Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins.

He goes into so much detail about training to become an astronaut, his first spaceflight, training and planning for the Apollo missions, and talks about so many of the details and complexities of spaceflight that I had no idea about before.

For example, in the early space walks, they didn't consider how difficult it is to use simple tools in microgravity and without a surface to sit/stand on. The astronaut got completely exhausted just keeping himself still while turning a wrench, because when you turn the wrench, it pushes you and starts moving and spinning you, and when you try to correct it, you'll most likely overcorrect and then have to correct that, and then correct that overcorrection, etc.

And the level of planning and training for the off-nominal scenarios is crazy. They picked the top 30ish most likely failure scenarios and practiced the responses to them in simulators until they're muscle memory, and have detailed checklists for hundreds of other ones (which they also practice, just not as much). For example, when Neil and Buzz land on the moon, they'd be awake for about 10 hours, so they had to decide whether the plan was for them to open the hatch and walk on the moon right after landing, or get a night of sleep and do it "next morning". The problem with doing it immediately was that, if something went wrong, they'd have to abort and get back to the command module, but then they'd end up being awake for 20 hours while handling an emergency. On the other hand, they realized that they wouldn't be able to get sleep right after landing on the moon anyways.

His writing style is awesome: it's easy to read, explains technical details in a really easy to understand way, and quite funny.

These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars.

I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me.

I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read.

Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books are awesome. It's a toss-up, between them. Eleven books, in that series. His Garret PI series are fun, but really kind of "filler."

Henry George’s Progress & Poverty conducted what can only be described as a coup on my worldview, and I am not alone in that experience.

It is an incredible argument that will just utterly transform how you understand a walk down the street.

If you’ve been seeing references to the Land Value Tax (LVT) here on HN, this is the book that originated the concept. Like most conceptual breakthroughs, it didn’t emerge solely from George with no related ideas in the vicinity, but this is definitely “the book” behind it.

The Consolation of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.

It is a profound synthesis of classical philosophy and personal reflection on the human condition. Boethius, writing in prison while awaiting execution, blends Stoic, Neoplatonic, and Christian ideas to address timeless questions of fate, fortune, happiness, and virtue. It transcends religious dogma and focuses on rational inquiry into how one can find inner peace and intellectual clarity amidst an almost total inversion of fortune.

Unlike Marcus Aurelius, writing at the peak of his power, Boethius wrote his at the bottom, and did so with more skin in the game. Marcus gave us Commodus and the Decline, Boethius gave us Aristotle and the Rebirth.

The truth is, if you ask me this 100 times, you'll probably get 100 different answers, because it's impossible to really pick just one (well two, separating by fiction/non-fiction). But for today I'll go with:

Fiction: Neuromancer

Non-fiction: The Selfish Gene

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. It's hilarious, absurd, and surprisingly thought-provoking. There are many philosophical questions and lessons that are not really presented as such (though they aren't hidden, either).

I read it when I was young, it really shaped my sense of humor and got me thinking about some of life and the universe's big questions.

"The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th grade. Changed my life."

Not because I remember anything about it, or believe anything it espouses, or even like it all that much, but because it's a useful filter for obnoxious people in meatspace.

If someone I don't know too well asks me what my favorite book is, I say Atlas Shrugged. If they react inappropriately, I'll be cordial and treat them with respect, but I don't want to be friends. If they're way too supportive - the same rule applies.

If they're critical in a way I can appreciate, then I know they can either tolerate ideas they hate or have the social accumen to not go too hard in the paint early on in a relationahip. Really, I'm just looking for people who won't jump down my throat on a faux pas.

Later on in the relationship I'll tell them my actual favorite book, "A Canticle for Leibowitz", or "Neuromancer", or "The Dying Earth" (my opinion changes based on my mood).

Steppenwolf By Herman Hesse. It's remarkable how a fictional character written by someone a century ago can resonate so deeply with a modern person. But then again, that's a common thread amongst great literature. I recommend this book to anyone struggling with loneliness or feeling like they haven't found their footing in this world.

“Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at everything else.”

Nobody has mentioned:

- The Lord of the Rings. It is the secret gateway for us nerds to get into literature and poetry (do not skip the poems!). Read all the reference materials like The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, J.R.R.'s letters, the books his son Christopher edited and published, etc. If the poems seem weird or don't make sense, research why they are worded and structured the way they are.

- The Master and Margarita. Obscure and very unique. Make sure to get a good translation (if you don't know Russian) that has some annotations to explain the "inside" jokes/references

There are 2 books that have fundamentally shifted my thinking:

- The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics.

This has been covered by CGP Grey and now has a Netflix adaptation, so I figure it lies well within the HN Zeitgeist already. There's a lot to debate in this book, but I fundamentally didn't understand political power before reading it.

- Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men.

I have a more complicated relationship with this one, in fact I never finished it. It's about men (mainly) who are abusive in relationships, and how they are able to manipulate their partners. It hits close to home because I've seen a lot of that growing up, and I've seen a lot of women close to me end up in abuse in a predictable but devastating cycle.

The primary controversial idea is that domestic abuse can be from man→woman, man→man, woman→woman, but the author pretty much discredits woman→man abuse. I don't think I can reconcile that with my own experience. But, where it changed my thinking was a chapter about "it's not emotions, it's values". I'd grown up knowing the importance of emotions and being open and communicative, but I was never able to put to words the disconnect I was feeling. Emotions are secondary, it's what one values that determines their emotions and actions, whether it be in an abusive relationship, or in any other place or time in the world.

It really shifted how I think about the world, and let me sever connections to people I was kept in my life because they'd had a bad childhood or whatever. I realized that they would never get over their turmoil, because they valued using it to hurt others.

Godel Escher Bach is the best book I've read. Very interesting topics and the sheer creativity of the writing is amazing.

Impossible to pick just one.

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.

The best books I read last year were the "Three Body Problem" books by Cixin Liu.

It's a science fiction series about aliens, space travel and the universe and they're easily the best books I've read in a while.

I genuinely can't remember the last time I got that absorbed in a series. I'd read until the early hours of the morning and sometimes just sit at the edge of my bed for like 20 minutes just contemplating the universe. Highly recommend.

The Count of Monte Cristo -- I've read it a few times and I know I'll read it again. While there are a few books I've read more than once, I can't think of any I know I will read again.

The Boy's Second book of Electronics by Alfred Morgan(1957) introduced me to electronics in the 1970s, and lead to a technical mindset and lifestyle.

The Engineers Notebook by Forest Mims really taught me the basics of electronics.

What do you care what other people think by Richard Feynman(1988) introduced me to the idea that nobody is really as much of an expert as you might think.

1632 By Eric Flint, and the subsequent series, got me thinking about the nature of civilization and all the things that go into making it.

There are a lot of books in this world, and they all helped author who I am.

Taking “best” to mean, “About to be banished to a small, rocky island in the North Atlantic, can pack one book”: Ulysses, and it’s not particularly close.

The book is fractally intricate and intellectually puzzling in the best sense—something new and special to notice every time you pick it up.

But it also wears like old leather, and I find myself returning to favorite chapters simply to sink indulgently into the characters, dialog, and setting.

Anybody who says no one has actually read Ulysses is unknowingly half-right: You can certainly get to a point where you’ll never finish reading it.

I was very influenced by Kurt Vonnegut when I was a teenager. Coming of age is a perfect time to learn that the fact that life is absurd doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't laugh, just the opposite. Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse Five are some of my favorite books of his.

As an adult, I've been very influenced by the late Daniel Dennett and his naturalist philosophy. Books like From Bacteria to Bach and Back or Darwin's Dangerous Idea.

Anna Karenina. Nothing mind-blowing. I didn't see a light in the sky.

I read a lot, fiction and non-fiction. When I read Tolstoy, I remember thinking "What sort of dark magic is this?" He drew characters in a way I haven't seen since. I _knew_ these people.

I remember this book, decades later. I remember a lot of what I've read, but Tolstoy was the man. I have no idea how or why his magic worked.

As long as we're using "best" in air quotes, I'll throw in a suggestion for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's victorian-era alternate reality fantasy. Which is something I never would have imagined liking.

Yes, it borrows a LOT from existing stories. To the point that it's nearly a pastiche. But it is incredibly well done and you appreciate it more when you learn that it was the author's first novel. I recommend skipping all of the footnotes on the first read through and saving them for the second read, if you go back for more.

