accursed Kings from Maurice Druon. I just couldn't let go of the book once I started - I wish schools taught history like that!

The series of books has largely inspired George R. R. Martin's novels, and you will recognize many character traits, as well as the trademark realistic scenario, where main characters also die a lot... Unlike A Song of Fire and Ice, it is based on actual European history, and is fairly accurate - so no nightwalkers or dragons, but it is every bit as epic a saga.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Accursed_Kings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Accursed_Kings)

</comment><comment><USER62> The Black Swan by Taleb and Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman are two books that pretty much completely changed how I view the world, and have made me much happier as a direct result.

<comment><USER63> I can't wait to read/listen to black swan

<comment><USER64> i suggest reading it, listening to it would be tough because there are a lot of important illustrations of fractals, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER65> I'm not seeing it mentioned here, also a good resource:

[https://hackernewsbooks.com/](https://hackernewsbooks.com/)

<comment><USER66> Thank you for this. Really intriguing how they do it: "All links to Amazon, Safaribooks and O'Reilly get extracted once a week from Hacker News posts. We then rank the links based on how often they are mentioned and the karma of the user on Hacker News. So books mentioned several times by different people having high karma tend to rise to the top." [0]

[0] [https://hackernewsbooks.com/about](https://hackernewsbooks.com/about)

<comment><USER65> You can check the _Show HN_ : [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12365693](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12365693)

The author even shared the formula used to calculate those rankings

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> * Elements of Statistical Learning - Hastie, Tibshisrani

* (Lot's of machine learning books to list: PRML, All of Stats, Deep Learning, etc.)

* Active Portfolio Management - Kahn, Grinold

* Thinking, fast and slow - <USER4>

* Protein Power (the Eades') / Why we get fat (Taubes)

* Why we sleep (Walker)

* Deep Work / So Good They Can't Ignore You (Newport)

* Flowers for Algernon (Keyes)

* Getting to Yes (Fisher)

<comment><USER23> _Flowers for Algernon_ was great, but I'd strongly suggest reading the short story and avoiding the novel.

The short story was lengthened in to the novel and was ruined, in my view, by all the Freudian-influenced attempts to sexualize and psychoanalyze the protagonist. It was a real let down after the brilliance of the short story, which had absolutely nothing to do with any of that.

<comment><USER67> I felt the opposite - the attempts to paint the protagonist with run of the mill human qualtiies led me to emotionally invest in him even more. This makes you experience the gut-wrench even more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> My 2010's read highlights:

\- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-21st-Century-Yuval- Harari/d...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-21st-Century-Yuval- Harari/dp/1787330672)

\- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Factfulness-Reasons-Wrong-Things- Be...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Factfulness-Reasons-Wrong-Things- Better/dp/1473637465)

\- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laws-Power-Robert-Greene- Collection...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laws-Power-Robert-Greene- Collection/dp/1861972784)

\- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins- Prosperity...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins- Prosperity/dp/1846684307)

\- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wealth-Poverty-Politics-Thomas- Sowe...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wealth-Poverty-Politics-Thomas- Sowell/dp/046509676X)

\- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noonday-Demon-Andrew- Solomon/dp/009...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noonday-Demon-Andrew- Solomon/dp/0099277131)

\- [https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Write-Thesis-MIT- Press/dp/02625...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Write-Thesis-MIT- Press/dp/0262527138)

<comment><USER69> Fantastic list, and thanks for the links.

Personally, I would put "Sapiens - A brief History of Humankind"[0] in the list rather than it's successor "21 Lessons for the 21st Century".

While some people have some gripes about The 48 Laws of Power and Robert Greene's other books, in my opinion, they serve as a really valuable tool for understanding how most medium and large companies work. And for anyone interested, a great way to dip your toes into it is by having a look at Derek Sivers' book notes - [https://sivers.org/book/48LawsOfPower](https://sivers.org/book/48LawsOfPower)

[0] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah- Harari...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah- Harari/dp/0099590085)

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> Finally got around to reading _The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind_ by Julian Jaynes.

It was on my list for the past like, twenty years, and after reading it I really wish I would have read it back then.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes)

<comment><USER71> I loved this book as well. I am sure he "over-egged the pudding", but I am also convinced that there are some genuine insights in what he was saying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER72> \- Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

\- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

\- The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake

\- Sherlock Holmes: The definitive collection

<comment><USER73> Factfulness and Enlightenment Now utterly transformed my outlook on life and the state of the world. These two books turned me from a cynical complainer into an optimist. Cannot recommend them highly enough.

<comment><USER74> Noticed multiple recommendations of Factfulness and decided to read a sample from Amazon. While I'm fully onboard with the material, the writing style put me off: it felt very egocentric and self-congratulatory.

<comment><USER72> Strange. That's not how it came across to me. Maybe checkout some of his ted talks to get started: [https://www.ted.com/speakers/hans_rosling](https://www.ted.com/speakers/hans_rosling)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER75> The Myth of Sisyphus, Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, Meditations, Walden

Born to Run - Chris McDougall

I had a chance meeting with this book at a newsstand in Logan Airport. I purchased it on a whim. It converted me from a sometimes runner to a full- blown run fanatic - marathons, and mountain, trail, ultra especially. It changed the entire trajectory of my life.

</comment><comment><USER76> Overthrow, by Stephen Kinzer really changed the way I perceive the US position in the world and made me question a lot of things I learned in school.

I also really enjoyed Manufacturing Consent, which is prime reading right now for anybody in the US because it's about media manipulation in free society.

<comment><USER17> I definitely second Manufacturing Consent! What a great book; how many books of political theory hold up that well 30 years later? I would recommend anybody who has any interest at all in current events read it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER77> Getting Things Done - the 2001 version I read two years ago, I use the general idea and it helps to have a clear head when your fighting fires daily.

Never Split the Difference - some very practical negotiation strategies.

Mini Habits by Stephen Guise - short book but awesome method. I am still doing the one pushup habit since last March.

How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck by Steve Stockman - I wanted to improve my video production for my programming course for kids. I am still learning but this book has been a huge help.

The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking by Barbara Minto - <USER5> help with improving my written communication at my job.

The Coaching Habit by Michael Stanier - short book but huge help when your transitioning to managing people.

Made to Stick by Dan Heath - was a huge help in planning how I would teach elementary students last month about programming.

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch - aside from application of Pareto principle, I took away the idea that books provide the best bang for your buck for knowledge density.

The 4 Hour Work Week - great inspiration to start your own thing.

The $100 Startup - like the 4HWW but with more details.

<comment><USER78> Never Split the Difference was really useful. I don't apply the exact methodology, but the general principles are useful in many different situations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER79> Steven Pinker's "The Sense of Style" is a fantastic book about effective English writing. It helped codify some stuff I already did out of habit but never really knew why, and taught me plenty of new things too. Recommended for anyone whose job involves technical writing!

Alexander Watson's "Ring of Steel" is World War I seen from the perspective of the Central Powers. OK, it didn't really help me personally or professionally, so I'm not sure it counts. But it was definitely a huge perspective-changer, and so beautifully written too.

</comment><comment><USER80> Some great books have already been mentioned but those which were the most personally influential which haven't yet been mentioned:

\- Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger

\- Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

\- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

\- Kochland by Christopher Leonard

\- Masters of Doom by David Kushner

I read a lot of "business consultant" books and began to be annoyed with them since many of them can be summed up by the title and the first couple of chapters.

I like the books above because they presented factual events that allow you to draw your own conclusions.

I especially like Schwarzenegger's book and Bad Blood because of their depth. It was interesting to hear about Schwarzenegger's crazy business ideas like how he became a millionaire before becoming an actor and how he bought a 747.

I found the audiobook "Master's of Doom" (book is 2003 but audiobook is newer) to be really entertaining as it was read by actor Wil Wheaton who did a great job.

