
Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life? - lando2319
What&#x27;s one book that changed your life?
======
jimmies
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I lead a team to translate the whole book to Vietnamese fifteen years ago as a
freshman highschool student, and released it for free online. We beat the
printed book publisher by months. I should have gotten into tons of troubles,
but everyone was kind enough to not beat me down. I didn't get into any legal
troubles partly because people saw the values in doing it, partly because they
didn't know what to do with it, partly because we were anonymous later on. The
website received so much traffic I couldn't believe. Later on, I wrote an
ajax-based site: after loading a very simple skeleton, it would only load
plain text on demand afterwards, yet it would quickly saturate any free
hosting bandwidth I could get. To put it into perspective, I had several HN
front page stories nowadays and I got about 50k unique visitors worldwide a
day at best. I got 5k a day just from Vietnam back then.

It was how I knew and met half of all the important people that shaped my
early twenties, many of them were writers, translators, poets, reporters. It
was an incredible stretch of luck and a huge eye-opening experience to be
starting it and seeing how powerful the internet could be and where following
a passion could lead me to at that age. I was a college dropout at 19 and an
internet celebrity I knew from that incident picked me up and suggested to me
that I should look into studying in the US. If not, I would have been typing
this in a dark hot corner in Vietnam today.

I wrote a bit in more details about it here: [http://www.tnhh.net/posts/Harry-
Potter-and-me.html](http://www.tnhh.net/posts/Harry-Potter-and-me.html)

Archive of the translated book in 2004:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20040213105923/http://huanhuu.net...](http://web.archive.org/web/20040213105923/http://huanhuu.netfirms.com:80/harrypotter/index.htm)
(it was lame)

~~~
a-saleh
This is awesome! Order of the Phoenix has a special place in my heart as well,
because this was the first book I have read in English :D Me and my mom didn't
want to wait half a year for translation.

But actually on-upping professional translators? That sounds amazing!

------
lpolovets
"A Guide to the Good Life" by William Irvine. It's an approachable guide to
stoicism and it helped me become less attached and less anxious about things
that I have no control over. I really value the increased peace of mind.

I took a lot of notes when I first read the book
([https://booknotes.quora.com/Notes-on-A-Guide-to-the-Good-
Lif...](https://booknotes.quora.com/Notes-on-A-Guide-to-the-Good-Life-by-
Irvine)) and I still revisit them occasionally. (The notes don't replace
reading the book, but give a good sense of its contents.)

~~~
mark_l_watson
+1 for the book recommendation and the reading notes.

I have always had a little bit of the spiritual side to me, but in the last
ten years I have come even more to appreciate both the philosophy of stoicism
and Buddhist teachings, which have a huge amount of overlap in my opinion.

------
aphextron
_Zen Mind, Beginner 's Mind_, by Shunryu Suzuki

I was 19 and living in a van, camping under bridge overpasses in Colorado so I
could just ski all day every day. My naive uneducated mind was formulating
some sort of psuedo-hippy philosophy around the state of ecstasy reached in
the perfect ride down a mountain through powder. Little did I know the "no-
thought" mantra I had been inculcating was just a pale impression of this
thousands year old tradition of mindfulness. When I picked this book up at a
library I just sat down reading page after page being blown away by how he
would describe the exact same sensibilities I had been reaching for. It was my
first spiritual awakening as an adult.

~~~
vailprogrammer
Hey man, where did you do most of your skiing? Also I would love to chat with
you about how you went from ski bum to professional programmer (I'm assuming)
but you don't have an email in your bio. Cheers

~~~
aphextron
Mostly Abay/Keystone

We liked to hate on Vail on that side of the pass, but it really is the best.
The only problem was affording it ;)

------
brogrammernot
The Inner Game of Tennis. My coach gave me his copy from like 1998 that was
very, very worn and I could tell he had read it many many times.

He was a badass, grew up in South Central, would ride his bike to nicer areas
of LA where there were tennis courts, and just hit against the wall until
someone else would show up & he’d ask to play with them.

Ended up playing in High School, and getting a full ride to a DI college.

He told me that reading this book when he was trying to get scholarships to
college was one of the turning points in his life and then said, “How I’m
teaching you to respond to adversity on the court is preparation for the more
important challenges you’ll face in your life off the court.”