For me, it's The Grapes of Wrath. Simultaneously raised my bar for what I consider good writing and made me much more empathetic to the plight of those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder through no fault of their own. As relevant today as when it was written.

Anything from Sagan: Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God could convert the Pope to agnosticism.

Stephen Ray Gould: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin: will both challenge every preconceived notion you've had, link seemingly impossibly unrelated phenomenon together using similar models and patterns, and leave with a much more intuitive understanding about complexity, randomness, and chaotic systems.

A Briefer History of Time: For those who truly would like to exalt their personal God of the Gaps to the small unit.

The best non-fiction book I have ever read is 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb'[1] by Richard Rhodes.

Fantastic early history of the people that eventually comprise the Manhattan Project. I feel any person who is interested in physics should read the book.

It is mindblowing the scale of the facilities that they had to build to generate a very small amount of the fissile material needed.

Strangely enough, I started on (a few times already) the second part, 'Dark Sun' [2], which is about the making of the Hydrogen Bomb focused on Edward Teller but I haven't been able to complete it yet.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Sun-Making-Hydrogen-Bomb-ebook/d...

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

It’s kind of cliche for a white male nerd of a certain age, but it has stuck with me. How imaginative the book is, the huge mix of characters and stories in the book, and the style of writing are incredible. The pace of interesting ideas is very fast and engrossing, and the language used to describe things is complex but not overly so.

It changes all of the time, but one is Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Completely re-shaped my perceptions of reality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusions_(Bach_novel)

While I only made it halfway through, Atlas Shrugged had a big impact on me and my liberal, southern California upbringing, where I was under the assumption that certain things (food, healthcare, money, etc) were due to me by nature. I try to avoid preaching to others, but it considerably increased my self-resilience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged

Mistakes Were Made by Carol Tarvis and Elliot Aronson. It's a long discussion on the mechanics of cognitive dissonance and self-justification.

--

"A man travels many miles to consult the wisest guru in the land. When he arrives, he asks the great man:

'O wise guru, what is the secret of a happy life?'

'Good judgement,' says the guru.

'But, O wise guru' says the man, 'how do I achieve good judgement'

'Bad judgement,' says the guru"

Non-fiction: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer. US Navy destroyers, escort carriers and destroyer escorts face off against Japanese cruisers and battleships. The Japanese had many times the firepower of the US, yet incredibly brave US sailors and airmen attacked anyway. Incredible story of courage under terrible conditions and odds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Stand_of_the_Tin_Can_... and https://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin-Sailors-Extraordinary/...

Fiction:

Project Hail Mary is very enjoyable, don't read spoilers and you'll enjoy it even more. https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-Mary-Andy-Weir/dp/059313...

The Discworld City Watch series of books, starting with "Guards! Guards!" The characters are hilarious, there's so much humour yet still enough space for meaningful prose. Terry Pratchett was taken from us too soon. https://www.amazon.com/Guards-Discworld-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0...

Edited to add: non-fiction "Most Secret War" by Dr R V Jones. Funny, easily digestible short chapters, wonderful account of the author's work in WW2. "(the author's) appointment to the Intelligence Section of Britain's Air Ministry in 1939 led to some of the most astonishing scientific and technological breakthroughs of the Second World War." https://www.amazon.com/Most-Secret-Penguin-World-Collection/...

Everybody has already mentioned most of the best books I've read, so I'll mention one that I haven't seen on this thread yet - The Little Schemer.

Unless you're actively working through a bunch of problems/examples, reading most books is a form of passive learning. That is, you are simply being told information. The Little Schemer is the only book I know of that is written almost entirely in the form of increasingly intricate questions to the reader (active learning). There are maybe about two dozen or so statements ("Laws" as the author calls them). Everything else is a question in an extended Socratic dialogue aimed at refining the reader's knowledge of Lisp, how computation arises from recursion, computation in general, and lambda calculus culminating in the y-combinator.

The Little Schemer is the most unique, most fun, most educational (in the sense that it _forces_ you to work your way through it) book that I've read. Moreover, it's a great way to grasp computation in a more abstract sense.

Probably Brothers Karamazov

I didn't really understand what it was trying to tell me when I first read it, the ideas just sort of ruminated. I read it when I was either 19 or 20, was completely at odds with who I was then but helped me grow as a person

The way that we think about individual agency and self-interest in modern society is at odds with what our emotional needs are. He makes this point in many of his books

The way that he describes guilt is incredibly accurate. He's very good at seeing and describing emotional conflict

I also grew up as a non-religious jew but reading him made me realize that christianity has more ideological depth than what I initially thought

Diaspora by Greg Egan. No other book has caused such a seismic shift in how I think about consciousness, personhood, continuity of self, the enormity of the universe, and practicalities of galactic timescales. It also triggered quite a few existential crises (which nearly goes without saying, given all that).

I’ve read many books, fiction and nonfiction, but the one that has truly changed me for the better in the long term, was “How to win friends and influence people”.

Its premise is extremely simple (simplistic even) and you can boil it down to “just listen to people”. But it did affect me - maybe because it finally made it “click” how humans work.

And further more, I did recommend it to my friends, and whoever managed to actually read it, changed too, sometimes literally overnight.

Honestly it was incredible to witness people who used to be jerks to transform into thoughtful and tolerant people right in front of my eyes.

'Bashō, dichter zonder dak' with the subtitle 'Haiku en poëtische reisverhalen' by professor Willy Vande Walle, a Belgian Japanologist. It's a translation of Basho's travel diaries with a lot of contextual information, kind of like Martin Gardner's 'The Annotated Alice', if you've read that one. It's an amazing intellectual tour de force by one of the foremost experts in his field, and it helps that the original works are of very high quality of well.

Unfortunately I don't know if there's an English equivalent, and considering how awful of a language Dutch is to learn it may be easier to learn Japanese, read the originals, and look up all the references yourself.

The best book I've ever read isn't the best book I've read but one that connects me with a particular moment: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.

It was the start of summer school holidays back in the late 1980s, in my teenage years. I went to my local library and, because I didn't know what I wanted to read, I decided to pick one book blindly from the fiction section. I didn't know what book I had borrowed until I got home. I had never heard about Bulgakov or that particular novel. I had no easy way to know who that writer was or if the book was good or not. I was tempted to return it. But I didn't.

I read the book over several weeks of a particularly boring (and lonely) summer. I enjoyed reading it although I didn't love it. Looking back, I suppose that book gave me something I needed in a completely random way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita

Borges: Selected Non-fictions. Think his fictions are good? His non-fictions, imho, are even better. You can read three sentences and feel like you just listened to a symphony - you get that constant Borges wit, erudition, mystery. The English translations are SO good. Are they even better in Spanish?

Unless youve just read a handful of books in your life it is impossible to give a good answer to the question.

Books are not oranges.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

She was a great visionary and turned the Science Fiction genre upside down. This book is a thought provoking story; an "An Ambiguous Utopia" (this is the subtitle of the book. It really makes you think but also a mocking glass for our society. Close second is The Left Hand of Darkness from the same author.

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

While this book has its problems, it is a wide-ranging, engaging, and readable history of ideas from antiquity to about the turn of the 20th century. I'm finding it difficult to put any other book ahead of this one.

Depends at what age you'd ask me that.

Harry Potter 4 was the first book I binged when I was a kid. Lord of the Flies was the first book that made me feel weird emotions, and I liked it. Snow crash is the book that made me think "Fuck, how can one write a book like that ?" and therefore started what I hope to be a lifelong hobby. I still think of Flatland from times to times, as I'm jealous and amazed of the brain of its author.

I read /Cannery Row/ once a year, and have for over ten years. I am a Steinbeck fan, and this is my favorite of his, but I'm not sure if I keep doing it because it's really the best or if I just enjoy judging my own changes in outlook against a standard unit of literature. I suspect it's the latter but it's a short book and I recommend anyone read it at least once.

The best book I've ever read is perhaps "cheating" because it's "The Next Whole Earth Catalog" and, as the name says, it's a catalog of (mostly) books.

(You can see it for yourself in all it's glory here: https://www.wholeearth.info/p/the-next-whole-earth-catalog-f... )

Other than that I'd have to say the Tao Te Ching.

(The best fiction book I've read is almost certainly "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe. It's in the league of Tolkien and Dune.)

Although I'm not generally into fantasy, I found "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" by Stephen Donaldson to be fantastic.

I tried to start it twice and gave up (there are some disturbing elements) but once I got into it I was hooked. Loved that the hero wasnt into being a hero and was deeply flawed.