<comment><USER81> I've read all of these except Kochland (just ordered it now) and complete agree. You have great taste! Check out American Kingpin by Nick Bilton for a read somewhat similar to Bad Blood.

Do you have any other recommendations?

<comment><USER80> Thanks! My only other recommendations of similar books but have already been mentioned would be the Steve Jobs book by Isaacson and Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER82> Deep Work by Cal Newport was great.

If only I could actually apply its principles at my job in an open office with an IM chat system.

<comment><USER83> I too struggle to apply the lessons from that book. Little by little I say.

</comment></comment><comment><USER84> _Bhagavad Gita_ for me, both, personally and professionally

[https://www.ancient.eu/Bhagavad_Gita/](https://www.ancient.eu/Bhagavad_Gita/)

<comment><USER23> The _Bhagavad Gita_ is a tremendously beautiful and profound work, and it's a tragedy that it (and the whole _Mahabarata_ , really, of which the _Gita_ is only a small part) are not more widely read in the West.

However, I see its core messages as deeply problematic. The entire work is a justification of violence, obedience, and traditional social roles. It's simply amazing to me that Gandhi, the most famous advocate of non-violence in history, was a huge fan of it.

<comment><USER84> It justified violence as the last resort which can be taken literally in the story or as a metaphor for when someone hits rock bottom in their life. War is one of the worst things to be a part of and personal demons can feel like a battle. I actually praise it for choosing a topic that shouldn't exist in an ideal world but it knows that that's not reality and war is sometimes required (Vedic scripts would say we're in the age of "Kali Yuga", believing time is cyclical, the utopian phase of world peace simply doesn't exist).

The Bhagavad Gita is a subset of the Mahabarata epic, albeit the most famous one, so the preceding story was that peaceful negotiations were not possible even though that was the route preferred. The idea is that if two sides are willing to negotiate peacefully, that is the option that should be taken. But if one side insists on war, action (karma) and inaction (akarma) are two sides of the same coin - inaction is not avoiding doing something, it is a form of action ("He who seeth inaction in action and action in inaction, he is wise among men; he is a Yogi and performer of all actions"). In fact, Ghandi actually wrote a letter to Hitler initially asking him "peacefully" to stop WW2. This was followed up with a less peaceful letter [0]. It would seem he was happy for violent war against Nazis because they were evil and it was against injustice. (Naturally, this leads to discussions on what one would consider evil but the idea is not to be the first to attack and provoke). The ending of the epic is wasteland of emptiness caused by the war - both as a symbol of the waste of war but also as an idea that everything and nothing exists at all times; whether you chose action or inaction is on you, time destroys all regardless.

Ghandi (and I guess Oppenheimer [1] to a degree but not sure) seemed to take the concept of Dharma (duty) to strengthen his resolve and he accepted what he considered his Dharma to keep going through the difficult times. The other aspect is that Arjuna did not choose the war but his previous actions (karma) have led him to be where he is. Just like what is said nowadays about how your past makes you who you are today. Sometimes the battle is unavoidable given past actions.

Sorry, probably too long a response :D but I genuinely had the same thought as you when I first started reading about it but then did some further reading. There's so much to dissect, from all sides, which is why I think it's one of the greatest philosophical works written.

Interestingly enough, if you watch the first Matrix with the Bhagavad Gita in mind, you'll notice _a lot_ of parallels in the hidden meaning of the Gita and Hindu philosophy about what we consider 'real' and how life is an illusory. So much so that the Matrix Revolutions soundtrack during the end fight is a famous Sanskrit mantra from the Upanishads

asato ma sad gamaya

tamaso ma jyotir gamaya

mrtyor mamrtam gamaya

(From delusion lead me to truth

From darkness lead me to light

From death lead me to immortality) [2]

Imagine Neo is Arjun.... there is no spoon ;)

[0] [https://www.indiatoday.in/news-analysis/story/when- mahatma-g...](https://www.indiatoday.in/news-analysis/story/when-mahatma- gandhi-chided-hitler-and-called-his-actions-monstrous-1605346-2019-10-02)

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67OhOUoUsc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A67OhOUoUsc)

<comment><USER23> Even if the war was unavoidable (which I don't think it was), Arjuna's participation in it (which was the subject of the _Gita_ ) was not.

Arjuna had thrown down his weapons and refused to fight until Krishna intervened with his godly arguments to make Arjuna fight despite his disinclination to do so.

If Krishna had instead used his superhuman persuasiveness to argue for non- violence to each of the war's participants, perhaps the entire war could have been averted.

Regarding the Matrix and Hinduism, while there are undeniable parallels, and while Hinduism might be able to lay claim to being the first major religion to posit the illusionary nature of the world, there are also parallels to other philosophies and religions.

For instance, one can see parallels between the Matrix and Plato's allegory of the cave, and to Gnosticism.

Also, it's important to mention that Hinduism is not a single religion, but might better be thought of as an umbella term for dozens if not hundreds of different religions, some of which have radically different views.

<comment><USER84> Stopping the war was never the intention, that would betray the fundamental lessons trying to be taught. In context of the story, the idea is that they still have free will but it was a lesson to be learnt for both sides.

If there was a superhuman in real life who could avert all wars (literal and metaphorical), that would be great, but we don't live in a world where we can pray to fix away our problems (my humble opinion of course, not to offend anyone). This sets a basis for the story upon which life lessons can be learnt in the form of the Gita; fundamentally stating that time has no beginning or end, therefore everything on the battlefield has come and gone, regardless of your input in life (" I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy. Even without your participation all the warriors standing arrayed in the opposing armies shall cease to exist.").

I think it's why the book is so powerful, looking at a wiki list of people it's influenced, a common theme is a day to day reference of spirituality more than actual religion [0]

You're right, I didn't mean to imply it's the only philosophy or religion but I would posit it's the largest. Also, the Matrix thing was just a flippant offshoot but I never noticed until I heard them playing the Sanksrit shokla :D

Agreed, Hinduism is a catch all, often misunderstood. It's completely different from Abrahamic religions from a fundamental point of view. You can be any religion, or atheist, and still be a Hindu, in essence. Most (if not all?) branches of Hinduism considers God to be the ultimate reality of which we're all part of as opposed to an external entity, hence in the Gita, Barbarika said Krishna was the one who one the battle despite not taking part directly. Whether you use the Bible, or Vedic scriptures, to reach Moksha (Englightenment) isn't prescribed, it's your journey.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_of_Bhagavad_Gita](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_of_Bhagavad_Gita)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER85> I've been maintaining a list of books I've read over the past years at [https://explog.in/books/list.html;](https://explog.in/books/list.html;) some that come to mind –

1\. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett (this might actually be more than 10 years ago, but I'll still list it) I really like this one because it emphasizes the value of caring about the _core_ of anything instead of the _trappings_ that will spring up around it. Keeping this book in mind reminds me to focus on the thing instead of the appearance of the thing.

2\. On Writing Well, William Zinsser I'm a programmer, and I've often found that improving my ability to write clearly translates directly to programming well: On Writing Well is the best – and warmest – book I've read on writing nonfiction.

3\. Incerto, NN Taleb This series forced me to revisit several assumptions. Something that still resonates is valuing anything – particularly books – that has aged well across several years, because it's clearly valuable; and to discount the new shiny.

4\. The Pragmatic Programmer, Andy Hunt & David Thomas I started an open source project in my 3rd year at college – as part of Google Summer of Code; inevitably every release would break something and I started hungering for skills that would let me create new releases _without_ breaking the world every time. I stumbled across the pragmatic programmer in my 4th year, and immediately started applying it on my project. This carried through to work and helped me a lot early in my career.

5\. The Art of Doing Science and Engineering, Richard Hamming There are so many gems in this book: from the emphasis on fermi numbers for quick approximations, to a simple demonstration of the distance covered by a random walk as opposed to the distance covered by choosing a direction, to asking the question: "Am I working on the most important thing I could be? If not, why not?". He also predicted that great programmers will have one thing in common with great writers – clarity of thought.