To this day, I often suggest this book to anyone as it played a similar role
in my life as well.

~~~
bjoli
I am a classical musicianby profession (principal bassoon in Norrköping
Symphony orchestra if that tells anyone anything). I have used the techniques
in the inner game of tennis daily for about as long as I can remember. A
teacher of mine noticed I had a very uneven level and made me read it. One of
the most important books in my professional career.

------
TulliusCicero
_The Game_ , by Neil Strauss.

I know, I know, PUA's are despicable and all that. But as a super sheltered
Mormon nerd who had zero flirting instinct and put girls on a pedestal/treated
them like aliens, it absolutely refactored the social part of my brain for the
better.

When I read the book, I was 22 and had never been on a date. Six months later
I was engaged. Still married now, almost ten years later.

------
lurena
The Space Merchants, co-written by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth. Mind
you, I was barely a teenager at the time I read it. But:

-It led me down the path to the realization that advertising in almost all of its current forms is unequivocally evil and has no credible moral justification in our current society. I have been running adblocking software on all of my devices (and that of my family's) and feel mildly disgusted every time I see an ad in the street or on the rare occasions I watch television.

-It opened my eyes on the fact that corporations having more power than governments is a huge deal, especially at times where government is often equivocated to 'lazy bureaucrats' and opposed to private companies' supposed 'efficiency' (but for whom?).

-It made me realize that environmentalists are not just some rambling, soft-natured and out-of-touch hippies but simply ringing the bell about how we are going to be _royally screwed_ if we don't radically change our current consumption habits.

But the most shocking thing about that book is that _it was written in 1952_.
There was no targeted advertising and tracking, no concerns about global
warming, no oil peak. Critics at the time said it was witty and light-hearted,
but far too much of a caricature to be taken seriously. Reading the thing more
than 60 years later gives the whole experience a sour pang of irony.

~~~
Arkaad
>But the most shocking thing about that book is that it was written in 1952.

Corporate greed and advertisement is quite old, though.

------
ex3ndr
Introduction to Algorithms, Charles E. Leiserson, Clifford Stein, Ronald
Rivest, and Thomas H. Cormen

Not because of contents, but because of the fact how i got it. Our local
"search engine" (already dead) make a gift to everyone in the country - you
can pick any IT book that you wish and they will give it to you for free.

That was a great example how spending (very little i suppose) money can help a
lot of people. Most of my friends got something from them. Eventually when i
won several prizes on coding contest i have done same thing - i gifted 50
books to young developers and they was able to pick anything they want too.
That was a great experience and after years people sometimes still tell me
that how it helped them.

------
alfonsodev
This book called Mindfulness[1], was gifted to me, is very short and easy to
read, it has nothing to do about spirituality (which I though it was), and has
real life and practical examples. So because it changed my view then I could
benefit from a lot of other good materials and talks that before this book I'd
not even consider. Long term it also gave me a rational reason to meditate.

I think the saying "the master appears when the student is ready" kind of
applies to books, it the depends the moment of your life the book will tell
you something or not.

[1][https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-25th-anniversary-
Merloyd-...](https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-25th-anniversary-Merloyd-
Lawrence/dp/0738217999/)

------
filleokus
Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt.

It's old but many of the lessons he teaches are still relevant today. It
opened my eyes to the danger of only thinking about the things that are easily
observable, and ignoring the "unseen" things.

> The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at
> the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the
> consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

~~~
viburnum
This book is complete trash. You should find a better book.

~~~
YaxelPerez
Care to explain why?

~~~
bepotts
I'm not the guy who posted, but probably because the book has a conservative
lean.

Regardless, I think the book is great as well.

------
ekblom
Quiet by Susan Cain: realizing that i am normal, that my need to be alone is
something that many other also feel. Realizing that its ok to be like this
made me really emotional, sitting there on the train to work, almost crying of
relief.. Yep, changes my life for the better, made me feel more secure about
my self.

------
oliwarner
The Easy Way To Stop Smoking, by Alan Carr.

Very logically made me realise that willpower was really just about changing
how you talk to yourself. Essentially learning impulse control.

I lost a deadly, expensive habit and a fair bit of weight. Clean for 6 years.

~~~
Xplosiveoctopus
Great book.

It was the fourth or third book I had read in my life up until that point.

I read it and realized that in order for me to quit smoking, I had to quit
drinking(I was around 19 at the time and a heavy drinker), and in order to do
that I needed to change/get away from the circle of friends at the time. That
day, after finishing the book the decisions were obvious and I did exactly
what needed to be done. It was like: 1,2,3 done. I did it!

I quit drinking for 1,5 years. Moved to a different tow, to get away from all
my friends at that time. Started reading books like mad, because I realized
that the info in a book can substantially change my life.

I’m 30 now. I’ve been free from smoking for more than 10 years. Reading books
has led me into having a well paid(by the standards of my country) job in
SEO/digital marketing. I have not started, nor finished uni.

I think I need to re-read it, because I’d like to kick my habit of drinking
and a few other bad habits.

I could not recommend it enough.

------
skookum
101 BASIC Computer Games by David H. Ahl.

This was a book published in the 70s by DEC. I vividly remember at either the
very beginning or the very end of the book there was a section on how to send
submissions for consideration in future editions, complete with instructions
on how to properly pack oiled teletype tape for shipping. :)

I found a copy of one of the editions of this book in my parent's book stash
in the 80s some time after I got a C128. Up until then the C128 had spent most
of it's time in C64 emulation mode alternately running a BBS, downloading
cracked games while taking some liberties with the telephone system, or
playing those games. Starting on that book put me on the path of teaching
myself to program.