For non fiction, "Godel, Escher and Bach" is right up there, along with The Selfish Gene.

Nonfiction: "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Taleb has had the biggest influence on me.

Fiction: I dunno but maybe "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson.

As a teenager I read 'Catch 22' over and over.

I read Feynman's 'Surely You're Joking', and that led to me becoming a physicist.

For software engineering, all the essays in Fred Brooks' 'Mythical Man Month' were formative.

Rand's 'Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged' were also thought-provoking.

For investing, reading Warren Buffet's 'Letters to Investors' shaped what I believe works.

The best business book I've read is 'Invent and Wander' and 'Working Backwards' about Amazon culture.

100 Years of Solitude is my favorite. I majored in Spanish literature in college, that was my first exposure to Gabriel García Márquez (I read it in the original Spanish, but I'm told the English translation is faithful and very good).

I would probably have to say The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I’m a sucker for fat historical fiction books and this one delivered everything I want from that type of book.

For me that would be "How experiments End"

This book is written by a science historian with science background. It gives a real perspective about how scientists reached concensus about some of the nowadays well known facts in physics. It goee through some technical details and history including people involved and how personalities and the circumstances around these times affected the progress. If you read it you might find it somehow difficult with some technical details although he tried to simplify it. But once going through that you will find that each chapter is really a journey that you will enjoy.

I really recommend it for people interested in learning new stuff and also enjoy some reading down the line. And get a first hand look into how things are usually done in physics.

The absolute best for me: The Malazan book of the fallen.

Book 1 is really hard to get into and doesn't reward as much. But if you stick with it, as early as the end of Book 2, you'll know what you're in for.

Hm.

If I say best as in long lasting, “Master and Margarita” uniquely has the power to make me feel a kind of romance when I remember it, not just while reading.

The short story “Fumes the Memorious” changed in a literal sense how I perceived the world, at least for an hour or so.

“Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” was the best self-help book I’ve ever read, and fundamentally changes my politics as well. I came to recognize the significance of true and perceived agency as a factor in mental health.

“Seeing like a state” was the worst written and edited book I’ve read that I nevertheless recommend to people because the ideas therein are fascinating.

It’s an impossible question, as the list of answers only gets longer with time spent on looking for answers. So I suppose Master and Margarita, as that was the first answer.

Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs bio. I legit disliked Steve Jobs. I could not put this book down for the week it took to read. Then I became an Issacson junky. He just digs into the minutia and makes it digestible.

Currently reading Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Will appeal to philosophy nerds mostly. Fascinating how a kid of 26 changed the fields of philosophy, mathematics, and economics, but no one really knows of him.

Fiction: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (especially The Consul's Tale)

Non-Fiction: Peopleware (opened my eyes when I was a young newcomer to the industry)

"Vehicles: Experiments in synthetic psychology" by Valentino Braitenberg.

Has shaped my outlook on artificial intelligence more than anything else, and this was written in 1984, long before GPT-3 was a thing. Absolutely "mind-blowing" in that it deconstructs and then reassembles your understanding of what a mind is.

Best short story: "The Egg" (by Andy Weir); just read it, is very short, no spoilers.

Best entertainment/fiction: "Murderbot Diaries"

Is highly entertaining, very unique protagonist, raises some very interesting ethical/philosophical questions and does far-future sci-fi worldbuilding insanely well.

I read Tristan Donovan's "Replay: The History of Video Games" in middle school (back when my own access to video games was very limited, so I had to resort to reading about them), and it partially influenced me to pursue game development myself.

A lot of my current knowledge about the game industry comes from things I learned in this book (or used as a base for further research later on). Each chapter is a vignette into a different era, technology, and country, up to the indie boom of the 2000s. It's not a life-changing read by any means, but it's an extensive and memorable one.

I want to answer this question as if you asked which book had the biggest impact on me, that I remember with the most fondness, the one I wish I could forget so I could experience again from zero.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Long and sometimes tedious, as his books can be, but the characters are so memorable. Bobby Shaftoe is one of my all-time favorites. The book takes place on two timelines, involving two generations of characters, that have interesting parallels. The audio book narrator does a great job, if you're into audiobooks.

Runner-up would be Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. His best, IMO.

The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/366821.The_Evolution_of_...

See also https://ncase.me/trust/ for a really nice 30-min interactive summary of the ideas presented in the book.

My rough definition of "best" here is "most potentially impactful to humanity" (see also Andrew Breslin's Goodreads review).

There can be only one answer to that - the Bible. Twenty years ago, I was convinced the content alone justified the claims of a divine origin, which opinion has only grown stronger in the years since. Even if you don't believe in it, it is worth reading as literature - an extraordinarily epic story, and a lot of stuff to say about humanity and divinity along the way. Everything else, comparatively, seems to me like it was written by children.

But that's a useless answer, as the purpose of such a question is to generate recommendations, and that's unlikely to be a new one to anybody.

One of the books that's impacted me the most in the last few years is Homer's Illiad. I used to wonder why we read The Odyssey in high school and never talked about The Illiad, but I don't wonder now! I think all the violence in Illiad would warrant more than a PG-13 rating. ;) But it is a great story about men and gods and struggle and war, with a lot to say about what mankind is and what it can be, and a lot of heroes to want to grow up to be someday. The introduction to my copy includes the quote, "It is a good thing that war is so terrible, otherwise we would grow to love it too much." That quote will make no sense to most people; if it resonates with you, this book is your kind of book.

I am currently reading through Heidegger's The Question Concerning Technology, as I am looking for wisdom on how to navigate the highly technological time I find myself in. I haven't finished it, but I find the insights profound, and I see the ideas everywhere. I think it may prove to be the best thing I've ever read on the topic of what it means to interact with technology and remain human.

Shakespeare is legendary for a reason. I haven't read one of his plays yet that that I didn't deeply enjoy. They never hit right in high school, but as an adult I find them profound. I giggled my way through A Comedy of Errors recently and it still makes me smile.

A Christian recommendation - I've very much enjoyed Jeremy Taylor's 1650 Holy Living and Dying. Probably the best book on Christian life I've read, and I've read quite a few - and it's a book that rarely makes people's short lists. It's long and I haven't finished it, but as much as I've read so far continues to impact me.

Edit: I almost forgot! I read The Princess and the Goblin several years ago. It is a fairy tale intended for children, and is yet one of the best books I have ever read on the subject of girlhood, and I have spent a lifetime searching for them. If you have (or are, or find yourself in an occasion to love) a girl, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Picking a "favorite" is generally hard. I once learned that the best way to phrase this question is in the form of e.g. "What are some of your favorite books?" so the responder doesn't have to force rank their all-time-favorite in their head, which can feel taxing. So I'll name two:

I'm actually a bit surprised to not see "Brave New World" mentioned yet. That was a life-changing experience to my teenage self

And since someone else has already picked Steppenwolf by Hesse, I'll mention Demian instead.

Keith Johnstone: Impro

Nominally about improvisation theatre, but has many insights about human behavior you will not find anywhere else, especially about status hierarchies.

Maurice Nicoll: Psychological Commentaries On The Teaching Of Gurdjieff And Ouspensky, Parts 1-6

This book is probably the best introduction to the teachings of Gurdjieff that have quite literally changed my life. Gurdjieff was a spiritual teacher whose approach is quite different from organized religions, new age gurus and such.

This approach is for people who have experienced or have a sense that there is something that the materialistic world view cannot explain, but feel that existing religions are lacking, for example they require you to believe in things that do not make sense.

In this approach there is no need to believe anything. You become convinced by your own experiences about some fundamental truths about human organization and capabilities, allowing you to start learning more.

You could say that it is "preparatory work", allowing you to learn enough to be able to discern helpful teachings from those that are less helpful.

The book is out of print. To get a physical copy you need to order it used from Amazon. Usually they are sold one book at a time. Just get any one book, there is no need to buy the full set. The books record individual discussions, and the same topics repeat in all the books. If the book resonates, I recommend that you continue with In Search of Miraculous by Ouspensky.

Fiction: Independent People by Halldór Laxness or Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Non-Fiction: The Feynman lectures on Physics.

"Nonlinear dynamics and Chaos" by Steven Strogatz.

It's the only textbook I really read during my university education (sad to admit). Even though I consider it a textbook and not pop-sci, it's incredibly approachable and teaches a framework about dynamical systems which was completely missing from all other courses I took.