There are some books I'm reading right now that I suspect will end up on this list: Psychology of Intelligence Analysis (available at [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of- intellig...](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of- intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/psychology-of-intelligence- analysis/PsychofIntelNew.pdf)) – for making better decisions with limited data; and The Power of Choice – to allow me to pay attention to the non- technical parts of doing valuable work.

<comment><USER86> Also a programmer, but have a copy of Zinsser's book next to me right now. Got from local library a few days ago, and am really enjoying. My pull request comments will hopefully become clearer, as well as company e-mails. Plus the whole book is fun, especially when he talks about some writing style and you realize he is starts using that style in the same paragraph/chapter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER87> "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" by Dr. David Burns.

If you've got even a hint of depression or anxiety this is a great resource. Reading/understanding the "10 cognitive distortions" in this book is worth the time for anyone, imho.

<comment><USER88> Burns said on his podcast that his sequel to this book, "Feeling Great", is going to be published some time in 2020.

</comment></comment><comment><USER89> Less, by Andrew Sean Greer. A really wonderful, light-hearted, hilarious novel about self-worth. The writing reminds me of David Sedaris.

<comment><USER90> I read Less as part of my "read all the Pulitzer prize for fiction novels" and I also enjoyed it quite a lot. "the road" might have been my favorite novel on the list of pulitzer prizes in my lifetime.

</comment></comment><comment><USER91> The Six Pillars Of Self-Esteem. Even if you think you already have high self- esteem, there's no such thing as too much self-esteem. Someone here on HN first made me aware of it. It's such a great framework for self improvement. I've read it 3 or 4 times and did all of the exercises the first 2 times.

<comment><USER92> What was the result of doing so? I'm genuinely curious.

<comment><USER91> I'm way more honest about my values and whether my actions align with those values. When there's an inconsistency between my actions and values I either realize that the value is not actually a priority and I have the peace of mind to let it go, or I'm motivated to change my actions to align with my values.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER93> The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Literally destroyed left wing politics in my mind.

<comment><USER94> The whole left/right dichotomy is a bugaboo.

Politics is the continual friction between individuals and various groupings of people.

<comment><USER95> > various groupings of people.

why isn't left/right a valid grouping then?

<comment><USER96> Because there is no logical consistency to the attributes used to define each grouping. They're just a hodgepodge of loosely related (at best) ideas. So a lot of people simply don't fit in either category.

For example: I am absolutely pro-choice on the abortion issue. I am also rabidly pro-gun on the second amendment issue. So do I fall into the "left" bucket or the "right" bucket? The answer is "neither".

<comment><USER97> You sound rather _liberal_ , in the literal sense.

<comment><USER96> To the extent that I care about, or claim any affiliation with any of these terms, I could probably loosely be described as a "classical liberal". I don't use the term much though, because most people don't appreciate the nuanced distinction between that and the modern usage of "liberal" (at least here in the US).

I'm also a little more radical than most people, and if I have to pick a label for myself, I'm more likely to choose "voluntaryist", "anarcho-capitalist", or "libertarian".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER98> Dune and Lord of the Rings. Both have such detail to their worlds that is rarely done well in other works. On top of the world building, I enjoyed the internal struggles that both Paul and Frodo had to go through to become better people and achieve their goals

<comment><USER99> It's amazing how Dune is becoming more and more relevant. Not because of any dystopia thing, but because the fundamental issues it talks about (unstable power systems, ecology and power, the right to sovereignty) are becoming more and more mainstream. If they make another movie, I think it could potentially do quite well.

<comment><USER100> In case you don't already know they are actually working on a new version of a Dune movie to be released in two parts, first movie at the end of 2020 IIRC, directed by Denis Villeneuve

<comment><USER101> Man I Hope that works out. The last attempt was just bizarre (the one with the zebra striped starships)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER102> I particularly enjoyed _Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity_ by David Foster Wallace. It gave me a new appreciation of not only the last two centuries of math, but also the english language and the abuse of sentence structure, asides, and footnotes[1][2][3] for educational and entertainment purposes.

[1] so

[2] many

[3] footnotes[a]

[a] Which, I must say, I found interesting and informative[b]

[b] If a bit excessively nested.

</comment><comment><USER103> Introduction to Calculus Textbook, during 1st college year. Mindblown. True enlightment. I got from it what I was looking for when researching religions and philosophy as a teenager.

</comment><comment><USER104> Nothing. I've read a bunch of them looking for some kind of enlightenment. I can't say any of them were actually worth the time invested. I expect to be downvoted, but this is truly what I feel. Read a couple of these books just to confirm to yourself they're a waste, and go lead your own life.

<comment><USER104> Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

\--Albert Einstein

<comment><USER105> Albert Einstein has some beautiful quotes. It reminds me the "imagination is more important than knowledge" quote.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER106> Fiction:

* Jack Reacher: I've read all but the latest one. I would recommend it if you liked the story in both movies.

* Discworld: I'm currently on The Truth. These books have been really entertaining and witty.

Non-Fiction:

* The Doors to Perception by Aldous Huxley: The book covers Aldous' thought about his experience while under the influence of mescaline.

edit: formatting

<comment><USER107> I'll add my opinion -- don't read Blue Moon (the latest one) as your first Jack Reacher book. It's really bad, I want to pretend it's non-canon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER108> Nonfiction/history: Afghanistan, a Cultural and Political History

[https://www.amazon.com/Afghanistan-Cultural-Political- Prince...](https://www.amazon.com/Afghanistan-Cultural-Political-Princeton- Politics/dp/0691154414/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3MSSYMHHIVV6Y&keywords=afghanistan&qid=1577594094&s=books&sprefix=afghani%2Caps%2C204&sr=1-3)

The author is one of the leading American scholars on Afghanistan and provides fascinating and pertinent insight into the history of Afghanistan. Highly recommend if you want to understand how and why Afghanistan came to exist as it does today, and to gain insight and respect for its people, culture, their struggles, and the geopolitical significance of Afghanistan.

</comment><comment><USER109> * Red Rising (series) by Pierce Brown * Stormlight Archive (series) by Brandon Sanderson * The Three-Body Problem (series) by Cixin Liu * Malazan Book of the Fallen (series) by Steven Erikson

Why all fiction? No matter how much I read about the human mind or current affairs or computer science or quantum physics or ..., there is no deeper, more lasting feeling in my soul than finishing an epic tale that has grabbed every ounce of my attention. So much fun, so many characters and plot twists and emotions and gains and losses. I loved every second reading these books and they have restored my faith in modern writing. Well done.

</comment><comment><USER110> \- The Mysterium: David Bramwell, Jo Keeling

\- Digital Minimalism: Cal Newport

\- How Democracies Die: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt

\- How to Disappear: Akiko Bush

\- Bullshit Jobs: David Graeber

\- Its basic Income: Amy Downes and Stewart Lansley

\- Utopia for Realists: Rutger Bergman

\- Human Rigths and the uses of History, Samuel Moyn

\- Too much Stuff: Kozo Yamamura

</comment><comment><USER111> _Howard 's End_. From observations on the alienating experience of automobile travel, to the nature of the corporation, to the precarious lot of the low-end knowledge worker, _Howard 's End_ feels shockingly, jarringly modern. I'm fascinated by the character of Leonard Bast and his almost self-destructive pursuit of self-improvement. HN likes to recommend "The Machine Stops," but if you think everything else Forster wrote is just costume drama, you're missing out.

</comment><comment><USER112> I read a lot of fanfiction in the last years. On the downside the writing is less polished. On the upside it is free and non-mainstream.

