
Ask HN: Which books changed your life? - aadilrazvi
What books inspired you? Changed your worldview?
======
user_235711
_Universe_ by Freedman and Kaufmann [http://www.amazon.com/Universe-Roger-
Freedman/dp/142923153X](http://www.amazon.com/Universe-Roger-
Freedman/dp/142923153X)

 _Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre_
[http://www.amazon.com/Existentialism-Dostoevsky-Sartre-
Revis...](http://www.amazon.com/Existentialism-Dostoevsky-Sartre-Revised-
Expanded/dp/0452009308/)

 _A Kierkegaard Anthology_ [http://www.amazon.com/Kierkegaard-Anthology-
Soren/dp/0691019...](http://www.amazon.com/Kierkegaard-Anthology-
Soren/dp/0691019789/)

 _Party of One: The Loner 's Manifesto_ by Anneli Rufus
[http://www.annelirufus.com/partyofone/](http://www.annelirufus.com/partyofone/)

 _The Mindbody Prescription_ by John E. Sarno [http://www.amazon.com/The-
Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Mindbody-
Prescription-Healing-Body/dp/0446675156/)

------
timonv
In no particular order:

Politics and philosophy:

Ishmael - Daniel Quinn (even though in the end, it's just a cute, in essence a
softies introduction to anarchist communism)

On property - Proudhon (Meta, ye oldist anarchy) Das Kapital (If you read
Marx, also read _on_ Marx, can't stress this enough)

Beyond good and evil (but in his thought in general) - Nietzsche (Mainly for
showing there are no absolutes, moral is what we make of it, and in that moral
we can excel)

And so, so many others, philosophy really adds up, just keep on reading,
there's fundamental books for sure, but every publication adds up in some
respect.

Sports and nutrition:

Starting Strength (for making me bad ass strong in the last couple years)

'Paleo' diet (for showing an extreme solution for a more simple problem, that
actually worked and made me not fat anymore)

Some random books that made a huge impression the last years:

The Alchemist, for showing how humble you can experience the wonders of life

Siddhartha, same really.

A short summer of anarchy (biography of Durrutti, rise of anarchism in 30s
Spain, out of print)

Crime and Punishment and Karamazov (There's beauty in the darkest corners of
the human spirit, and so much more)

The Prince

Butler (For using Nietzsche's deconstruction to argue against 'genetic'
discrimination, controversial, but very good)

Metamorphosis - Kafka (I don't have a one liner to summarize this. Just read
it, it's < 100 pages)

Funny enough, as far as Tech and Business goes, I skim books to get some
details, but at the end of the day most value comes from hacking around. For
both.

------
johnatwork
"Who moved my Cheese" ([http://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-
Amazing/dp/0399144...](http://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-
Amazing/dp/0399144463))

And in conjunction to that, this article "Someone is Coming to Eat You"
([http://randsinrepose.com/archives/someone-is-coming-to-
eat-y...](http://randsinrepose.com/archives/someone-is-coming-to-eat-you/))

------
sobbybutter
_Antifragile_ by Nassim Taleb

 _Invisible Cities_ by Italo Calvino

 _Il deserto dei tartari (The Tartar Steppe)_ by Dino Buzzati

 _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ by Dale Carnegie

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

~~~
Nicholas_C
After seeing this on so many Hacker News comments to threads like this I
finally gave in and started to read it. It has definitely opened my eyes to
how I interact with people and made me a lot more self aware.

~~~
DonGateley
Warren Buffet credits it for much of his success. I don't much like the
bastard but he learned his lessons well.

~~~
Nicholas_C
Why is he a bastard?

~~~
DonGateley
His views and past behavior with respect to employees below top management. He
seems to believe that only owners should profit from success because only they
create it.

This comes from my reading of Schroeder's authorized biography.

------
DonGateley
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe

Be Here Now - Ram Das

Whole Earth Catalog - Stewart Brand

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

Savage Continent - Keith Lowe

Forged - Bart D. Ehrman

Young Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore

Court of the Red Czar - Simon Sebag Montefiore

~~~
deadfall
Ram Das has such great lectures. I have yet to read his books. I am reading
The Power of Now and I wonder how different it is to Be Here Now.

~~~
DonGateley
The message is pretty much the same but the presentation is considerably
different. After the wordy introduction which is more or less the story of his
transformation from Richard Alpert to Ram Dass, Be Here Now is as much a work
of art as it is a book. It tries to reach around your intellect.

I haven't had a copy for many years and just ordered one from Amazon because
you made me think about it fondly again. I first read it shortly after it was
published in '71 and it's time to read it again. :-)

There is a trap in the thinking that it took me a long time to understand. The
present is a consequence of past behavior that cannot be safely ignored. The
future is a consequence of present behavior and cannot be safely ignored.
Discarding that caution brought me a lot of trouble I would have been better
off avoiding. This is obvious but excess enthusiasm for mindfulness of the
present can easily lead one to places that one wouldn't want to be.

------
dmak
Steve Job's book was very inspiring and motivational for me. The way he saw
the world was very enlightening. Here's a video of what I thought was really
profound for me:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfNvmF0Bqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfNvmF0Bqw)

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

------
meerita
In no particular order:

What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness

1984

Farenheit 541

Foundation (all saga)

The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings (all saga)

The Prince

De Bello Gallico and Other Commentaries

The Design of Everyday Things

The Riverworld (an entire saga of 5 books)

On the Good Life

Treatises on Friendship and Old Age

Asimov On Numbers

Asimov on Chemistry

The Roman Republic

And hundreds more I cannot list.

