The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck - great insight into the human condition<p>One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson - concise and pithy while containing lots of useful pointers<p>The Divine Center by Steven Covey - the spiritual grounding that informs his later more secular books and much more interesting if you don't mind religious thought mixed in with your motivation<p>The Foundation trilogy by Issac Asimov - Caused a huge detour in my life. Immersed myself in speculative fiction for decades due to the brain-quake caused by this material.<p>Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein - A detour of a different sort. Great introduction to alternative modes of thought to my uncultured religious teen mind.<p>LDS/Christian Scriptures - regardless of your belief level, the ideas/thoughts/stories/literature encompassed in scripture is enriching to the mind
Meta comment: It would be more helpful if people included a reason why they are listing these specific books. Seeing a title of a book they never heard of probably isn't enough to get anyone to read it, but a few quick words about why you found it important might intrigue people.
The two books I've read that have shaped my worldview the most:<p><i>Stranger in a Strange Land</i> by Robert Heinlein - A classic SciFi novel that digs deep on relationships, politics, and religion. Like a lot of old SciFi, it's filled with blatant sexism. If you can look past that, it has a lot of great lessons.<p><i>Island</i> by Aldous Huxley - a beautiful look at alternative societal structures, psychedelics, and the cruelty of the western world overcoming sacred places.
Antifragile - Nicholas Nassim Taleb<p>Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut<p>Pavarotti: My World - Luciano Pavarotti, William Wright<p>Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World - Jack Weatherford
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) - classic book of objectivism , self proud and wealth<p>Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson) - awesome analytics book about wealth source<p>The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith) - classic book about source of money and economic processes
It's quite trendy at the moment, but Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari was quite the life changing book. As well as An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Commander Chris Hadfield was a rather inspirational tale.
<i>The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up</i> by Marie Kondo has life changing philosophical implications when applied outside of simple home life.<p><i>Tao Te Ching</i> by Lao Tzu is a classic text on harmony and humility.
- A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - aleksandr solzhenitsyn
- Breakfast of champions - Kurt Vonnegut
- Plato's the republic
- The unfettered mind - Takuan Soho
Bunch of Eastern stuff...Hagakure, Book of 5 rings, art of war, tao te ching<p>Subtle art of not giving a fuck,
The art of happiness<p>But the one book I always keep...The boy scout handbook
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. It helped me be have more cohesion in my thinking in regards to my love for science and my very religious upbringing.
The Better Angels of our Nature - Steven Pinker (The world isn't so bad, and it's getting better all the time)<p>Vagabonding - Rolf Potts (It's easy and cheap to move around the world these days)
The Asian Saga by James Clavell, reading as a kid on how to rule your life, business and create a dynasty...<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga</a><p>As grown up, on now to rule the world:<p>More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite by Sebastian Mallaby<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God</a>
The Dune series, especially "Dune Messias", made me a vocal critic of organized religion.<p>Books by Vernor Vinge made me a liberal (european meaning, pro free markets and individual responsibility).<p>Ken McLeod made me aware of the rich history and valid points of communism and socialism, even when I'm still not a fan.<p>Iain M. Banks showed me that an AI-enabled future doesn't have to be a distopia. He also made me aware of how pale and boring the often cited "Star Trek Utopia" really is.
The Elusive Quest for Growth by W. Easterly -- read it when I was in college hoping to study development (poverty, growth) economics; changed the way I look at poverty, economics and politics in general. Likewise I helped me ditch modern liberalism for classical one.
The Surrender Experiment - about following the flow of life and seeing events unfolding in front of you and how amazing the perfection of life is if you take a step back observe how everything plays out
“What makes it go, what makes it work, what makes it fly, what makes it float” taught me that gadgets and appliances have internal mechanics.<p>“The Lucifer principle” introduced me to evolution and evo-psych thinking.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life - Mark Manson<p>Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard Feynman<p>Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman - got a second degree in Physics<p>So good they can't ignore you - the one career self-management book you should read<p>The essays of Waren Buffet - how to approach investment
<i>The Social Brain - Michael S. Gazzaniga</i><p>(Relays a bunch of super interesting experiments done on 'split brain' patients with important consequences for normally functioning brains. Not at all gimmicky, doesn't read like a popularization—I think my dad said he read it in grad school for cognitive psych. But I read it as a teenager so it's generally accessible, and it'll likely change the way you think about people and their brains.)<p><i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas S. Kuhn</i><p>(Looks at large scale trends in scientific progress [as well as looking more closely at the notion of 'progress' in this context]. Probably the most important features he extracts have to do with distinct phases that scientific work can typically be classified under: 'normal' science and 'revolutionary' science. These concepts are easiest to understand in relation to the notion of a 'framework'. In revolutions, we are developing new frameworks and potentially abandoning lots of old work; during normal science, we are elaborating within an established framework. Phrases like 'the dominant paradigm' in this context are due to Kuhn [IIRC he uses 'paradigm' rather than 'framework']. The book isn't so long and his argument for and presentation of these ideas is well worth reading.)<p><i>Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy</i><p>(Traces the major trends, personalities, and events leading to personal computing as we know it today, starting with IBM mainframes mediated by an IBM employ. Also describes the origin and meaning of the 'hacker ethic'. The hacker ethic, especially as exemplified by early MIT programmers in the book, was hugely influential on how I came to think about programming and creative work generally.)<p><i>The Varieties of Religious Experience - William James</i><p>(It's largely an attempt at a scientific account of the potential cognitive/emotional impacts of adopting various beliefs, though especially religious/philosophical beliefs. James was an early experimental psychologist and philosopher. The book is mostly a transcription of his Gifford Lecture series of the same name.)<p><i>The Philosophy of Physical Science - Sir Arthur Eddington</i>
(Got me thinking about deep issues where we still trip ourselves up by assuming that parts of our own mental makeup are parts of the objective universe instead. Also clarified my understanding of the notions of 'structure' and 'analysis'. Also gives an interesting example of using Group Theory for physics work. Not as scary (or long) as it sounds, though it takes some work.)<p>Also: Three Scientist's and their Gods, Metamagical Themas, The Society of Mind, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Chaos: Making a New Science, and Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
many years ago and long before 'matrix' his books changed my view on the world: William Gibson, the guy who invented 'cyberspace'<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_William_Gibson" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_William_Gibso...</a>
beautiful boy - david sheff<p>crime and punishment - fyodor dostoevsky<p>the trial - franz kafka<p>catch-22 - joseph heller<p>how to win friends and influence people - dale carnegie<p>mindset: the new psychology of success - carol dweck<p>I really enjoy novels a lot more than self-help and business books, but lately everything I read is about some business concept or backstory.
in no particular order:<p>Lord of the Rings<p>Cryptonomicon<p>Anathem<p>Moby Dick<p>The Master and Margarita<p>Walden<p>Arabian Sands<p>Gawain and the Green Knight<p>Beowulf