I was influenced by Eliezer Yudkowsky and his take on rationality. His fanfiction "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" serves as a nice introduction. [http://www.hpmor.com/](http://www.hpmor.com/)

Worm by John McCrae is an epic superhero/villain story. Consider it Game of Thrones in the superhero genre. With 16 million words it is a really long story. For comparison, the Harry Potter series is 10 million words.

The Metropolition Man by Alexander Wales is also in the superhero genre, but turns it on its head. Lex Luthor is the hero standing up against Superman.

The Last Ringbearer by Kirill Yeskov does the same to Lord of the Rings. It effectively becomes a fantasy spy thriller.

These three are great stories that show how good and evil are a point of view. An important lesson to learn in a time when US and China are increasingly hostile. Since HN is american, China might be compared to Mordor and Xi Jinping to Lux Luthor. Fiction stories may help you to at least imagine that they consider themselves as the good guys.

Accelerando by Charles Stross turns the concept of technological singularity into a well-written story. As the story spans a looong timespan and shows how humanity antiquates itself, it makes you feel small in a good sense.

<comment><USER71> I'd like to second the suggestion of "The Last Ringbearer" which is indeed brilliantly iconoclastic, and I say that as someone who considers The Lord of the Rings as my favourite work of fiction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER113> The Forum on KQED (radio) had a great program on this very topic — best books of the decade, with a broad set of recommendations by panelists and callers.

Website link below has whole program for listening (I recommend), as well as a published list of all recommendations:

[https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101874704/tell-us-your- favori...](https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101874704/tell-us-your-favorite- books-of-the-decade)

</comment><comment><USER114> JR by William Gaddis. It's about an 11 year old boy who creates and operates multinational conglomerate from a phonebooth in the late 60s early 70s. This book is a satire of capitalism. It has a unique writing style with no chapters or even paragraphs. It moves fluidly between narration and dialogue even within the same sentence. And it has no breaks between scenes, it's like birdman: one long tracking shot with no jump cuts. The writing style is meant to convey the chaos of capitalism and makes it really difficult to read (for example you don't always know who's talking and people talk over each other a lot). But it's totally worth it and really funny.

Despite it being a satire and taking capital allocation and tax avoidance to absurd extremes it actually imparted on me a better appreciation of what it is to run a business from a finance perspective (I have a software background and find myself too focused on product at the expense of focusing on the entire business)

I also recently read The Outsiders, that new book about 8 CEOs that are great at capital allocation and created incredibly high returns for shareholders. The Outsiders is almost like a real life serious version of JR.

</comment><comment><USER115> I skimmed through the answers and didn't find anything to do with math. To anyone interested in math, what math text/books and papers of the decade seemed the most interesting to you?

As far as fiction, this decade I discovered Peter Watts, Ted Chiang and Clive Barker. Now I am obsessed with horror and sci-fi in the style of these authors. If you are into these genres (and possibly authors), who/what blew you away this decade? Thanks.

<comment><USER116> You may like Alastair Reynolds, he does hard scifi infused with elements of horror and space opera. He doesn't tear down his characters' minds to the degree Peter Watts does.

<comment><USER117> I just finished Revelation Space and really enjoyed it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER118> These books really challenge your thinking or force you to think hard and/or see things through another lens. They are also really good reads that are very hard to put down.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Firefall series by Peter Watts (Blindsight & Echopraxia) Axiomatic by Greg Egan N.N. Taleb's books

These are all books I had seen written about in previous HN threads like this and ended up reading, so glad I did!

</comment><comment><USER119> "The Known World" By Edward P. Jones, Historical fiction about former slaves who own slaves, [https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/edward-p- jones](https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/edward-p-jones)

"Your Brain At work" \- Practical insight into how emotions affect thinking, limitations of cognition, etc. [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6899290-your-brain-at- wo...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6899290-your-brain-at-work)

Cryptonomicon! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon)

Finally, if you happen to be Finnish: "Alastalon Salissa", A novel ahead of its time. Not translated unfortunately, but should be. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastalon_salissa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastalon_salissa)

</comment><comment><USER120> Let me add two books that are among the best I've ever read:

* "Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress Hardcover," by Steven Pinker -- even if you disagree with him about some things (for example, on principle), the book is really worth a slow, careful read.

* "The Better Angels of Our Nature," also by Steven Pinker -- in many ways, this is a precursor to the above book, and also worth a careful read. In particular, I found it eye-opening to learn how much everyday violence human beings have inflicted on each other throughout history, and how remarkably non-violent most lives are today, by comparison, in more developed economies.

<comment><USER47> I enjoyed Enlightenment Now. In a world where people and news media continually speculate or imply that things are getting worse, he makes a strong case that the opposite is true and the world is actually getting better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER121> The Mind Illuminated (from HN), Non-Violent Communication, Antifragile, Atomic Habits and The Growth Mindset come to my mind immediately

</comment><comment><USER122> I just finished reading Edward Snowden's Permanent Record. I'm really impressed. So much of the first part about his youth had parallels to my own. The writing was clear and honest, and he really hits home how the US, or rather the "West", has changed.

It also made me curious to read Ellsberg–his "Limits of knowledge" chapter is a marvellous read.

</comment><comment><USER123> * The Origin of Wealth * Elephant in the Brain * A Random Walk Down Wall Street * Why Buddhism Is True * Digital Minimalism

</comment><comment><USER124> How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan.

Turing's Vision: The Birth of Computer Science, Chris Bernhardt.

The Peripheral, William Gibson.

Lila, Robert Pirsig. (re-read)

</comment><comment><USER125> The Three Body Problem

Changed the scale I perceive existence

<comment><USER117> An epic story that goes far beyond hard sci-fi. The 3 book series takes a bit of time to finish, but is well worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER126> I've really come to love Banks' Culture series. It's from two decades back, but I am just reading them this year.

</comment><comment><USER127> Jane Austen was the first author to came to my mind as I saw this thread. I've read two of her books (Sense and Sensibility & Pride and Prejudice) ~2 years ago. What they made me realise was that people are not absolutely good or absolutely bad. Human character consists of so many _gray areas_ (as americans or... I don't know... english-speaking world puts it), it's not like black/white.

The second one is _Science and Method_ by Henri Poincare. I'm not in a position to fully understand and appreciate this book, but I just want to share a few quotes[0] that stood out for me when I read it:

" _The subliminal ego is in no way inferior to the conscious ego; it is not purely automatic; it is capable of discernment; it has tact and lightness of touch; it can select, and it can divine. More than that, it can divine better than the conscious ego, since it succeeds where the latter fails. In a word, is not the subliminal ego superior to the conscious ego?_ "

" _Under this second aspect, all the combinations are formed as a result of the automatic action of the subliminal ego, but those only which are interesting find their way into the field of consciousness. This, too, is most mysterious. How can we explain the fact that, of the thousand products of our unconscious activity, some are invited to cross the threshold, while others remain outside? Is it mere chance that gives them this privilege? Evidently not._ "

" _All the difficulties, however, have not disappeared. The conscious ego is strictly limited, but as regards the subliminal ego, we do not know its limitations, and that is why we are not too loth to suppose that in a brief space of time it can form more different combinations than could be comprised in the whole life of a conscient being._ "

[0][https://archive.org/stream/sciencemethod00poinuoft/scienceme...](https://archive.org/stream/sciencemethod00poinuoft/sciencemethod00poinuoft_djvu.txt)

</comment><comment><USER128> \- Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red (Nobel Prize Winner, 2006)

\- Daniel J. Levitin - Organized Mind

\- Shunryu Suzuki - Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

</comment><comment><USER129> "Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting" by Noël Janis-Norton was the most helpful parenting book for me. Includes the main principle to replace punishment with descriptive praise and teaches lots of other methods to improve relationships with your children.