Sounds like a humble brag. But it being the only book I managed to read really makes it stick out for me!

A number of my favorites have already been mentioned so I’ll round out the list with Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

If you have kids, an interest in gardening, or a curiosity about Native American culture, this book will hit you in all three.

I got it on audiobook, and felt like I wanted to use a highlighter on every fifth sentence. So I bought a paper copy so I can just open to random pages and start reading.

I am not sure about being the best, but one book that really felt special and still does is :

- The beginning of infinity by David Deutsch.

This book really ignited my love for epistemology in general, and the nature of scientific progress and understanding.

Another notable book for me :

Finite and infinite games by James Carse.

I find the book fascinating if only because the concept the author is describing is both intuitive and counter - intuitive at the same time.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell.

Taught me everything I needed to know about being a painter.

Perhaps not the 'best' book ever, but certainly one of the most impactful for me as a common-or-garden 18-year-old realising for the first time that our political and economic systems aren't some sort of almighty edict and could be critiqued.

Nonfiction:

- The Goal, Eli Goldratt - changed the way I thought about getting things done. The Theory of Constraints is important to anyone who makes things.

Fiction:

- Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I love me some Sherlock Holmes, and nothing is more Sherlock Holmes than Hound of the Baskervilles. Terrific writing, great story, spooky setting. Love it.

Obviously a very reductive question -- even if sharpened slightly to "most influential" book. I will reduce it even further: one of the few books that I have read twice (and the only one that has exerted different, profound influence on me on each read) is Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine." This is a book that every engineer should absolutely read, though not without an uncritical eye for Tom West and Data General. I wrote about my second read of "Soul" five years ago[0], and I know that there are folks who have read it on my recommendation -- and I don't think anyone has regretted it.

[0] https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2019/02/10/reflecting-on-the-so...

Based on the amounts of re-reads: Das Boot. A soldier and artist, caught in the strangest of circumstances, either under the most extreme, life threatening danger or waiting for it, both in slow motion. Fascinating, state of the art technology, a miracle of science, but with a need of highly trained, expendable slaves running it for a single immoral purpose. Completely dependent on other peoples decisions, sitting far away in front of a chess board, ready to sacrifice him at any given time for their strategic goals. Any attempt to escape, to scream on the insanity of the situation or even to question it are grounds for immediate execution. Based on a true story. I‘m reading this book for 30 years and the authors ability to describe the nightmare that happened to him still haunts and fascinates me.

Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut. Like others could change any day you ask. Social commentary is probably at the top followed by well researched recent historical works.

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. The audio book is also great. The writing style is gripping and it's a very funny book despite being about a serious subject: WWI. It also gives a sense of how much pressure the leaders were under and how some managed while others simply broke as initial plans went awry. The author makes clear how individual decisions made huge differences and the entire outcome of the war could have been very different based on the personalities of those involved. These personality insights and descriptions really shine through. The book is not a definitive history of the start of WWI by any means but it is highly entertaining and reads quickly.

The chapters about Turkey can be skipped since they don't seem to fit in with the rest of the book. I found them boring.

For fiction no idea, really hard to come up with a criterion and that is great actually.

For non-fiction, by far the one that had the most novelty factor and effect of my worldview probably Chomsky - Understanding Power. Not 100% because it's almost a tie with Manufacturing Consent - this one being much darker.

Fiction: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

Non-fiction: Pilates Anatomy by Rael Isacowitz - it changed me and changed my body.

- The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann

- The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil

- The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago

- Moby Dick - Herman Melville

- The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa

- The War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

etc.

I can't do "The" xD

Not sure which one I would pick but the Culture series by Iain M Banks probably had the most impact on me.

The best book I've ever read has been The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1 thru 7.

https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html

History, Philosophy, Mathematics, and more!

My absolute one would be Don Quijote de La Mancha by Cervantes - Taught me the beauty of language, to follow my own ideas and the power of a little craziness. Second would be anything from Jules Verne, his books got me to love science and engineering when I was a kid.

I've been immensely enjoying Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It's free, fun, and I don't find myself having to skip unnecessary paragraphs ever.

https://hpmor.com/

Catcher in the Rye was the right book for me at the right age. It really set a North Star for me as to what I wanted to be when I looked at myself in the mirror.

Funny how as I grew older, I found myself understanding more and more about what the older characters were saying, without me sacrificing what made what Holden Caulfield ring so true to me.

Fun fact: in university at the bookstore they had a written poll as to what your favorite book was (before the Internet). I was one of the first ones and wrote down Catcher in the Rye. A month later I read in the school paper that Catcher in the Rye was the winner that year, and it was the first time that the Bible didn't come in first place.

Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking

I find a lot of my successes are driven by building powerful and convincing narratives about my own life and circumstances. Unfortunately, the anti-smoking messaging that comes form every website, doctor and other resource all parrots the same tired arguments I had been hearing since the 90's. My earnest efforts to find new perspectives hit the same wall of propaganda every time. This book offered me multiple new perspectives, it relieved me of the shame placed on me by other resources and social stigmas, and it acted as an upbeat and optimistic cheerleader.

I quit 7 years ago when I finished the book and haven't had the urge to smoke since.

Not a best seller but if you like Continental philosophy, The Tears of Eros by Georges Bataille is profound and disturbing.

The central thesis of the book is that eroticism and death are inextricably linked - that the most intense erotic experiences often involve elements of sacrifice, and the transgression of taboos. The author argues that this connection between Eros and Thanatos - the drives of life and death - is a fundamental part of the human condition which he sees as a means by which humans confront their own mortality and the limits of their existence.

The conclusions are often questionable but the scope of the work and the historical deep dive makes for quite a ride.

Because Anna Karenina is already listed,

I'll plug Scandal by Shusaku Endo. It is by a Japanese Catholic novelist and was written near the end of his career (lifetime achievement award timeframe).

It is about a Japanese Catholic novelist near the end of his career, who is accepting an award when he is accosted by reporters asking about rumors that he has been seen carousing in the red light district. He decides to investigate the rumors, but he isn't ready for what he's going to find.

It's a kind of meta, semi-autobiographical interrogation of the author and the pillars on which he built his life, that in some ways would be impossible to adapt to any other medium.

Cloud Atlas would be my choice for fiction. The novel covers an incredible range of interesting ideas and great writing.

Antifragile for nonfiction. It really changed the way I think about how both the natural world and human institutions function.

Best book I've read in a long time: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt -- it's not often that literary fiction reads as smoothly as a Stephen King book. It's a coming of age story, a drug story, a heist story all rolled up.

Best book I ever read (for myriad other reasons) probably remains Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- never has a book amused me like that. I don't think much about my sensibility, beliefs, way of looking at the world would be quite the same if that book hadn't have come along when I was eleven and said, "you're okay, you're not alone. Don't panic."

East of Eden by Steinbeck really changed my college mindset on what it means to be "good" and "evil", "right" and "wrong".

It's really hard to describe what the book's about. It's an epic, through and through, and all epics are hard to detail precisely. Inter-generational trauma? Handling one's "sin"? Making a livelihood after repeated failure, be it yourself or external factors?

Contrary to my first sentence, there is one character that I would describe as pure evil. But I feel that just supports one of the conflicts; however incredibly rare, what can an individual do when they come across a bonafide force of evil?

It is dripping with Biblical imagery, and Steinbeck's prose is rambling and tangential for some (though poetic for me), and his characters are not "realistic" and larger than life (but that's what makes them pop off the page for me and so memorable. I guess it's always a balance).

"Now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."

Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber shifted my worldview quite significantly.

In the fiction department, I've never encountered anything to match HPMOR, even though I disagree with half of what it says nowadays.

I love hard sci-fi and I keep going back to Blindsight: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

Making a distinction between intelligence and consciousness was interesting and I think applies to current AI systems, at least that what came to mind when seeing ChatGPT for the first time.

Also vampires being real apex predators brought back from extinction with a decent explanation as to why they don't like crosses is just entertaining to me.

Honestly, not making this up, I have no idea how any of you have time to read.

Last few books I read (non-{technical,programming,electronics}) were in college. Perhaps a few for fun, mostly for class.

I work all day, when I am done with work, I have house work to get done. Every single time I grab a book and think "I will read this book", heck even technical,programming,electronics books I _want_ to re-read, time vanishes, I put it up and get too busy.

Reading these comments, seems like a lot of people read books. I have no idea how you all find the time.

