

Ask HN - what interesting books did you read this year (including non tech)? - vijayr


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caw
"Predictable Irrationality" - This is a pretty good book

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" - Similar to Predictable
Irrationality, they overlap somewhat but they're different enough

"How to Master the Art of Selling" - Not as useful as the others, but I'm not
selling anything right now. It has influenced how I perceive people trying to
sell me things, however.

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" - I can definitely see why it's a
classic.

I just started reading "Immunity to Change," and should have that done by the
time I get back from holiday. I'm not far enough along to give an opinion but
from the person who recommended it to me made it sound interesting.

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brudgers
"Just Let the Kids Play" by Bob Bigelow who describes what is going wrong with
much of youth sports and has a concrete philosophy about how to improve the
situation. It provided me with a lot of relevant perspective as my involvement
with youth sports became greater over the past year.

[[http://www.amazon.com/Just-Let-Kids-Play-
Ruining/dp/15587492...](http://www.amazon.com/Just-Let-Kids-Play-
Ruining/dp/1558749276/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324498313&sr=1-1)]

<http://www.bobbigelow.com/book.html>]

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briggsbio
After watching the first season of "Game of Thrones" I wanted to read the book
and see how it compared. I was amazed and enthralled. Then I read the rest of
them and couldn't really do anything else until I'd finished them. Enjoyed how
the HBO series was more or less true to the book: Rather than taking a 900+ pg
book and trying to do it all in 2.5hrs they had about 11 hours for the whole
season, and it was, in places, almost verbatim. Pumped for the next seasons
(and the last two books). Highly recommend "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by
George RR Martin

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retroafroman
Shop Class as Soulcraft - Matthew B. Crawford

This will resonate well with people who enjoy working with their hands. It
also has some pretty entertaining anecdotes from the author's personal life,
but it's not overly autobiographical. I personally found this one interesting
because I've had some similar experiences in life-working on (and driving) an
old Volkswagen as a first car, working in the trades, going to college,
getting a desk job, and now, thinking perhaps that a desk job isn't for me, as
he realized.

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tkaczano
Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson A really interesting
book which explains how companies can make money by offering stuff for free.
Many examples from various internet-based companies. A must-read especially if
you want to start your business online.

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hpp
David Mitchell - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Historical fiction,
set in Japan later 1790s - early 1800s, in a Dutch trading post.

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leeHS
Just reading Ikigai by Sebastian Marshall. Very interesting philosophies
around life and business.

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rigatoni1
I know this is pretty generic and typical, but the Steve Jobs book was a very
interesting read.

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soho33
I tend to read "Think and Grow Rich" at least once a year!

~~~
vijayr
just curious - does it help? I mean, everybody knows the power of positive
thinking etc, the theory is easy, it is practicing that is difficult, no?

~~~
soho33
personally speaking, it helped me a lot. at the end of the day, it's not a
magic pill that works, as it requires a lot of work and effort to be put in by
the person but i find it very motivational and helpful for me.

i made my list of goals and how i wanted to acheive them with a set timeline.
it requires you to review it every night before bed and every morning. this is
the hard part to actually wake up 10 minutes early every morning and do this!
althought i didn't meet my goal in that timeframe, it did help me get on the
right path and eventually did accomplish it.so it requires lots of discipline.

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fluential
"Way of the Superior Man by David Deida"