If the OP is looking for something that changes philosophical outlook, or
something that might be relevant today, then I probably disappoint. However in
taking the question literally, I'd guess this book set me on the path to the
life I live today more than any other single book.

~~~
amorphous
I started in a similar way with my C64. At that time I didn't have access to
cracked games or anything like that so I started typing up BASIC programs (not
sure it was that book in particular, the cover does look familiar). That led
to teaching myself programming. It was a wonderful time having found a machine
that let you express your thoughts in such a new way, very exciting. Not sure
young kids nowadays can have the same connection, things have become way more
complex.

------
21stio
Its about thinking biases, by far the book with the greatest information
density I have ever read. 2 pages per thinking bias. Paid of a 1000 times.

[https://www.amazon.de/Art-Thinking-Clearly-Better-
Decisions/...](https://www.amazon.de/Art-Thinking-Clearly-Better-
Decisions/dp/144475954X)

------
kp1
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

~~~
mlthoughts2018
I refer to my handwritten notes on this all the time, and seemingly no matter
how consistently I apply the ideas in my dealings with others, I always have a
feeling that I wish I was doing better at it.

------
9024037290
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

I read it during a stay in a psychiatric facility. I had checked myself in
because I felt unsafe towards myself.

I couldn't focus reading anything else. I could focus reading this. It even
made me smile. Then even laugh.

The author killed himself before he ever saw it published. It's a remarkable
book. In addition to helping me get out of my head for a bit, reading it
facilitated a desire to make / build / write something good and live to see it
exist in the world.

That was 2006. Happy to say I'm still here, still trying.

------
joddystreet
Sapiens
([https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens))
Gave words to describe my feelings for various ideas in my head. Another thing
that happened (probably unrelated), after this I reestablished my reading
habit that got lost for nearly 10 years.

~~~
fiveFeet
This book is a great read. It is about how homo sapiens became the most
powerful species on earth. It changed the way I used to think about various
things such as religion, capitalism, nationalism, race, gender, equality,
independence etc.,

------
OzCrimson
"Bring Me Your Love" Charles Bukowski

Bukowski's style gave me a permission that I didn't know I was looking for. It
was raw and accessible. It showed me that prose and poetry didn't need to be
buried in metaphor and riddles.

That extends to much of life: let's get on with it. Sometimes it's fine to
drop ceremony and adornment--especially if it's not genuine.

------
ziotom78
The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky, without doubt. Seriously, the chapter
with the Legend of the Great Inquisitor forced me to ask myself what was the
meaning of "freedom", and this in turns urged me to reconsider a lot of
beliefs I had hold before.

~~~
nuclx
For me it's The Idiot, due to Myshkin being such a distinct character. But all
of Doestoevsky's work was eye-opening for me.

------
AlphaGeekZulu
"1984" by George Orwell and "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter.

~~~
dennisgorelik
How did "1984" change your life?

~~~
AlphaGeekZulu
I was probably to young for the book when I read it (about 15): the explicit
description of a brain-wash torture with the result, that two lovers won't
recognize each other emotionally anymore afterwards was beyond my imagination
and left me with a mild form of capgras delusion that lasts until today.

~~~
animesh
> capgras delusion

So, that's what it is called? Thank you.

------
Buttons840
"Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War" by Robert Coram was the
first biography I really enjoyed. John Boyd's dedication to his ideals is
inspiring. The retrospective that comes from seeing an inspiring life, with
all its trade-offs and inevitable end, was life changing.

------
Isinlor
Maybe not one, but 3 books:

Into the Wild (book and movie): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ArZ7VD-
QQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ArZ7VD-QQ) When I was in high school I
was considering the same path as Christopher took, but then I heard about him
and I learned from his story. "Happiness only real when shared"

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World
Has Never Seen [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6289283-born-to-
run](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6289283-born-to-run) This is how I
got really hooked up to triathlon and ultramarathons. Great book, I lent it to
many people and changed some of their lives too.

Learning PHP and MySQL:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40544.Learning_PHP_and_M...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40544.Learning_PHP_and_MySQL)
The book is ok, not great, but it changed my life. This is how I learned to
program.

But I would say that other media also had an impact. Like poems:

"If—" by Rudyard Kipling:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH5txHlSOUI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH5txHlSOUI)

Then there are some short videos: The Race:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5A1K6TxxM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5A1K6TxxM)
Godspeed: [https://youtu.be/pNSWTwB-_bk](https://youtu.be/pNSWTwB-_bk) "The
Hubble Ultra Deep Field" by Deep Astronomy:
[https://youtu.be/oAVjF_7ensg](https://youtu.be/oAVjF_7ensg)

------
mck-
The art of worldly wisdom, by Baltasar Gracian.

Timeless classic, tiny book of 300 maxims. Each one very profound, highly re-
readable as you go through life. I've been reading it over and over little
bits at a time, for well over a decade by now. Life changer for sure.