- The works of Richard Feynman: All are very nice reads. - The Idea Factory (Jon Gertner): The only book I’ve read more than once and gifted to several friends and acquaintances. - The Silmarillion: Incredible World-Building - The Master and His Emissary (Mcgilchrist) Dense, but rewarding. Considerably changed the way I think. - God’s Debris (Scott Adams, yes, THAT Scott Adams) Read it in undergrad and not sure if it was a JIT kind of thing, but it impacted me.

I love the fantasy style of Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

But on the lighter side i consider the Murder Bot series by Martha Wells having a charm that i just find lovely

Best book: Snow Crash

Best short stories: Borges

For fiction it would be Dan Simmons’s Hyperion for me, it would be a great short stories anthology, but is far more than that.

Regarding Non-Fiction, my current bet would be Antifragile by Taleb.

I read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and I loved both of them, can recommend.

Seveneves is an amazing book, just make sure you skip the last part.

If you are into history I can recommend The last days of the Incas by Kim MaqQuarrie, it's just an insanely interesting description on how the Incas was conquered, it feels like you're there man.

If you like evolutionary biology/phsycology then check out The Red Queen - Sex and the evolution of human Nature by Matt Ridley.

"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs.

This book completely changed how I view my city and other urban areas. I am now much more in-tune with my urban environment and understand how different aspects of it affect me emotionally.

It also led me to going back to graduate school for a degree in urban design and sustainability, and my focus is now how I can use my computer science background to improve my environment.

From The Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple https://shepherd.com/book/from-the-holy-mountain

I read this in my early 20s and it had a huge impact in changing the course of my life, sending me traveling over a Christmas break, and changing my entire perspective. He is an amazing author and this book is beautiful.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

It saved my life, two times. First time inspiring me, second time literally.

I didn’t know it at the time but Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I read it in high school and didn’t think it meant much to me. I’ve been rereading it recently and realized a lot of insights and observations it has on living a simpler life are core beliefs I follow. It’s funny reading it again and discovering how great of an impact it had when I originally read it to write a paper for a high school English class.

Many, but one of my personal, is Catch 22.

The complexity of the structure, the humor, and the painful exhibition of human stupidity makes it a book for the ages.

There are always better books than the ones I read, and there will never be the best. I’ve tried selecting a few that I can remember at all times, the most interesting book to me, and I’ve listed them on my website at https://brajeshwar.com/#books

If I had to return and re-read, I’d re-read “Leonardo da Vinci.”

Dead Memory, a graphic novel by Marc-Antoine Mathieu. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/329097.Marc_Antoine_Ma...

It describes the collapse of a rectiligne society (The City) based on hyperconnectivity and hyperinformation and poses the base of The Circular Foundation.

It has been written in the end of XX century and seems to have anticipated issues of our society related to communautarism and the loss of some part of our memory.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606849.Dead_Memory

Aside this album, the author made a great série inspired by the readings of Kafka, Julius Corentin Acquefacques, and explore way to take avantage of code of narration found in comics.

The sheer insanity and quality of writing in Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas cements it as probably the best book I've read in terms of enjoyment and influence on my own prose.

In terms of the book that's perhaps made me think and reflect the most, Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon has probably had the greatest effect on me.

I've got 3 different non-fiction books for me:

Thinking Fast and Slow. This book discusses how we think and at what level and where some of the shortcuts we use when thinking occur and what impact they have on us. It really was one of the best books I've ever read; and like many books on that subject, you don't have to read the whole thing to get a lot out of it.

The Dictator's Handbook. This is the book that spawned the video essay series by CGP Gray: Rules of Rulers ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs ). It has been a strong recommend for me on how and why the political world is the way it is.

Brain Lock: This is a book about OCD and it discusses a method of helping manage the symptoms and manifestations of OCD that creates a measurable and material change on the brain itself. Like self-help books, it does repeat itself quite a bit over the second half of the book. If you struggle with OCD, I do recommend it.

I’ll give a few.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (and the great TA I had teaching the course) got me to change my major to English as a college freshman. I was just hit with a thought like, “I’ve never read anything like this and I’ve never heard a teacher want to talk about books this deeply.”

Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell showed a voice that I’d never heard before — knowledgeable about history, indie rock, cult movies, rural living, and very funny. It was like, “This is exactly who I want to be.”

Then I spent my whole life thinking I was a disorganized person and through the power of a really good memory I was able to hold things together at work. Then I read Mindset by Carol Dweck and Everything In Its Place by Dan Charnas that convinced me that a) I was holding myself back by thinking I was a disorganized person and that b) I could become an organized person. Maybe the best professional decision I’ve ever made because it turns out that being organized is really really useful.

Until a few years ago I would have answered "Um copo de cólera", by Raduan Nassar... but then I read "Crônica da casa assassinada", by Lúcio Cardoso.

My favorite music album is "Fun House", by The Stooges. "Um copo de cólera" has the same chaotic fury of "Fun House", but transposed to literature - and "Um copo de cólera" is the same, but it was written 20 years earlier, is even stronger, and it touches lots of tabboo topics.

I don't know if there are decent translations of them from Portuguese to other languages.

My favorite book _that is available in English_ is "The Lives of Animals", by J.M. Coetzee: <https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_resources/documents/a-to-z/...>.

Nonfiction: Thinking, Fast & Slow

Fiction: Project Hail Mary

Anathem:

You could read it as just a fun first contact adventure coming of age book that involves some hard science and some fun space stuff.

However, it also touches on some very core concepts of nominalism vs. realism, quantum mechanics and how it affects our lives, what consciousness entails and it does so as part of its plot.

It's very fun and very interesting.

Introducing Lacan: A Graphic Guide, by Darian Leader and illustrated by Judy Groves.

Freudian theory really was just a way to psychoanalyze Freud and his complexes.

Lacan jettisoned the weirdly specific Freudian stuff and had a more general template, with a focus on the relationship between language and the subconcious.

You like thrillers? You like non-fiction? You like absolute page-turning non-fiction thrillers?

Check out "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston - it's about the Ebola virus and a strain that wound up in a primate facility just outside of Washington, D.C.

Stephen King called the first chapter "one of the most horrifying things I've read in my whole life." It's so true. Preston caught some flak from CDC scientists for sensationalizing the effects of hemorrhagic viruses, but I think he painted a fairly accurate picture for the layman in all of us: they turn your flesh into soup.

For nonfiction I think about Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon (and Ed Burns for The Corner) a lot. They are very funny and very sad and really changed how I see the world. So I cheated, two books.

Type Theory and Formal Proof (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/type-theory-and-formal-...)

I am That - talks with Nisargadatta Maharaj. Best for me.

As far as enjoying it at the time I was reading it?

The Once and Future King.

I was on summer vacation while camping and fishing and I read the entire book in a couple of days in the evenings. Maybe it was the lack of distraction, but the Arthurian legend of that book has influenced a ton of modern fiction.

Best book of books - 1984

Fiction - Ender's Game

Horror - Voices from Chernobyl. I'm currently read it. I need a pause on every 2-3 pages to refresh my mind.

Biography - "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town". This is only Grisham book that wasn't fiction and based on true event.

Various "bests" based purely on feelings - They're Going to Love You - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Roadside Picnic - To Kill a Mockingbird - Catch 22 - Blindness - No Country for Old Men (various McCarthy books could rotate into this slot)

Non-fiction: Pale Blue Dot. Fiction: The Diamond Age.

I think you can only answer this at a point in time - the book you loved at 20 may not carry the same weight at 50.

For now, though, I really enjoyed Plutarch's Parallel Lives. He compares the life of an ancient Greek and Roman - EG Alexander vs Caesar.

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan - spent the most time reading it and got the most value from it. This book series is my device for the language learning. It was translated into Russian so painfully slow I've just forced myself to read it in English, learning the vocabulary and grammar on the way. Later I did it intentionally with Dutch, and now I'm going to do the same with Spanish.

It's so big you can reread it as many times as you want and still be surprised by the details you no longer remember. In the end I've read it 2 times in Russian, 3 times in English and 1 time in Dutch - and I'm not going to stop.

Well, I don’t reread books. But I’ve read this one science fiction book five times. That book is “The Long Run” by Daniel Keys Moran.

As for non-fiction I just bring out the classics that taught me Lisp and Lispy things: Simply Scheme, SICP, On Lisp.

Several immediately come to mind.

