I'll give a few that haven't appeared yet:
Fiction: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Eliezer Yudkowsky)
Non-fiction: Rationality - from AI to Zombies (Eliezer Yudkowsky)
Probably no books have impacted me quite as much as these two, barring early-childhood books that have impacted me from a young age.
Fiction: Worm (by Parahumans)
Best "superhero" fiction ever created. Just one of my favorite books in general.
Fiction: The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson. Best fantasy books ever, IMO.
I can go on for a long time, but I felt like these haven't been mentioned and absolutely deserve a place on this thread.
Well, lets just say this guy does not understand what is happening in the book.
"When Hermione DIES Hariezer does nothing, and a few weeks later Voldemort brings her back." - in the book Harry steals Hermione's body from under the nose of all wizards, and keeps it hidden and frozen for a future revival, etc. Also many of the things that "do not make sense" are actually from the canon, and EY is making fun of their absurdity.
> Well, lets just say this guy does not understand what is happening in the book. "When Hermione DIES Hariezer does nothing, and a few weeks later Voldemort brings her back." - in the book Harry steals Hermione's body from under the nose of all wizards, and keeps it hidden and frozen for a future revival, etc.
The reviewer predicted that this is exactly what Harry did when he got to Hermione's body disappearing.
I think you've cherry-picked a misleading quote - the reviewer at that point is pointing out that Harry is not changing his primary focus to actually be solving death, just ranting about how terrible it is.
If Harry were being rational and focusing on the problem, as the reviewer points out, he might conceivably investigate the relevant prior art and research from the wizarding community, like Death's Door and the Philosopher's Stone.
Yes, he steals a body to preserve against the day someone does beat death, but he doesn't actually reorient to trying to fix it himself, is the reviewer's claim.
That fits with my vague recollections of slogging through a big chunk of it, but it was probably seven years ago, so I could be way off.
> Also many of the things that "do not make sense" are actually from the canon, and EY is making fun of their absurdity.
As one who read the original series multiple times, I'm pretty confident none of the things that reviewer calls out as nonsensical are from the original series.
Yes, I think I misrepresented a little the review, I wrote the comment after just skimming quickly the beginning where he presents some conclusions. The rest of the review is quite detailed, and entertaining in a way. Because many times he stops just before the final step of understanding, and so he misunderstands the point. In particular this happens with many science bits, which makes it even funnier. Too many cases to mention here. But I agree with your "slogging through a big chunk of it", I think there is an issue with the flow of the story, which makes it hard to read for long periods of time.
Edit: On a more serious note, this book actually changed the way I think in a very concrete (and positive) way. The book spurred me to start consciously reflecting on "what about X, specifically, is surprising" and/or "what about X, specifically, is confusing". It's impossible to quantify, but the habit has definitely, definitely, boosted my ability to disentangle complex situations and make better decisions.
I've heard of it many times but never gotten around to reading it. Apparently an audiobook version exists, so I'll bump it up my list and read it soon.
I’m reading the mistborn books right now. I was up until 2 in the morning finishing the first book in the trilogy the other night. These books are fantastic!
I'm pretty much required by law to tell you that his other books are also fantastic, and that if you like Mistborn, you should (after completing the trilogy) try The Stormlight Archive.
Kidding aside, Sanderson is by far my favorite author, and his fantasy books are honestly some of the greatest books I've ever read. And I read a lot. I highly recommend finishing the Mistborn trilogy, and then reading some more :)
I loved Mistborn, and I heard great things about The Stormlight Archives, but to be honest, I found that they have very different pacing. My biggest gripe with most fantasy books is that you can suddenly realize that you've been reading for 100 pages, and nothing has happened. The Stormlight Archives has that problem in spades. I got about 1/4 into the 2nd book before I suddenly realized absolutely nothing at all had happened since about halfway through the 1st book. It just dragged on way too much for me. Mistborn 1 didn't drag at all; 2 and 3 did a bit but not egregiously.
I've made the argument before that A Song of Ice and Fire doesn't have a particularly high rate of character death. It's just that things actually happen in those books. I think that's why they're so loved: not because they're the best writing, or the best world, or the best characters, but because things happen, every single chapter. Character deaths are high per page, but not high per actual story event that happens. In the Stormlight Archives, it felt like after 1.25 books, each major character had had about 2 major plot events. Way too slow pacing for my taste.
I can totally get that. I didn't think it was too slow, but Stormlight is definitely slower paced than Mistborn. That's why most people (including the author) recommend Mistborn over The Stormlight Archive as a first read.
I actually started with the Stormlight Archives :D
He is a great author. I originally read The Wheel of Time, and the last few books in that series were cowritten by Sanderson. They were so great that I ended up buying the first book of the Stormlight series. Now I’m eagerly waiting for the next book to come out in December, but I’m enjoying Mistborn in the meantime.
crap what was that website that had such crazy ramblings - 2600 like technobabble spy hacker games... it wasn't what Shin Megami Tensei was based on... oh well, failed memory shapes reality
I'll give a few that haven't appeared yet: Fiction: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Eliezer Yudkowsky) Non-fiction: Rationality - from AI to Zombies (Eliezer Yudkowsky)
Probably no books have impacted me quite as much as these two, barring early-childhood books that have impacted me from a young age.
Fiction: Worm (by Parahumans)
Best "superhero" fiction ever created. Just one of my favorite books in general.
Fiction: The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson. Best fantasy books ever, IMO.
I can go on for a long time, but I felt like these haven't been mentioned and absolutely deserve a place on this thread.