</comment><comment><USER130> 1\. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg

2\. The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek

3\. Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell

4\. An American Life by Ronald Reagan

5\. The Rust Programming Language by Steve Kablink

<comment><USER131> Interested in why you consider liberal fascism one of the best books of the decade - it left me very disappointed. He had me going with how Wilson and FDR were fascists, but then he got to recent history, and used the same arguments to make the case that Clinton was a fascist. I lived through Clinton - that's when I realized that Goldberg was telling one side of the story - it was the usual partisan BS.

Such a shame to do that much research, and then use it not to inform, but to score political points.

<comment><USER130> It was tongue-and-cheek knock at Rust people and their fascism / totalitarianism

<comment><USER131> Oh, ha. The joke went completely over my head. Now that I get it, I'm having a good laugh.

Sorry.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER132> Zen mind beginner's mind: Highly recommended to anyone interested in meditation. Helped me understand the non-goal aspect of the practice.

Gravity's rainbow: Not the easiest read but immensely rewarding. For better or worse some of Pynchon's vivid descriptions are burned into my soul.

Crime and punishment: I'm not into literature but this one is worth it. A great dive into human psychology.

Deliverance: intense story, read it in one night. Not sure it taught me much but man it is good.

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. Great insights on the way ideology and politics work.

Wasted time on a bunch of self help books. Most tips contained in these require you to accept yourself and the world to be applicable. And that's the hardest bit...

<comment><USER133> I read _Crime and Punishment_ last year and found it incredibly disappointing, considering its massive reputation. Simpletons, idiots, caricatures, buffoons and victims performing lots of hand-wringing, posturing, dithering, swooning and assorted drama. Hard to identify with or care about any of them. Call it entertainment, but I prefer Dickens.

<comment><USER132> I understand what you mean, the insight on the mind of a murderer is what kept me going. I found the same unecessary drama/silliness while reading "The Master and Margarita", maybe it's a Russian writing style.

<comment><USER133> _Master and Margarita_ was on my list, maybe it will stay there a while.

For insight into the minds of murderers x 4.5 billion + a few, I just finished Iain Banks' _Look to Windward_. I didn't think I saw what was coming when it came, but then at the end, I realized I knew it was there all along.

The Culture series is underrepresented on this thread. Hello, Contact? Whenever it's convenient to send a module, I'm ready to go.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER134> Winners Take All -- Anand Giridharadas

Weapons of Math Destruction -- Cathy O'Neil

Race After Technology -- Ruha Benjamin

</comment><comment><USER135> Two books: 1\. Straight Line Leadership: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11556152-straight- line-l...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11556152-straight-line- leadership)

Still going through the chapters and it is illuminating.

2\. 12 Week Year: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10009377-the-12-week- yea...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10009377-the-12-week-year)

Some might find it very basic but I found that breaking my intentions to 3 months and tracking them has helped me see what I want and where I want to go.

</comment><comment><USER117> The Three-Body Problem series by Chixin Liu

* The Three-Body Problem * The Dark Forest * Death's End

Expanded my perception of life, death, love, time and our potential purpose, via some very well written fiction (space opera style). Chixin Liu nailed it!

<comment><USER59> My problem was with the books is the lack of depths of characters as the story moves forward - at the end they become mere tools to tell the impossible future. But there are astoundig amounts of fascinating ideas and theories in the books it's well worth the read - it became one of my favourite sci-fi next to Solaris.

If you can, read it without any previous info - there are big spoilers in almost every description of the book.

</comment></comment><comment><USER136> Not that much fiction in this thread, so I will add A Fine Balance by Rohintin Mistry. It's the saddest book I've ever read but incredibly beautiful. I couldn't stop thinking about it for months

</comment><comment><USER137> Reference and Existence - Saul Kripke

These lectures were given in 1973 but they weren't properly published until 7 years ago. Kripke was probably the most influential philosopher of language of the second half of the past century. Reference and Existence is largely about how to talk about fictional entities and empty names. Kripke's philosophy is a really nice demonstration of applying rigorous logical thought to domains outside math/science, without getting mired in over-engineered abstractions and mathturbation.

</comment><comment><USER138> The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development [http://amzn.to/2DK6kVP](http://amzn.to/2DK6kVP)

<comment><USER139> Incredible book!

</comment></comment><comment><USER140> Musashi - This is _the_ classic Samurai novel. The lessons about life and finding my path shaped me probably more than any book I've ever read.

Extreme Ownership - As I have advanced in my career, it became clear that leadership and communication are the keys to success. EO (and related books by the same author) provides so many varied benefits, but the largest for me was to detach, check my ego, and control my emotions. Thinking in this manner has literally changed every relationship I have for the better.

</comment><comment><USER141> Lifecycle investing, for the core insight that one should include human capital when determining how much of your capital you can risk, and why leverage early in your career is advisable.

</comment><comment><USER142> It's for about 10 years. I think that I can highlight Chuck Palahniuk "Ghosts", John Ajvide Lindqvist "Låt den rätte komma in" and "Människohamn".

</comment><comment><USER143> Here are my favorites for the decade:

Never Split the Difference - [https://amzn.to/2sAfLGj](https://amzn.to/2sAfLGj)

Bad Blood - [https://amzn.to/2F4IW71](https://amzn.to/2F4IW71)

The Alchemist - [https://amzn.to/356NRyV](https://amzn.to/356NRyV)

The Hard Thing About Hard Things - [https://amzn.to/39mLs6t](https://amzn.to/39mLs6t)

</comment><comment><USER144> \- Hackers and Painters - Paul Graham

\- Masters of Doom

\- Mastering Emacs

</comment><comment><USER145> I found The Alchemist to be pretty influential on following your "personal legend". Great book if deep down you want to do something and are putting it off.

</comment><comment><USER146> The best books I've read in the last decade (that I can remember, I've only been keeping reading lists since ~2015) are mostly important because they have contributed to my inspiration and style as a writer.

* The Road - Cormac McCarthy

* Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

* No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

* On Writing - Stephen King

* 11/22/63 - Stephen King

* The Stand - Stephen King

* Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson

* East of Eden - John Steinbeck

* Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

* In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

</comment><comment><USER147> The Anatomy of Peace, it has the power to change your mindset, it has helped me and others getting out of being stuck, reconnecting me with a more true purpose and helped me be a better programmer, father and friend.

Of course it is hard work, but the underlying principle it teaches is so powerful, that as long as I keep practicing that, i seem to improve in all the important areas of my life.

</comment><comment><USER148> The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

By David Deutsch

In the book he details his theory of everything. Quite ambitious and very thought provoking.

</comment><comment><USER149> Mating in Captivity - Esther Perel

She takes a post-modern stance on creating relationships that work rather than just following society's prescribed path.

</comment><comment><USER150> Fooled by Randomness. i picked it up from my friend's dad's bookshelf in 2010/2011 by pure chance. Best decision ever.

<comment><USER151> some may say that it was randomness

<comment><USER150> It was. Just like how most Wall street traders make their money :P.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER152> Essentialism - Greg McKeown

Deep Work - Cal Newport

Value-Based Fees - Alan Weiss

Technology Strategy Patterns - Eben Hewitt

The Road Less Stupid - Keith J Cunningham

The Business of Expertise - David C Baker

Atomic Habits - James Clear

</comment><comment><USER153> "Radical Markets" by Glen Weyl and Eric Posner

</comment><comment><USER154> Everything from Nassim Taleb, basically "the incerto", his four books are basically one book ([https://www.amazon.com/Incerto-Fooled-Randomness- Procrustes-...](https://www.amazon.com/Incerto-Fooled-Randomness-Procrustes- Antifragile/dp/0399590455/))

<comment><USER155> I'm not sure why everyone is so excited about Taleb. Whatever wisdom there is in it is buried in page after page of bizarre chest thumping and silly stories. Reading it gives me a constant feeling of "ok he's finally going to get to his point.." but he never does. I'd recommend reading one book before buying the whole stupid boxed set. If you want mine you can have it!

<comment><USER156> May I have your entire stupid boxed set, please?