Short stories: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (Ken Liu); Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation (Ted Chiang); The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)

Novels: The Monk (Matthew Gregory Lewis); Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

There are too many…

But I’ll pick The Psychology of Money. There are few books that have so drastically changed my view of reality and affected my behavior.

(Bonus because I couldn’t help myself: Getting things done, Man’s search for meaning, Surrounded by idiots)

Eric Hobsbawm's tetralogy on the long 19th century: Age of Revolution, Age of Capital, Age of Empire, and Age of Extremes.

A truly epic date-driven summary of how the industrial and political revolutions of the 19th transformed the world.

Transall Saga by Gary Paulson. One of those young adult survival stories he was known for writing but with a sci-fi element. The book has been living rent free in my head since an elementary school book fair 26 years ago.

"A history of western philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. The world's most prominent philosopher at the time, took a few years out of his working at the front line to write a summary on 2000 years of thought for layman's and won a nobel prize. It's not the easiest read, you can take issue with some interpretations but theres nothing like it. I think it required reading for being a thoughtful human.

“A precious book … a work that is in the highest degree pedagogical which stands above the conflicts of parties and opinions.” – Albert Einstein

Well, I have no "best" but some, if you really want just one: The Science Of Government, Founded On Natural Law, by Clinton Roosevelt also available freely: https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items/sciencegovernme00roo... it's strange at first, but if you accept the first pages in 15' you'll learn today economy at a whole.

If you are still hungry, Propaganda by Eduard Bernays would be the second.

Christianson and Chater's "The Language Game". This book changed the way I viewed everything, and also led me to read "The Philisophical Investigations", which I would also put up there.

Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris." Really got me into a lifetime of thinking about what comprises life and our relationship, as humans, to other life forms. Has informed my personal philosophy ever since.

I'm not sure I'd call it "best", but it's definitely one of the more interesting ones that I've just never heard of anywhere else. I found it in an antique store like two decades ago: An Alien Light

It's mostly from the perspective of primitive humans being studied by aliens while the aliens teach them various topics like math and science. The aliens are studying these lost tribes because out in space they're at war with humans and cannot figure out how the humans are able to fight each other and still be winning the war with the aliens.

Late to the party, but for anyone looking for inspiration:

Fiction: Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig) by Thomas Mann[0]

Nonfiction: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard[1]

Illustrated: The Insect God by Edward Gorey

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_Venice

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_at_Tinker_Creek

My 3 favorite non-fiction books are:

* Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

* Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong by Luis Perez-Breva

* Fall In Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepeneurs by Uri Levine

These three books really changed my viewpoint and I've been rereading them every year.

48 Laws of Power. Gave a deep understanding of how people manipulate each other to gain influence and dominance. A must read if you want to advance your career or avoid being manipulated at work.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

The first 90% of this box is awesome (I think the last part is a little too hand wavy). However, it helps you understand so much of how people think, including you. I think it also explains much of how we shorthand so much of our "thinking". It implies a lot of how tribal humans are in our actions and beliefs which bleeds into religion and philosophy. There is no book I recommend more and the implications and understanding this highlights can be life transforming.

As a subset of "best" I read "The Daughter of Time" because it was voted the best crime novel ever.

It was good. A modern (well, 1951) detective solves a historical mystery while bedbound.

As for things that might be "Best" with a capital B I Loved pretty much everything by Umberto Eco.

Neal Stephenson used to feature an NYT quote on his website that described his works "bogging down into lectures like Umberto Eco without the charm", so if you like the historical lectures in Neal Stephenson, check him out.

As a kid, Krabban Konrad, "Kermit the Hermit" in English (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_the_Hermit), was one of my favorites.

In high school, 1984 hit me hard.

As an adult, I'd pick Pojken som fann en ny färg (literally translated "The boy who found a new color"). I really liked it's ultra-short chapters, making up snapshots of a romance and family being built and falling apart.

Woah - this is strange. This was posted yesterday but I see that the timestamp has changed so it's only 4 hours old now. The timestamps for the comments seem to have changed also.

This will sound like a cliché but it was “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

Not sure I can write anything here that has not been written a million times already, but suffice to say there is a reason why it’s in every “best of all time” lists. It’s a deeply human story with lots of twists and turns and told masterfully. The closest to a “perfect” book that I can think of.

P.S. Just wanted to throw a bonus recommendation here, on a completely different tone: Blood Meridian (best enjoyed without spoilers).

A Gemini summary of this thread: https://g.co/gemini/share/a661b47cc0f3

To each their own. Mine likely 3 body problems: dark forest book

Dune Chronicles, the 8 books, as I consider them one single long story told in +4000 pages. The God Emperor of Dune (4th book) I consider to be the apex of the story.

Fiction - [Trouble on] Triton by Samuel Delaney. It just has so many relevant big ideas told in a very subdued way via a not very likeable but appropriate character.

Collected Works of Shakespeare

The Tempest was my way in. Hated him as many did at school, but when my path was my own I decided there must be something to the extraordinary reverence in which he was held so I decided to have another go.

I had to plough through for a while rereading until I finally "got" the flow.

After that it was a long journey through some of the most beautiful words and thoughts I'd ever encountered, my life genuinely deepened and enriched.

Here are some translation recommendations (I haven't read them, but would add War and Peace, which I have read, and which is freely available on gutenberg.org):

10 of the best novels in translation into English

https://www.deseret.com/entertainment/2024/10/06/best-books-...

When I’m asked about best book I always bring up „The Last Ringbearer” by Yeskov.

It’s a fanfic in LOTR universe, and it wasn’t very interesting when I was reading it but it revolved around a twist that helped me develop critical thinking skills.

In short and without too much of a spoiler - it’s about relativism of everything, including history and importance of narrative in shaping perspectives.

Somewhat similar to much later Indoctrination Theory in Mass Effect games.

Moby Dick, Herman Melville

VALIS, Philip K Dick

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance + also Lila, Robert Pirsig

Naked Lunch, William Burroughs

Immortality, Milan Kundera

Catch-22, Joseph Heller (pair with The Deserters, Charles Glass -- In fact a lot of the stuff in Catch-22 is actually toned down from reality)

Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha, Daniel Ingram (but ignore 80% of it)

War and peace. You get to build a very close relationship with multiple characters whose life is unwinding during one of the greatest histories of human

"Think Like a Computer Scientist", right after an introductory course where I learned to program (only to discover that for-loops were done by myself when I was a teen and didn't even know about it, writing macros to level up skills in Ultima Online RPG.)

The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Fantasy fiction.

The most impactful book I've come across? "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. Yes, it's old, and the title sounds like clickbait from a LinkedIn influencer. Or worse, it reeks of self-help nonsense. But bear with me.

In my early 20s, I noticed a peer who seemed to have cracked the social code. Their ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics and sway opinions was remarkably consistent. He always seemed to get what he wanted, and people seemed to love him for it.

Intrigued, I asked about their secret. The initial response? Denial and a hint of offense. Classic information hiding.

An hour later, they circled back with an unexpected recommendation: this book.. But he asked me not to tell people around us that he recommended it.

Carnegie's work is essentially a manual for optimizing human interaction. It's really just written as a set of antidotes from his experience, with some commentary.

Key areas include:

  1. Techniques for effectively dealing with people (social engineering techniques) 
  2. Methods for building a positive reputation ("making people like you") 
  3. Strategies for persuasion ("win people to your way of thinking") 
  4. Leadership approaches that don't trigger resentment

While the examples are dated (first published in 1936), many find that the core principles remain surprisingly relevant. The ideas scale across various contexts, from one-on-one interactions to large organizational structures.

Word of caution: Some may view these techniques as manipulative. Using it ethically is important, but really, it just provides some good examples on how not to be an ass.

I've moved enough times to have thinned my book collection down quite a bit. Books that I can't quit, the original "The Boy Mechanic" books, "The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus", "Jingo Django" (I have quite of few of Sid Fleischman's books, actually), a set of "The Book of a Thousands Nights and a Night" (the Arabian Nights) ... to name a few.

Ken Kesey - "Sometimes a Great Notion"

A very rich, very human story generally about what drives people, with a river as an unrelenting foe. I think.

There is no best. Books mean different things at different times in your life. When I was a kid, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Conan Saga, where the greatest books ever written and I still think they were amazing but, my reading interests have changed, here are a few of the best books I've enjoyed reading recently.

The War of Art - Pressfield Outlive - Attia The Fourth Turning - Strauss

Not the best book, but the maddest was IQ84 by Haruki Murakami. It’s a wild story and lead me down a path to read several of his other books.