~~~
diggum
Definitely in my top ten list, too. Like Machiavelli, but its D&D alignment
would be Neutral Good.

~~~
yesenadam
Nothing whatever like Machiavelli. I don't understand that last part you
wrote, sorry.

------
TheAlchemist
Surprised it's not mentioned yet -> "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.

This book is pure gold, however one has to approach it with a right mindset.
It's not the best literature, per se, you will ever read, but if you take a
deeper look, it's very simple, yet very profound. It somehow reminds me of the
quote from Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett long time associate, and one of the
wisest man alive) - "Take a simple idea, and take it seriously"

~~~
Arete31415
I had a very The Alchmist experience while I was reading The Alchemist. I was
reading the book on the bus and and was so engrossed that I missed my bus
stop. Then I decided that since it was a nice day, I'd take a walk around the
neighborhood I ended up in. At the guitar store, there was an amazing Martin
guitar that I couldn't put down. I still have it 15 years later. Kismet.

------
kirubakaran
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I learned to be less Arthur and more
Ford about my approach to living my life in general, and dealing with
Fenchurch winking out of existence in particular.

~~~
bananicorn
Did you learn how to fly yet? ;) I think at that point, Arthur learns how to
be less Arthur himself. I don't think things between him and Fenchurch
would've worked out, had he been the same person he was at the beginning of
the books.

Then again, the last book really depressed me - I can't imagine having my
Fenchurch being ripped away from me...

That part was probably worse than the ending for me.

I hope you are doing well.

~~~
kirubakaran
I'm doing well now. Thank you! Hope you are too.

------
AnIdiotOnTheNet
A friend loaned me a copy of Ken Wilbur's _A Brief History of Everything_ ,
which I credit with starting me down the path of philosophical thought. I
honestly don't remember a whole lot about the book, but even if I did I'm not
certain I'd recommend it if only because I've noticed this tendency of people
to read a book about philosophical ideas and then just stop thinking about the
ideas and treat them as some kind of dogma. I do recommend deep philosophical
thinking though, and to try not to get caught up in the academic side of
philosophy.

Terry Pratchett's _Hogfather_ , in retrospect, laid the foundation for a
fundamental shift in my understanding of belief and how it interfaces with
reality.

------
mlthoughts2018
Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall.

It helped me better detect and understand seemingly hypocritical and self-
defeating actions by middle managers in companies, and also a lot of the
disingenuous emphasis on “passion” used to suppress wages in start-ups or sell
job candidates on a reduced salary or equity package with poor expected value
or risk characteristics.

I wouldn’t say anything from Moral Mazes was surprising when stepping back to
think about known manipulative behavior of middle and upper management. But it
did give an excellent analytical and even a normative philosophical framework
to use for recognizing and diagnosing it, which sometimes helps for avoiding
it, choosing your battles, or knowing when to quit or turn down job offers.

------
bjoli
I read practical ethics by Peter Singer in a time of my life when I was
struggling to justify my way of life. It pushed me down a path that I still
follow today.

Gösta Berling's tale by Selma Lagerlöf was also very defining. It kept me away
from the niilism that often strikes teenagers. Truly wonderful writing
(Although I can't vouch for any translations).

~~~
ai_ia
Interesting you mention Practical Ethics. How did it impact you? Is it more
towards post-modernism and leftist ideas or tilts towards the right side of
the political spectrum?

~~~
ycombinete
That's a tough question to answer, as he's often both. For instance Singer
assigns many animals personhood, yet doesn't assign it to new-borns.

The upshot of this is that he advocates veganism, but also abortion, and even
acknowledges that the killing of infants is potentially okay here.

------
madhouse
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

Read it first when I was 16, at the recommendation of my literature teacher in
high school. For the past... - darn, this was long ago! - ...more than 20
years, I've read it at least once a year, and intend to do that for as long as
I can read.

That book changed me, like nothing else since.

~~~
btschaegg
Happy to see this mentioned here. While I can't claim that it was
"lifechanging" for me, I still maintain it to be one of the best SciFi novels
I've ever read.

------
amrrs
_Outliers_ by Malcolm Gladwell. Hailing from a village in India and having
seen Bill gates and other celebrities as real successful and been amazed about
it, I had an entirely different notion of success and talent before reading
outliers. But after that I started believing that Success can come from
anywhere and whatever we call IQ or Intelligence, that is all something that's
another skill and can be honed. It broke the myth of innate talent and
success.

------
drummyfish
Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig

I read it only recently but it changed the way I look at everything now. I am
now seeing how our creative culture is being hurt without most people
noticing. I have become an advocate for free culture and contribute all my art
to public domain. The book itself is freely available, you can google it and
download it right now if you want to read it.

------
immigrantsheep
Count Zero by William Gibson. Somehow I ended up reading it before Neuromacer.
It was in the early 90s. I was maybe 16 or so and I remember just getting
sucked into that world. It was also the time when I was getting more and more
into coding and learning about networks and when I managed to connect to the
internet from home for the first time.

------
Glench
The book "Non-violent Communication" changed my life.

After I read it, I had some of the best communication with romantic partners I
ever had. I also had fights with friends transform into heartfelt
conversations when I was practicing NVC, even though my friends weren't
practicing it.

------
Fuzzwah
Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth By Buckminster Fuller

I first read it when I was ~25 and it made me think about the way the world
is, the historical reasons it is this way and how we can nudge it towards
being better.

It frustrates me that Fuller wrote the book nearly 50 years ago and all the
same stupid crap continues to happen and humanity doesn't seem to be getting
its collective shit together.

But then I remember the lessons from the book on why the world is like it is
and how we can only nudge it slowly....

You can read it here:
[http://designsciencelab.com/resources/OperatingManual_BF.pdf](http://designsciencelab.com/resources/OperatingManual_BF.pdf)

Edit to also mention; Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (as well as basically
every other book he ever wrote).

------
oluckyman
Why I Am Not a Christian, by Bertrand Russell (1), 16 years of Catholic
indoctrination (0).