<comment><USER155> Sure let me know where to send it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER157> The first 26 books here (the ones I've given ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in Goodreads):

[https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/64930929-tripu?utf8=%E...](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/64930929-tripu?utf8=%E2%9C%93&shelf=read&sort=rating&title=tripu&per_page=26)

</comment><comment><USER158> \- _Sapiens_ by Yuval Noah Harari - I really liked his views on transformation of happiness throughout history.

\- _Babi Yar_ (full version) by Anatoly Kuznetsov - after my discovery that the version I've read earlier was heavily censored.

\- _The Checklist Manifesto_ by Atul Gawande

\- _Collapse_ and _The World Until Yesterday_ by Jared Diamond

</comment><comment><USER159> \- Hpmor, from Yudkowsky the guy who created the ML Research Institute, simply one of the funniest and smartest book I ever read.

\- Martin Eden, a great tragic adventure from the late 19th century about a poor smart guy from the slums who tries to make his riches as a writer

\- The Moon is Harsh Mistress, Elon's favorite sci-fi books

\- Foundation by Asimov

\- Homo Deus by Harari

\- Principles by Ray Dalio

</comment><comment><USER160> Salt Dreams

Water For A Thirsty Land

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/water-for-a-thirsty-land- the-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/water-for-a-thirsty-land-the- consolidated-irrigation-district-and-its-canal-development- history/oclc/36954078&referer=brief_results)

</comment><comment><USER161> Not yet mentioned: Come As You Are (Emily Nagoski). Sexuality book written for women that should be read by all.

</comment><comment><USER162> Let my people go surfing - Yvon Chouinard

</comment><comment><USER163> For founders: #1 is Oren Klaff Pitch Anything. Then: Crossing the Chasm, Zero to One, Blitzscaling, Never Split the Difference, Oversubscribed: A Founders Guide to Seed Fundraising, Exactly What To Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact, Miracle Morning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

<comment><USER164> "Never Split the Difference" is a negotiation book with what I feel are manipulative and dirty tricks. HNer's should definately read it so you can recognize the common techniques negotiators, salesmen, and lawyers use in their jobs. It will help prevent you from being taken advantage of in a situation like that.

But for god sakes, don't employ these techniques yourself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER165> Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, this book changed the way I relate to others and made me more empathetic.

</comment><comment><USER166> * Information: A history, a theory, a flood - James Gleick

* Sapiens - Yuval Harari

* Thinking, fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman

* Power of Habit - Charles Duhig

</comment><comment><USER167> Habeas Data, by Cyrus Farivar. Examines the history of privacy-related law in the USA - hard to put down once you start reading.

[https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/habeas- data/](https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/habeas-data/)

</comment><comment><USER168> __Ishmael __by Daniel Quinn

</comment><comment><USER169> _80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good_ by Benjamin Todd definitely had the biggest impact on my life (and therefore hopefully on many others as well). To know that I can save quite a few lives throughout my career gave my life a somewhat deeper sens

</comment><comment><USER170> Bernard Werber's Trilogy of the Ants.

</comment><comment><USER171> I wrote a book on tmux, if you are interested in getting into the shell more: [https://leanpub.com/the-tao-of-tmux/read](https://leanpub.com/the-tao-of- tmux/read) (free to read online)

While it may not be the most important, if you've been meaning to up your terminal game and want a bit more dexterity when shuffling between panes, tmux and vim are a good area to invest time in [1]

Personality theories:

Textbooks in this area. Affordable on Amazon if you get them used, some are also on kindle but pricey.

 _An Introduction to Theories of Personality: 7th Edition_ by Robert B. Ewen is so good.

They can be used as sampler to springboard into areas of psychology you like. The material in this space - normally in paper books - is fantastic. It's totally normal to read through material from 50-70+ years ago.

[1] Not the configuration part, though. That's where the timesink is. Try to be basic as possible with vim configs. `vimtutor` is nice to play with.

<comment><USER172> I've yet to find a better workflow than tmux + vim + other terminal tools. The work I put into it has paid off a thousand times. I'd really like the whole os gui to work like tmux.

<comment><USER173> Yeah me too, I've been using tmux + vim + shell for 10-15 years and still going strong.

Tiling window managers like i3 are supposed to make the whole OS work like tmux. I tried i3 and a few others once but somehow never got into them.

I'm not sure why but maybe it's worth another try. On the other hand I think there are 10% of tasks that are just easier to do with a mouse.

[https://i3wm.org/](https://i3wm.org/)

I think those window managers are much easier to use with a keyboard, but harder to use with a mouse, which isn't always a win.

But yeah I think doing 90% of my programming tasks with the keyboard is reasonable; it doesn't need to be 100%.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER174> I'm not too sure which books have influenced me the most this decade, but I just wrote up my favourites from this year [https://danielmay.io/2019-in- books](https://danielmay.io/2019-in-books)

</comment><comment><USER56> Lots of great recommendations here. I'll add the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers:

\- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

\- A Closed and Common Orbit

\- Record of a Spaceborn Few

(Her more recent "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" is unrelated to the series but also a great read.)

EDIT: Formatting.

</comment><comment><USER175> _The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land_ by Thomas Asbridge. A modern scholarly and critical look at one of the most fascinating times in human history that even beginners can understand.

</comment><comment><USER176> Bible - Beginning with the New Testament, because the teachings of Jesus are inspiring every time I read them and show me everytime something deeper.

No it did and does not make me "religious" but gives me faith.

<comment><USER177> Don't miss Ecclesiastes. It's fascinating and heartening in a way to realize that someone thousands of years ago was struggling with the essential questions of our existence. Why is life hard, unsatisfying, and filled with sorrow? How is one to deal with this?

(There are paraphrases available that might be more accessible for first- timers.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER178> Faith, Hope, and Fury by Laura Antonelli. It's an erotic psychological thriller. I kept thinking it was partly based on the authors own experiences, and then she ended her life in 2019.

</comment><comment><USER179> * The Brain by David Eagleman

* Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

* A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss

</comment><comment><USER180> Dare to Lead -Rene Brown

Fooled by randomness- Nassim T

Principle - Ray Dalio

Drive - D Pink

The Laws of Human Nature -R Greene

Influence- Robert Cialdini

21st lessons for 21st century - Y. Harari

Why we sleep -M. Walker

Skin in the Game - Nassim T. Social Animal - David B.

Einstein - <USER7>

Steve Jobs - <USER7>

Blink - malcolm gladwell

Outlier - malcolm gladwell

The tipping point - malcolm gladwell

Game of Throne series

</comment><comment><USER181> Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think - by Hans Rosling.

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, 1921-1933 - by Anne Applebaum.

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Phillip Tetlock.

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein.

<comment><USER182> Here's an update of the ideas found in Superforecasting

[https://commoncog.com/blog/how-the-superforecasters-do- it/](https://commoncog.com/blog/how-the-superforecasters-do-it/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER183> Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinburg, its a LGBTQ book about a trans woman living in 1970s America, but I learned more about life and who I wanted to be from it.

</comment><comment><USER184> Second-most would be `this naked mind` by Annie Grace (wrt: alcohol).

Edit: Crud, `why we sleep` was easily my first, but I'm now digging into the potential debunking of it.

<comment><USER185> If you're interested in the clearest example of deliberate data manipulation, feel free scroll down directly to section 18: [https://guzey.com/books/why-we- sleep/#appendix-what-do-you-d...](https://guzey.com/books/why-we- sleep/#appendix-what-do-you-do-when-a-part-of-the-graph-contradicts-your- argument-you-cut-it-out-of-course)

Once you have such an obvious example of Walker deliberately fudging the data, all of the other points I make will read differently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER186> Both sapiens and The art of happiness were great books I've read.

Sapiens made history very interesting, I loved the idea behind our species being able to believe in the concept of a Created Myth( capitalism , companies, money, socialism, religion) as the main thing that made homo sapiens thrive.

