

Tim O'Reilly: Books That Have Shaped How I Think - socmoth
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/articles/favebooks_0705.html

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swombat
Personally, whenever I see one of these lists, I look for fiction books. This
is obviously a personal bias, but I find it hard to relate to someone whose
life hasn't been mostly changed by works of fiction. In my view, those works
are usually far more powerful than non-fiction about the same topics.

For instance, you can write about the duality of the heart and the mind at
length, without ever coming close to the powerful argument of Narziss &
Goldmund. And you can write about the cyclical nature of life till you're blue
in the face (in the fingers?), but will you ever convey the sense of emptiness
that one gets at the end of Marques' One Hundred Years of Solitude?

Non-fiction is useful, no doubt, but imho the truly great writings are in the
fiction form.

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davidw
I get a sense of emptiness when I realize that what an author was trying to
tell me in some dreadfully long, dreary and depressing book could have been
summed up in a page or two, and been much clearer to boot. But that's just how
_my_ brain works. I'm still proud, though, of telling my high school
literature teacher the same thing and getting a bad grade for it.

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lacker
A great work of fiction is impossible to sum up in one page. You can recount
the exact plot of Infinite Jest but it won't give you anywhere near the same
experience.

~~~
tertius
For you, yes.

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tokenadult
I think this previous submission with no comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415893>

is not the only previous submission to Hacker News. That is a very interesting
list of books. I'd probably prefer different books on psychology.

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oscardelben
It's interesting to note that the majority of the books are about philosophy
topics. This comes not as surprise but what makes me think is that most people
I know have never read anything about philosophy.

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andrewbadera
Couple I've read, couple I've been meaning to read, but, best of all, a bunch
I've never heard of. Wish List updated.