~~~
andrei_says_
I love his essay on the benefits and virtue of idleness. Incredibly relevant
today.

------
baxtr
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse

~~~
8bitsrule
After that, I had to read all the others too!

------
rsheehan
The Art of Loving by Erich Fromme

A description of how love (romantic love, brotherly love, love for God, love
for oneself) has to be actively practiced much like any other discipline and
what the consequences are for individuals living in a society that by and
large does not hold this belief. As a younger person who often gets frustrated
with how easy it is to get caught up in his own narcissism and materialism,
this book helped me better understand myself and what my core drives are
moreso than anything else I’ve encountered to date. Only like 120 pages to
boot.

------
gr33nman
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, by Charles Eisenstein.

I almost passed on this one due to the corny sounding title, but I’m so glad I
didn’t. It renewed my optimism about the future of humanity at a time when my
faith was deeply challenged and I was bringing a new person into the world.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17345270-the-more-
beauti...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17345270-the-more-beautiful-
world-our-hearts-know-is-possible)

------
wrycoder
Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler

The Road to Reality by Penrose

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

"For a long time, we have tried to understand the world in terms of some
primary substance. Perhaps physics, more than any other discipline, has
pursued this primary substance. But the more we have studied it, the less the
world seems comprehensible in terms of something that is. It seems to be a lot
more intelligible in terms of relations between events.

...

We therefore describe the world as it happens, not as it is. Newton's
mechanics, Maxwell's equations, quantum mechanics, and so on, tell us how
events happen, not how things are...we understand the world in its becoming,
not in its being. Things in themselves are only events that for a while are
monotonous. But only before returning to dust, everything returns to dust.

The absence of time does not mean, therefore, that everything is frozen and
unmoving. It means that the incessant happening that wearies the world is not
ordered along a time line, is not measured by a gigantic tick-tocking. It does
not even form a four-dimensional geometry. It is a boundless and disorderly
network of quantum events. The world is more like Naples than Singapore.

If by 'time' we mean nothing more than happening, then everything is time.
There is only that which exists in time."

Very influential in my teens:

Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner

USA by John Dos Passos

Cache Lake Country by Rowlands

------
HaoZeke
To kill a mockingbird.

Quite frankly that both introduced me to racism and taught me to strongly
condemn it. I also learnt the value of education and the utility of
appropriate conduct.

------
gisborne
Dune (and the sequels through God Emperor).

I’ve never found a writer who could discuss humanity writ large — both in
masses, and over enormous spans of time — like Herbert. Dune is the easy to
read, fast moving approachable yarn that gets you in. The real masterpiece is
God Emperor, where we get to see humanity over thousands of years, and we
really learn Herbert’s most important lesson: beware the charismatic dictator.

------
MichaelMoser123
Don't know about changing my life, but these books changed the way i look at
things:

The Tao of Pooh: Benjamin Hoff

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut

TI 99/4a basic reference manual

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman

Object Oriented Analysis and Design by Grady Booch

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

Thieves in the Night by Arthur Koestler

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

War and Peace by L.N.Tolstoy

Chapaev and the void by Pelevin

------
clay_the_ripper
The war of art, by Steven pressfield

~~~
Buttons840
I've listened to this book over a dozen times on Audible (also available on
audio CD). I love the added energy given to the reading by listening at about
1.4x speed.

------
scirocco
Mindset by Carol Dweck

------
ydnaclementine
The Three Body Problem series

Just great, modern, adult scifi books that describe scale of time and space
really well in a constantly surprising plot

------
btschaegg
I'm amazed at all the "big names" mentioned here. Thinking about the quesion,
I don't think I could pinpoint a book that drastically changed any
"philosophical" views of mine.