"I read books [...] I've read a couple of books a week for [...] 50 [years]"[1] - Jim Keller (CPU designer) with Lex Fridman. OT, but I like the reminder that reading can be a voluminous endeavor.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA&t=5043s

It is challenging to define what's "best" but I used a simple criterion to write this comment: the book I have read the most is the best book for me.

With this criterion, Based on a True Story by Norm Macdonald is the best book. Each time I reread it, I find a new nugget! And as a bonus, this book is also available as an audiobook narrated by the author himself.

House of Leaves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

You must use a physical book, it's full of typographical and color changes to impress context different then just the words. Every time I re-read it, I look though a different lens and get something different from it.

Children's Literature: Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Tech: Code the hidden language of computer hardware and software

Non Fiction: Talking to My Daughter

In the fictional corner I must place the Nights Dawn Trilogy and Dune.

Other corners don't really have a best book, for me. Recently read 'Emperor of all maladies' and found it a fascinating journey through cancer, both as an illness and as a research subject.

Also recently read 'The Grand Chessboard' which was also fascinating for a completely different reason.

The Origins of Virtue - Matt Ridley (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Virtue) The book provides an evolutionary argument for altruism. It significantly changed the way I thought about human behaviour and morality.

Groving up: Papillon (Henri Charrière - 1969) & Samurai! (Saburo Sakai -1957) Lately: Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir - 2021) Obviously: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - 25th anniversary edition (Steven Levy - 1984/2010) also: I've read all the books from David Thorne, last one: Let’s Eat Grandma’s Pills (David Thorne - 2022)

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto.

Before the English took New Amsterdam, it was a thriving settlement full of interesting economic ideas and gripping narratives. I can't recommend this book enough. The audiobook is great, so I bought the paperback. 10/10

_A Short History of the Printed Word_ by Warren Chappell --- also his _The Living Alphabet, and his cousin Oscar Ogg's _The 26 Letters_ because they inspired in me a lifelong love of the written word and of books, resulting in a career in typography and book composition.

I'd also recommend Robert Bringhurst's _The Elements of Typographic Style_.

"Aniara" by Harry Martinson reminded me that there are levels to this game. It's the kind of book that somehow makes you feel like a master at imagining epic scenery. The awe / word ratio is very high so even though it's short it feels very deep and rich.

I love the Count of Monte Cristo. I had adventure and mystery. Also I felt I learned a lot about being a man while reading it, though that might be due to me being 20-21 at the time so I was learning a lot about that anyways. Also I loved listening to the audiobook of Treasure Island :)

I'd question that it's the "best" if you read it as an adult (though it's probably still good), but I feel like Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (which I read as a child / young teen) has influenced me and my outlook on the world more than maybe any other book I've ever read since.

"The Selfish Gene" by Dawkins. Very succinct and beautiful explanations for evolution, which in turn explains why chaotic systems under a set of rules tend to spontaneously self organize.

Apart from pop-sci like Dawkins, I'd say the "Discworld" series by Pratchett. Probably the Watch/Sam Vimes books

Poor Charlie's Almanac by Charlie Munger is one of my favorites. It keeps on giving. Amazed that Munger had access to all this wisdom 40 or 50 or even more years ago.

Even wrote a review in case: https://krishna2.com/munger

The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development (Commissioned affiliate link: http://amzn.to/2DK6kVP)

It's technical, mathy, economics, and business all wrapped together.

I remember reading "One Day", quite a long way through the book. I was sat in economy on an Emirates flight back from Islamabad, it was 4th November 2010, and it hit my like a truck when I got to that bit.

Might not be a "good book", but it was certainly memorable.

I combined all the books mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41807759

One book and two book series:

Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.

The Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.

The Animator's Survival guide taught me about project management. The Design of Everyday Things taught me about how people interact with things. Ender's Game taught me to think outside the box. Fairytales taught me dragons can be defeated.

Shameless plug:

https://www.louiscordier.com/the_3_book_of_louis/

;p

The "best" book I ever read was Moby Dick because everybody tells me it was, and because I could never make it through Ulysses. The book that was the most fun to read was The Count of Monte Cristo. And my favorite book is The Diamond Age.

The Commonwealth Saga. A sci fi series by Peter F. Hamilton, it covers so many ideas that I'd stay up wondering about. I got engrossed in the sci fi future it created.

Came here for the recommendations in the comments. Thank you all internet strangers!

I went through a phase where I enjoyed short stories more than a book, as many authors have used that form (the short story) to work on a particular theme or topic of interest to them.

Orson Scott Card's Maps in a Mirrors comes to mind.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut - I re-read it about once a year. It hits a nerve for me and helps me focus on whats important.

"A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."

Non-fiction: The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes.

Fiction: The Gods Themselves Asimov.

These are the book I always recommend to friends and colleagues. There are runners up based on taste, such as Zero to One,The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and Anathema.

Thanks to Plato's Republic - I have two bffs living rent free in my head.

I've been reading Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. This was the best book I've read at overcoming my initial expectations (Johnson is a hugely flawed human being, wowza).

The Dawn of Everything, GEB, and House of Leaves are probably my top 3.

The Courage to be Disliked

My favourite fiction is Ready Player One. Great story and very nerdy!

Impossible to pick one... best I can do is five-ish, all fiction:

The Odyssey; David Copperfield; Moby-Dick; Anna Karenina; Borges' short stories, in particular Ficciones & The Aleph

"The years of rice and salt' by Kim Stanley Robinson

Sorry, series instead of books.

Best Sci-fi: The Commonwealth Saga

Best Fantasy: The Wheel of Time

A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates, by the RAND Corporation, 1955. Preferred is the 2001 edition w/ new forward.

Asimov's New Guide to Science

Easy to read, he explains difficult concepts in a simple manner. I felt smarter when I finished it.

Fiction: The Way of Kings, and by extension, the rest of the Stormlight Archive. Some seriously fantastic therapy mixed into the beautiful fantasy world.

One of the most memorable books I’ve read is by Paul Ekman, who explores emotions and nonverbal communication.

Master of the Senate by Robert Caro. The entire series is worth it, and I am waiting on the edge of my seat for the last book in the LBJ series.

"The Wall" from Marlen Haushofer was one of the best experience I had with a book in a long time

"Analyse numérique pour Ingénieurs" (en: Numerical Analysis for Engineers )by André Fortin. This book changed my life 12 years ago!

"The Passenger" and "Stella Maris" by Cormac McCarthy are fantastic. In general, I enjoy McCarthy's work because I believe he manages to present interesting ideas drawn from philosophy and religion, and if you read between the lines of his work, there is a fairly elaborate cosmology behind them. With these final works, he manages to combine this tendency with his decades of residence at the Santa Fe Institute and work with researchers in complexity science, mathematics, physics, etc. Moreover, he does so without the more trite ways non-scientists often draw upon science (for instance, just crudely using quantum mechanics as a stand-in for the supernatural). I think you could probably write a thesis on the way he integrated advances in complexity science and mathematics/physics with philosophy/religion/mythology with a close reading of his work. I mention this first and with particular emphasis because I believe it is chronically under-discussed and deserves a systematic study by someone who understands philosophy and modern physics and complexity science much better than I do. There is a hauntingly dark and beautiful cosmology behind this work, in a way even darker than his earlier works like "Blood Meridian."

I can also see the works of Arthur Schopenhauer being of great interest to many HN readers. His reconciliation of Western philosophy (especially Kant and British Empiricists) with Buddhism and Hinduism is unique and for me the most interesting overall system. His work is entirely worth reading for the quality of writing alone. For me, his works evoke the experience of mathematical beauty. I would recommend gaining a basic understanding of Kant, Buddhism, Hinduism, and then reading his work "Essays and Aphorisms," followed by "The World as Will and Idea."

"Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" by Jacques Ellul is the book I have read that best explains the human experience in the modern media environment. Like "The World as Will and Representation," it also forms a sort of complete system, which can be read as an organic whole as well as with self-referential parts. I believe most of the "alienation" we experience from technology, which is often blamed on the internet, is really a much older and broader phenomenon, which Ellul attributes to the development of the radio, "technique," and broader phenomenological experience within 20th-century totalitarian societies.

"Simulacra and Simulation" is another that I have enjoyed. It is the work I have read that, in my opinion, best provides a model for living in a post-modern, post-industrial society, and my intuition is that it will also prove authentic in the age of artificial intelligence.