The view of empires as not something bad and how they shaped our world of today and we essentially living in a global empire as well was a great point.

Buddhism is truly incredible and while I don't consider myself a Buddhist I have very similar approach to life.

Having a western psychologist/ researcher having conversations on topics about suffering, happiness, death, loneliness with Dalai Lama and how their separate views of the world interacted was awesome.

</comment><comment><USER187> _Wherever you go, there you are_ by Jon Kabat-Zin

 _Meditations_ by Marcus Aurelius

Neither were written this decade but they influenced my worldview the most, by far.

</comment><comment><USER188> Decision Making : Decisive

Management & Leadership : High Output Management, Presence Based Leadership, Leaders Guide to Story Telling & Dare to Lead

<comment><USER188> Personal Development : Power of Full Engagement

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Best business books:

-Secrets of Sandhill Road

-Hackers and Painters

-The Great CEO within

-Venture Deals

-Predictable Revenue

-Zero to One

-The Hard Thing About Hard Things

-Lean customer development

-Lost and founder

-Lean B2B

-From Impossible to Inevitable

-Traction

Best computer science books:

-Competitive programming 3

-Structure and interpretation of computer programs

Best for fun (non-fiction):

-Meditations

-Sapiens

-How to win friends and influence people

-A brief history of time

-Self-reliance

-Frente a la estrella polar

</comment><comment><USER189> The Lights in the Tunnel by Martin Ford

Race Against The Machine by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

The War on Normal People by Andrew Yang

</comment><comment><USER190> I feel _Oil, Power and War_ by Matthieu Auzanneau would deserve more publicity. (Edit: italicized)

</comment><comment><USER191> 1.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

2.Looking for Alaska

3.Blindness

4.Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival

5.The Martian

6.Never Let Me Go

</comment><comment><USER192> "The Breakdown of Nations", by Leopold Kohr

It clearly shows why huge human groups aren't adequate.

</comment><comment><USER193> The Rise and Fall of American Growth

Sapiens

The Universe in a Single Atom

Reality is not what it seems

The Organized Mind

The Power of Habit

Zen Mind Beginners Mind

Restoration Agriculture

A Random Walk on Wall Street

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying-up

</comment><comment><USER194> Not much fiction in here:

* Ender's game

* Children of time

* Kingkiller Chronicle (series)

* Skyward

<comment><USER117> Children of Time and Children of Ruin were excellent reads

</comment></comment><comment><USER195> Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince

</comment><comment><USER196> The Troy rising trilogy by John Ringo. An excellent military science fiction book with a Libertarian lean. My favourite is the first in the trilogy called live free or die. Basically tells the story of how to bootstrap a whole world. Pays homage to a lot of other science fiction. If you complete this trilogy and are left wanting more then I suggest the legacy of the Aldenata and the black tide rising series.

American nations by Colin Woodward. Great book to understand the historical underpinnings of different regions in America.

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (who wrote Hyperion). Great horror scifi book with a nice concept. Fairly long though.

Thwarting enemies at home and abroad by William R Johnson. If you like spy novels or it's text book albeit somewhat dated now likely on counter espionage.

On technical books I read the Linux programming interface by Michael Kerrisk. Really interesting incredibly detailed Linux book and always a great reference. Find myself keeping going back to it.

Ready player one the book by Ernest Cline. Way different than the movie. I actually preferred it as the movie justifiability leaves a lot out and condenses the story.

</comment><comment><USER197> Wisdom Sits in Places by Keith Basso.

If anyone knows similar books, please please point me to them.

</comment><comment><USER198> Thinking fast and slow, by Daniel Kahneman

Sapiens - A short history of humankind, by Yuval Harari

</comment><comment><USER199> \- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Great overview of how we got here and how our shared 'delusions' keep us where where we are).

\- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Great interviews by incredibly successful start up founders. Lesson 1: determination was the number one predictor of start up success. Lesson 2: most of the founders had no idea on how huge some of the companies would become nor the huge amounts of revenue their ideas would generate. Their number one focus was always grounded in solving a problem or delivering something great; everything else was secondary.)

\- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Great crime story. It shows how small things can make a big difference. A seemingly inconsequential and small prison event where a man spreads a rumor about a family having lots of wealth in their household leads to a series of robberies which nightmares are made of. Completely true story and incredibly well written by Mr. Capote. It convinced me that life is ruled by chaos. Small things and seemingly small events play a vital role in determining its outcome).

\- The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook (Amazing book showing that a lot of personality disorders stem from childhood trauma / experiences).

\- Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (Great overall book on UI design which definitely had an effect on how I approach designing user interfaces).

\- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Great thoughts from a great mind).

\- How to Develop Superpower Memory by Harry Loraine (Great advice on how to drastically improve your memory using your visual cortex – as well as a great general overview of the methodology current world memory champions use to remember large volumes of information).

\- Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger (Worldly wisdom from one of the world's greatest investors).

\- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan (Great thoughts and advice from Carl Sagan. The last chapter had a profound effect on the way I think of the US constitution).

\- The Things They Carried (Great novel about the hell of war, as well as incredible prose writing).

\- Mindfulness in Plain English (Great book about mindfulness meditation).

\- My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson (Great teachings and stories from the grand master of hypnosis).

\- How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease (Great book with great advice on healthy eating).

\- Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (It taught me how incredibly important exercise is when it comes to brain development / general health. If you could bottle its effects in a pill form, people would pay hundreds of dollars to unlock the incredible stuff it delivers).

\- A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form (Great overview of what's wrong with the current state of mathematics and the way that its taught. I completely agree with with the sentiment and the message).

</comment><comment><USER200> _Zones of Control_ by Pat Harrigan and Matthew G. Kirschenbaum.

</comment><comment><USER201> Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom -- truly inspirational

</comment><comment><USER202> Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

</comment><comment><USER203> A business and its beliefs by Thomas Watson Jr. Seriously great.

</comment><comment><USER96> I'd have to go back through my Goodreads list to see exactly which books that I read which fell into this decade versus another. But of the stuff that I've ready pretty recently, the couple that jump to mind immediately are:

 _Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid_ by Douglas Hofstadter

 _Thinking: Fast and Slow_ by Daniel Kahneman

 _The Education of Millionaires: Everything You Won 't Learn in College About How to Be Successful_ by Michael Ellsberg

I'm almost sure it was slightly over a decade ago, but I'll go ahead and throw in a mention of _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ by Steve Blank. I consider it one of the most influential books I've read, period.

Also, in terms of fiction, I'd add

 _Permutation City_ by Greg Egan, and the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov (that one's cheating a little as that was a re-read, but they are still very good).

<comment><USER204> I also reread Foundation recently and realized an underlooked aspect of it: beyond the psychohistory and the mentalics, it is perhaps the best look at how the future of nuclear tech was perceived by the sci-fi mainstream before Hiroshima.

<comment><USER205> The Foundation series was from the 50s, it was not pre-Hiroshima.

<comment><USER204> It was published in Astounding starting in 1942. It was later reedited in book form in the 1950s.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER206> Factfulness is the most impactful book I've ever read.

It's about making decisions based on facts rather than feelings and setting a few common misconceptions straight. Such as that the world is going to shit (we've been doing great in reducing worldsuck), violence is increasing (it's not), that most people on the planet don't get vaccinated (globally, 90% of one-year-olds have some vaccination), etc. It provides practical methods to understand better how things work, for example the graph of world population growing exponentially in the past century is something that looks unsustainable, but the truth is that it's slowing down (I think many people know this nowadays, the book is already showing its age two years down the road) and that families are getting smaller when health increases, irrespective of religion or geographical location.

Of course, we have an absolute emergency regarding our CO2 emissions and the ongoing 6th extinction event, that's not what this book is about. The book just shows we've been doing great and how to get a better sense of reality and what's important. I think it's a positive and helpful foundation for putting the current status of humans on this planet into perspective.