I'll go with "Turbo Pascal für Kids" instead. It's the first programming book
I've read as a kid and the topic has stuck with me so far :)

------
porter
Immanuel Kant's critique of pure reason

~~~
MichaelMoser123
Wow, that's a very tough book

------
Finnucane
The one book is probably actually three books that were read more or less at
the same time: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick, Little,
Big by John Crowley, and Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe. These books led
to a change of reading habits in way that led eventually to working in
publishing.

------
akerbeltz
Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield, because I realized how simple are my own
troubles compared to those 300 spartans that faced death against a force that
easily was 1000 times bigger. Now every time I’m facing difficults I remember
about those guys and nothing looks so hard in comparison.

------
fcolombo56
Atlas shrugged I read this for the first time during the summer I graduated
from college and was backpacking through South America. It struck me like a
thunderbolt, putting into words principles that I strongly believed in but had
not seen in print elsewhere.

------
Keloo
zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

masterpiece

~~~
8bitsrule
"Gumption trap". oh yeah. Book of wisdom. Eventually I read the sequel, also
good.

------
wsaryoo
A Constitution for Living (Buddhist Principles for a Fruitful and Harmonious
Life)

[https://www.amazon.com/Constitution-Buddhist-Principles-
Frui...](https://www.amazon.com/Constitution-Buddhist-Principles-Fruitful-
Harmonious/dp/B005QP7PKC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527916809&sr=8-1&keywords=A+CONSTITUTION+FOR+LIVING+P.+A.+Payutto)

or get it free via

[http://www.watnyanaves.net/uploads/File/books/pdf/a_constitu...](http://www.watnyanaves.net/uploads/File/books/pdf/a_constitution_for_living_thai-
eng.pdf)

------
jupiter90000
This is an interesting question to me, because I've read lots of books over my
life and I don't really think I can say a book has 'completely' changed my
life.

However, I've read books with interesting ideas that I've probably applied in
my life to varying degrees, which I guess one could say has changed my life to
some extent. If that's the criterion, then there are probably too many to
list.

Since I'm likely being over-analytical, if I had to recommend one book to read
it'd be something like 'James and the Giant Peach' or another book that would
sufficiently open one's imagination.

------
hal9000xp
My first ever programming book was "Usborne Guide to Understanding the Micro:
How It Works and What It Can Do" written in 1982:

[https://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Guide-Understanding-Micro-
Ele...](https://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Guide-Understanding-Micro-
Electronics/dp/0860206378)

It's introduction to microcomputers and programming on ZX Spectrum.

I've read russian version of this book in 1994.

In post-soviet area in 1990, time was shifted, so in 1990s we had wave of
popularity of ZX Spectrum and 8-bit game console NES (i.e. what was popular in
1980s in the west).

------
_8usx
Ghost in the Wires.

Reading of Kevin Mitnick's exploits and benign (to me) curiosity was inspiring
as I was testing out my own hand at hacking and social engineering in college.
His approach to SE allowed me to get over the fear of dealing with individuals
in my job hunt and to generally see people more as people (strangely enough).

The book is full of excellent anecdotes on the joys and consequences of
sincere curiosity. To this day it still inspires me to ask "What is behind x/
if I push/pull/turn/fuzz this x" and "What happens if I just ask for x"

------
cbanek
The Taoist Classics, Volume One: The Collected Translations of Thomas Cleary

(Tao Te Ching / Chuang-tzu / Wen-tzu / The Book of Leadership and Strategy:
Lessons of the Chinese Masters)

------
stephenson
Getting Real by 37Signals - [https://basecamp.com/books/getting-
real](https://basecamp.com/books/getting-real)

Got me started building my first business.

------
amerine
Real Food/Fake Food by Larry Olmsted taught me to care about the quality and
source of the food I eat.

Just caring about that has helped me lose 94lbs, and changed my life forever.
Thank you Larry.

------
dvfjsdhgfv
Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. Gives
you a completely different perspective on life. Also Awakening Upon Dying by
the same author.

------
amorphous
"Why employees are always a bad idea" \- put into words something I always
felt possible but was too afraid to demand. Gave me finally the motivation to
start my own company. I was a wannabe for a long time, always searching for
the right "idea" to start something when I realised that all I really wanted
is a work environment where I have the freedom to choose how I want to work
while still be part of something bigger.