Masquerade, by Kit Williams.

He hid a rabbit made of gold and jewels somewhere in the UK and then wrote a book filled with clues and pictures on how to find it.

Thinking and Reasoning: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan St B. T. Evans, 2017 Oxford University Press

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. It changed the way I think about what's important, both to me and to other people and societies.

Probably The Singapore Story by Lee Kuan Yew or Titan by Ron Chernow. To me great biographies are more addicting than great TV.

The best book I've partially read is the New Testament. The best book I've actually read is Taleb's Antifragile.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

If ever I’m struggling with something I pick it up and open to a random leaf and just read until I feel better.

Socialism by Ludwig von Mises (1930s)

As a Systems Engineer, I've always been fascinated by systems both for computation and involving people. Concepts in business process design/implementation have quite the overlap with automation, and this book provides one of the best discussions I've seen, where its first properly defining the problem, and then moving on to failure modes via a priori reasoning (which is fairly conservative) in relation to centralized hierarchical systems, or bureaucracies.

The title aside, the structural analysis is quite impressive and in the process also explains the basis for many failures within bureaucracies involving people, including corruption, and trends concentrating staff production value towards a least common denominator (negative production value), through social coercion, within the institutions.

This book arguably is a very dense read though, and requires an old dictionary (from around the same time). Many of the words have changed meanings since the writing (towards more ambiguity and more contradiction).

It comes from a time where hyper-rationalism and its principles were followed and respected, and falsehoods and liars ignored or rejected outright; something we can use more of today.

The book also is useful in describing why Socialism, and its various forms is a failed system, and indirectly but inevitably fails in ways that allow no accountability through deceit, and how those supporting and promoting such systems are both supporting their own destruction as well as others (incl family, friends etc).

The systems discussed are safety-critical systems, and its not hard to reason that when you support a system that will inevitably fail (causing death/harm), where you can't transition off the system or know beforehand, then you promote and support the given outcome. Indirect, but still rational and principled.

I really enjoyed Factfulness by Hans Rosling et al.

Potentially a bit dated now, but A New Kind of Science by Wolfram was pretty eye opening.

The Mind is Flat by Nick Chater

(so hard to pick just one, and I may be affected by recency bias, but that's my finalist right now)

Growing up ‘The Brothers Lionheart’.

As an adult, ‘The Idiot’.

The Red Book Liber Novus, Life changing, genuinely. I think it’s a historical and cultural work that stands alone.

The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil The Gospel to According Jesus Christ - Jose Saramagu

etc.

Baudolino by Umberto Eco. I like all his works, but this one is the most moving and epic. I still think of it.

I guess Ender's Game since it got me into reading again as an adult. I love all Vernor Vinge as well.

"How To Win Friends And Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

There's a good reason why it's still in print.

I am still discovering new best books, recently "bird by bird" which taught me and made me laugh.

Bhagat Gita. Never found a book more correct and applicable to life for the big things in life.

Dungeon Crawler Carl (series)

Sinusoidal Circuit Analysis

Greg Egan’s Axiomatic anthology of short stories was the best I read in recent years.

Hard to say really. One of the few (if not only) books i wish i could unread was the fountainhead

Best novel: Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

Best Scifi: The World of Null-A A. E. van Vogt

Best Childrens: Swallowdale Arthur Ransome

1001 Arabian nights and The Odyssey

there are two: Pirsig's "Zen..." and Thoreau's "Walden...." the quality which is defined is not the quality, and the sun is but a morning star. iykyk. no posturing intended, just answering the d*n question.

For me it is more Plato less Prozac, I read it at 14 and it really influenced me.

I just read "When We Cease to Understand the World," and it lives up to the hype.

"The book of joy" by the Dalai Lama and Desmund Tutu (they were lifelong friends)

In terms of info per dollar, you can't beat Littler Books' master collection.

It changes all the time. For fiction, I would say “Augustus” or “Stoner” (by Williams).

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. When you are young, it is a remarkable book to read.

Meditations by marcus aurelius

Siddhartha.

As someone who used to read voraciously as a kid, and nearly stopped entirely as I burned out throughout school, There Is No Antimemetics Division, and later Ra by qntm got me back into reading by reminding me how satisfying science fiction can be.

Antimemetics Division is a fantastic read if you're at all a fan of the SCP Wiki -- being the author of some of the foundational entries in the wiki, like SCP-055 (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-055), qntm shows a deep understanding and appreciation for the SCP universe and uses it to tell a compelling story about ideas, memory, and sacrifice.

It's worth noting that you can't currently buy a physical copy of this book anymore, but the original story is still available to read for free on the SCP wiki. https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub

[light spoilers in this paragraph] This book caught me during a particularly difficult part of my life, when I was struggling with depression and self-doubt. Reading something that framed ideas as being things that are not only infectious and mind-altering, but killable was comforting for me, and gave me hope that I could climb out of the hole that I was in.

Ra, on the other hand, is a book set in a completely different universe, one in which magic not only exists, but is a bona fide scientific study, having been discovered in the 1970s. It starts out by exploring the ramifications of magic's use as self-defense, but evolves into mystery when the main character witnesses her mother performing magic that by all accounts should be impossible, compelling her to devote her life to uncovering the phenomena's true nature and origin.

This one is considerably longer, and paced slower than Antimemetics Division, but in my opinion is no less satisfying. The parameters by which magic works in-universe feel believable and self-consistent, and so do the reasons behind why some mages are able to bend them. The ending does feel slightly unsatisfying when the book is taken as a complete work, but when considering that Ra was originally released as a web serial over the course of years, I feel it's a bit more forgivable that the landing wasn't stuck perfectly.

What's particularly interesting to me about Ra is that after completion, the author hosted a Q&A thread on their site where people were able to ask questions about how certain mechanics of magic work in-universe, and the answers given by qntm show just how much thought and care they put into making magic feel less like a hand-waved deus ex-machina and more like a complete system.

Highly recommend both of these, as well as qntm's other works if you're looking for something that scratches a particular sci-fi itch.

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul.

Someone able to make a list? Feel like a lot of good books to read

The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue - Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163)

One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia-Marquez.

Without a doubt, "Exact thinking in demented timed".

John McPhee's "The Curve of Binding Energy".

Fiction : the history of love Non fiction: start with why

(Part 1 of) Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

No other book has made as significant a difference in both my personal and professional life. Concepts like the emotional bank account and seeking first to understand (then to be understood) have been the key things that have helped me find a partner, develop a relationship with her, and develop a great career where I'm given a lot of autonomy and trust to solve problems in my own way.

I find myself teaching concepts from the book to coworkers while mentoring them through work-related interpersonal problems and without fail they come back ecstatic about what a difference it made in their work relationships.

I genuinely can't recommend it highly enough.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover

Anna Quindlen - A Short Guide to a Happy Life

The Holy Bible

It's the entire basis for the western world.

The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine.

The Holy Bible

Probably "Zorba the Greek"

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Poor Soldier Svejk is up there

Tao Teh Chingh

Easy and accessible

Will take me my whole life to read

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

Middlemarch. It has everything.

Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon.

Dare to Succeed by Van Crouch.

When I Say No I Feel Guilty.

Never Split The Difference.

The Gift of Fear.

Those 3.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

autobiography of a yogi

Flowers for Algernon

Probably Catch-22

Genesis Revisited

The Selfish Gene; Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Can we just skip all the Atlas shrugged swellhead arguments? They take up all the air in the room/(scroll in the page) of every best book thread. Just bump it up if you agree, provide an alternative if you don't.

Robinson Crusoe

Deadhouse Gates

Anna Karenina

The Planiverse

Fiction: The little prince

Non fiction: Maus

ie. the best and worst that humans can be.

as i lay dying by william faulkner

For me it's either "Cry, the Beloved Country" or "Slaughterhouse-Five".

EDIT: Oh wait, or maybe it's "The End of the Affair", or "Je l'aimais".

Zero to One

Don Quixote

C the programming bible

`It` by Stephen King.

Trillion dollar coach

One of the previous posts mentioned that it changes for them frequently, and I'm pretty much the same way. But for right now:

Fiction: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Non-Fiction: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

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> I think it's an excellent question.

Because?

ChatGPT: roll up this thread, extract all author-title pairs that describe books, and look up the corresponding amazon.com links where I can buy the whole set.

I think this is as meaningful as the question "what's the best food you've ever eaten?", which is to say, it's not a very meaningful question.