In fact I think it would be really good if everyone did read this book. I've made a preview that includes part of the first chapter that you can use to make a decision whether this book is something for you, send me an email if you want to take a look (not sharing publicly because it's in the grey area of fair use). I'm also willing to help with the purchasing price if you can't afford it, somehow non English versions are twice as expensive. Note that I have zero affiliation with the author or anything, I just think everyone should read this material.

\-----

On the fiction side, The Martian is my all time favorite. It's very entertaining, clever, and even educative if you like to learn about space stuff.

If you enjoy that, you'll probably also enjoy The Expanse (last, 9th, book is coming out next winter probably).

A little bit further out but also a similar genre are the books from Daniel Suarez, all of which I can recommend as well, though not all of his books are from the last decade.

Edit: just found another comment about factfulness, it's accurate: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21902411](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21902411)

<comment><USER17> This is the first I heard of Factfulness, but I have heard some similar arguments before. My question though, is: does it really matter? Are people in the Rust Belt going to be mollified by the revelation that, on average globally, life is much better? Or are they going to compare themselves with their parents and conclude that the world is going to hell regardless of what the averages say? Is the latter response unreasonable? These questions seem to be of urgent import in many democracies around the world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER207> Tangent: doesn't the decade end at the end of next year?

<comment><USER51> Vertasium on YT has a good speil as to why, _technically_ , you are correct but why you are not:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm9CQn07OjU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm9CQn07OjU)

1 min mark

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> _Rationality: From AI to Zombies_ by Eliezer Yudkowsky - Despite its many flaws, it seems to be the single most intellectually empowering book I've ever read.

 _The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are_ by Alan Watts - Gave me spirituality without supernatural beliefs that I can lean on when all else fails. (Someone else mentioned _The Wisdom of Insecurity_ by the same author, it works just as well)

 _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand - I don't necessarily endorse it either as a work of literature or philosophy, but it gave me a little push that ultimately sent me on a very deep journey exploring my ethical beliefs.

</comment><comment><USER208> Earth Abides (50s post-apocalyptic set in the Bay Area)

Blood Meridian

Lord of the Flies

Deliverance

</comment><comment><USER209> Being Happy, by Andrew Matthews.

</comment><comment><USER210> A few stand out:

\- Vagabonding (Potts): made me travel more than ever

\- Steve Jobs (Isaacson): amazing life story, beautifully described

\- The Mom Test: required reading for any young founder/PM IMO, I've gifted this more than any other book

\- It doesn't have to be crazy at work (DHH/Fried): best advice on how to run a company in a sustainable way to maximize team happiness & output

\- Masters of Doom: epically entertaining, super nostalgic

</comment><comment><USER211> Why evolution is true. Coyne.

</comment><comment><USER212> Villette by Charlotte Bronte

</comment><comment><USER213> 2666

</comment><comment><USER214> Saga of the swamp thing

</comment><comment><USER180> The Laws of Human Nature

Love this book

</comment><comment><USER215> Most of mine are going to be books by philosophers or scientists (about philosophy or other things).

\- The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell was a pretty good one. He has a lot of ideas that were ahead of their time (positive psychology, etc). You can see a lot of parallels between his ideas and modern Stoicism (although Russell criticized it elsewhere, I think he came to some of the same conclusions).

\- Introduction To Mathematical Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. Another Russell one. I think this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand explanation I've ever read of the underpinnings of mathematical foundations. It's written in a style that should be accessible to almost anyone with a high school education. He wrote it while he was in prison (for refusing to be drafted) during WW1. Apparently he left a copy of it to the prison warden.

\- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume. This is worth reading because it is the motivation for basically all of modern philosophy of science (at least in the west). It's also pretty easy to read and if you read it you'll be able to more easily understand other books and papers that are responses to it.

\- Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson. This book should be required reading for every programmer or aspiring programmer IMO. I learned so much about the history of computing that I didn't know before reading this. You will not regret buying this one.

\- I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. Obviously everyone knows about GEB, but he also wrote a shorter follow up that in my opinion expresses his ideas much more clearly. I think that even if you disagree with him, it's worth reading because there are so many things you can take away from this book. For example, he talks about his wife's death, and ties that into his theory of mind and explains the unstated purposes of why we have funerals/wakes for people.

\- An Introduction to Information Theory by John R. Pierce. For someone like me who doesn't really have a very strong math background, this was a very clear intro to the ideas behind information theory, and why they're important historically. I would recommend this to anyone who feels like they need a gentle intro to the ideas and motivation for them. Dover mathematics books in general are great.

\- Borrow: The American Way of Debt by Louis Hyman. This is a _fantastic_ historical overview of personal credit in the US that covers the past 120 years or so. I learned a ton from reading this that I had no clue about. Recommended to anyone who wants to understand the origins of credit cards / loans, and how society came to embrace being in debt.

[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.222834/page/n7](https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.222834/page/n7)

[https://people.umass.edu/klement/imp/imp- ebk.pdf](https://people.umass.edu/klement/imp/imp-ebk.pdf)

[https://archive.org/details/humeenquiry00humerich/page/n7](https://archive.org/details/humeenquiry00humerich/page/n7)

[https://www.amazon.com/Turings-Cathedral-Origins-Digital- Uni...](https://www.amazon.com/Turings-Cathedral-Origins-Digital- Universe/dp/1400075998)

[https://www.amazon.com/Am-Strange-Loop-Douglas- Hofstadter/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Am-Strange-Loop-Douglas- Hofstadter/dp/0465030793)

[https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Information-Theory- Symbo...](https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Information-Theory-Symbols- Mathematics/dp/0486240614)

[https://www.amazon.com/Borrow-American-Debt-Louis- Hyman/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/Borrow-American-Debt-Louis- Hyman/dp/0307741680)

</comment><comment><USER216> The Fountainhead

<comment><USER44> Any input as to how it compares to Atlas Shrugged? Currently reading A.S., a looong read!

<comment><USER216> They're both good. For a less lopsided plot We the Living is good

I think Atlas Shrugged is more likely to be what draws criticism to Ayn Rand. It plays more on extremist ideas that the elite class should cull the weak. The Fountainhead exemplifies the idea that one should master their craft, that all good work is art, that there's a real beauty to "form follows function" which requires one to actually think about what they're doing. Around the time of reading The Fountainhead I got into a debate about the architecture I took in writing nobox, a minimalist window manager

[https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=103499](https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=103499)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER217> I'm also interested in books you hate but are for some reason very popular in the last decade.

<comment><USER218> All the Malcolm Gladwell stuff, specifically Outliers. Pretty much everything he writes falls apart with any intellectual rigor and is always presented in the formula of: anecdote, anecdote, interesting fact, sweeping theory presented as truth.

Like the "10,000 hour rule," which sucks from so many directions. So it doesn't matter how you practice or with what regularity? Why are there so many life-long musicians and only 4 Beatles then? How come EVERY task takes the same amount of time to master? What exactly is meant by mastery? Doesn't the precision of 10,000 hours seem suspiciously convenient? Is there ever a noticable division between mastery/pre-mastery? And if the exactness of 10,000 hours is fuzzy and the concept of mastery is fuzzy, then isn't the "rule" just saying "you will improve with lots of time and effort"? What is the useful insight again?

The book seems to have found success as a kind of an earworm for people who like sharing the interesting facts and neat anecdotes packaged into marketable nuggets, but the sheen of genius insights and intelligent discourse is exactly counter to the product being sold. It feels to me exactly like an intellectual scam.

</comment></comment><comment><USER219> It was the decade of David Graeber for me:

Debt: The first 5000 years

Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

All incredible mind expanding books.

</comment><comment><USER220> why has nobody said superintelligence by nick bostrom yet? You all need to read this because it describes what happens and how an AI will eventually start taking over the world(s)</comment>