------
joobus
The Bible

~~~
rsyring
Agreed. A close second for me is Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. It
helped me understand the Bible and put the things I was reading into
categories. It's a thick book, but very readable. If you want something a bit
smaller, there are two thinner books that are a summary of the original:

* Introduction to systematic theology (the discipline, not the book): [https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/whats-systematic-...](https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/whats-systematic-theology-and-why-bother/)

* Introductory book: Christian Beliefs

* Mid-Level: Bible Doctrine

* In Depth: Systematic Theology

------
emilfihlman
Eragon. I think it was the second book, where Eragon is training with the Elf
in the Elf kingdom.

That part _changed_ me. Ironically I've now forgotten the exact life lesson.

------
brensmith
"A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander. Helped me to understand the
language of architecture. What works and why, and what doesn't work and why.
To this day I can still pick up this book, turn to a random page and get lost
for hours in it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language)

------
geff82
10X bei Grant Cardone, read this January. Honestly, 10X is, in itself, nothing
too new. It does not reinvent the world (like 4HWW did). Yet, by its open
language and Grants directness, this book somehow got me started and since
January I feel like I have rocket boosters attached.

The stuff I managed to do in recent months was unseen in my life so far (not
that I was unsuccessful, but the time after reading this book is really
different).

------
rmason
Kevin Kelly's New Rules for the New Economy. I gave away probably twenty
copies to my friends to explain why I left one career to do a startup.

Course that book and Kevin Kelly post bubble were roundly criticized. But
looking back he got most of it right. Sadly he stopped writing for quite a few
years. That book motivated me that I was doing the right thing. That startup
failed, but the next one didn't.

------
Method5440
The Story of B by Daniel Quinn helped break me of the last vestiges of magical
thinking. Immediatism by Hakim Bey helped me see the beauty of disobedience.

------
cko
The way it is by Ajahn Sumedho. A collection of talks, perhaps a bit rambling
at times, but very insightful, by a Theravadan Buddhist monk.

I read this every few months.

[https://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/26/Way-...](https://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/26/Way-it-is-by-ajahn-sumedho.pdf)

------
0x4f3759df
This book [1], which after reading the first page (numbered page 6) will
provide all the insight you need to understand the revolutionary changes of
Vatican II.
[https://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/2nd_edition_final.pd...](https://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/2nd_edition_final.pdf)

------
undy
"Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter. I did not understand much the
first time I read that book (I was 16 or so); maybe I understood well only one
thing: that I wanted to understand more. That book made me clearly see what I
wanted to do. (I am now a professor of mathematical physics). I should
definitely read it again...

------
coreyyanofsky
Probability Theory: The Logic of Science by E. T. Jaynes

I was doing a post-grad degree in biomedical engineering and that book set me
on a path to become a statistician -- exclusively Bayesian at the start, but
now well-versed in all sorts of approaches. (Still prefer Bayes, but I'm only
dogmatic about it in theory, not in practice.)

------
bbody
"Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, it made me learn to start
questioning my own thought processes.

------
uvesten
Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse

Truly a mind-expanding book, which can help remove a lot of contraints on
ones’ thinking.

------
DanBC
_Gruts_ by Ivor Cutler.

 _Milk, Sulphate, and Albie Starvation_ by Martin Millar.

I was introduced to Martin Millar by a very close friend who stole very many
books. She was good at it, and she stole hundreds of books.

In turn I introduced her to Ivor Cutler. We'd sit in her room drinking tea,
eating pikelets and jam, listening to Ivor Cutler.

~~~
bklaasen
"Go and sit upon the grass, and I will come and sit beside you." What a
genius.

------
rwieruch
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [0]

It helped me understand certain things I experienced in life without
consciously knowing about them.

\- [0] [https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-deep-work-
flow/](https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-deep-work-flow/)

------
m_ransing
Mrityunjaya, the death conqueror. A novel depicting the life of Karna (one of
the Mahabharata character). Once you read this, your entire view of
Mahabharata will change. I read this in my teenage years. It has changed my
view of looking at life, and I started to take life seriously.

~~~
aryamaan
Could you mention some of things you realized reading this book and how you
are using it in daily to daily life.

~~~
m_ransing
I realized that life is not always fair with you. But however cruel it is, be
firm with your principles. Know yourself and ignore the discrimination by
others. I read this in my teenage year, the time in life which makes you, and
the values of Karna become my values. I was so impressed by this book, that
some year later, in my college days, I read another book by same author on
Krishna's life named Yugandhar (roughly meaning emperor of Era). Now every
time I am in tricky situation, I always think what will Krishna do in this
situation.

------
myst
Dandelion Wine

~~~
8bitsrule
Bradbury creates a special experience that few other authors manage. Like Le
Guin.

------
alok-g
Minds, Brains and Machines, by Geoffrey Brown: [https://www.amazon.com/Minds-
Brains-Machines-Mind-Matters/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Minds-Brains-
Machines-Mind-Matters/dp/1853990132)

------
jjwalz17
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker.

This has changed how I approach sleep.

------
mixmastamyk
Fight Club, the book/movie, put the final nail in the coffin of my waning
materialism.

------
biswaroop
Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

Despite Kipling's jingoism in other works, Kim spoke to me in school. It
opened me to a world of adventure and fearlessness that I didn't know was
possible. I really haven't been the same since I read that book.

~~~
sunstone
What an excellent book, great story and reads like it was written yesterday.
If you're trying to understand India this is the book.

------
spicyusername
Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut

~~~
yesenadam
How did it change your life? I have to say, me too! I didn't know how to pick
just 1 book, but this is a great choice. The first novel I ever read that
really spoke to me 100%, I read it over and over for many months on the school
bus. So funny, so touching. I never go very long without talking about
something from it. Hope the movie's 1/2 good.

------
Simulacra
Atlas Shrugged gave me a different perspective and changed a lot of
viewpoints.

------
RaceWon
Ayrton Senna's Principles of Race Driving

His insight about trying to predict how the car will behave was staggering.
Literally, it makes the impossible something that is achievable... terrifying
but achievable.

------
paridiso
Infinite Jest. Re-opened my mind to the aesthetic beauty and raw technical
skill of competitive sports, after years of repression following negative
childhood experiences.

------
lordnacho
The Poker Face of Wall Street by Aaron Brown

Tied together a lot of concepts from my undergrad with my new work, and on top
of it also Poker, which became one of my main analogies for life.

~~~
wrycoder
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Fascinating story of a fabled trader from the bucket shops of mid-America in
the Gaslight era to the roaring twenties on Wall Street.

[https://smile.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-
Commen...](https://smile.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-
Livermore/dp/0470481595/)

------
preordained
The Disappearance of the Universe, by Gary Renard...and following naturally, A
Course in Miracles (supplemented by lots and lots of Kenneth Wapnick).

------
z66is
Structure And Interpretation Of Computer Programs.

------
eddd
"Crime and Punishment", "Science of Evil", "Developers Hegemony".

Well, it's 3 - but it is a hard question.

------
Arete31415
Not the only one for sure, but A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The plain-spoken
honesty in that book contains multitudes.

------
ariosto
The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger.

------
kaycebasques
The 6 Pillars Of Self Esteem.

I can palpably feel my awareness expanding as I do the sentence completion
exercises.

------
alienjr
I can't give just one, but here are a few that had a strong influence on me:
"12 Rules for Life" by Jordan Peterson, "Why Switzerland?" Jonathan Steinberg,
"Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John C. Bogle, "A Random Walk Down
Wall Street" by Butron Malkiel, "Liberalismus" by Ludwig von Mises,
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, "A Treatise of Human Nature" by David Hume,
"Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, "The Law" by Frédéric Bastiat,
"Autobiography" by Benjamin Franklin, "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine,
"Gespräche mit Goethe" by Johann Peter Eckermann, "Walden" by Henry David
Thoreau, "The Old Regime and the Revolution" Alexis de Tocqueville, "On
Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "A Treatise on Political Economy" by Jean-
Baptiste Say, "The Man Versus the State" by Herbert Spencer, "The Revolt of
the Masses" by José Ortega y Gasset, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" by
Joseph Alois Schumpeter, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" by Karl Popper,
"The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman, "On Power" Bertrand de Jouvenel,
"1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the
Quill" by Andrzej Bobkowski, "My Correct Views on Everything" by Leszek
Kolakowski, "The Captive Mind" Czesław Miłosz, "One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The House of the Dead" by Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, "Conversations with an Executioner" by Kazimierz Moczarski,
"Diary 1954" by Leopold Tyrmand, "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail
Bulgakov, "A World Apart: A Memoir of the Gulag" by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński

~~~
ai_ia
Maybe you can format it to make it more presentable. :)

------
blikdak
What do you do after you say hello - Transactional Analysis book, mindblowing.

------
dfbag7
Carlos Castaneda, definitely.

~~~
8bitsrule
Great fun following that saga. Esp. 'Separate Reality'

------
z66is
The Hundred-Year Language by Paul Graham. Essay in Hackers & Painters.

------
schizoidboy
Ethical Intuitionism by Dr. Michael Huemer

It gave me a plausible alternative to Nihilism.

------
z66is
Writing On Water by Mooji.

------
ctafur
"Revolutionary Wealth", by Alvin and Heidi Toffler.

------
z66is
The Glass Bead Game.

~~~
omgwtfpmr
Seconded. I didn't enjoy reading it, but it made a tremendous impression on me
nonetheless.

------
8bitsrule
(two authors of many) Fritjof Capra. Michael Polanyi.

------
z66is
The Laundry Files.

------
gbuk2013
The Art of Shaolin Kungfu by Wong Kiew Kit

------
z66is
Wizards Presents: Worlds And Monsters.

------
eaguyhn
The Great Transition, James Martin.

------
viburnum
Middlemarch.

------
kull
Emyth

------
jmarchello
The Book of Mormon.

It teaches about Jesus Christ and answers questions like “Where do we come
from?”, “Why are we here?”, and “What happens after we die?”. It’s had a
incredible effect on my life by helping me understand the purpose of my life
and provides the right perspective when making big decisions in my life.

I know it’s a true book that can change the life of anyone who reads it.

------
bjourne
The Bible

------
Overtonwindow
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

------
qop
Cliche, but How to Won Friends and Influence People, along with Atlas Shrugged
were the 2 biggest influences for me when I was trying to get sober. Or
rather, they kept me dedicated when I was getting sober and wanted to deviate.

------
senatorobama
12 Rules for Life

~~~
ai_ia
I second 12 Rules of Life. Can you give a specific instance where it helped
you?

