1984, Orwell<p>Brave New World, Huxley<p>Animal Farm, Orwell<p>The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein<p>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Persig<p>Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut<p>Catch-22, Heller<p>The first 3-4 books of the Foundation Series, Asimov<p>The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
1632 by Eric Flint - Very interesting alternative history, which really gets you thinking about what it takes to run civilization. It's a series, and 1632 is the first book.
Several answers buried on HN past threads. A couple searches you can make at the foot of this page:<p>> ask hn books impact
> ask hn books made you
> show hn books
> ask hn favorite books
> top hn books<p>The last one especially since someone already thought of attempting to compile lists.<p>The only problem is your question is too broad. Fiction, nonfiction, technical books? What are you trying to accomplish?
Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion, from Cialdini.<p>A good book to grasp the meaning of influence on other people (or from them upon you)
I’m going to be “that guy” and not recommend books. I have read many (well 40-50) books and I wouldn’t say that books have taught me anything I couldn’t have learned by experiencing it.<p>I mean, of course, Computer Science has made me read a lot of books, articles, blog posts, etc. but from the personal point of view, experiences (traveling, meeting new people, moving to a new city, getting a new job) are the things that have taught me more.<p>I don’t know, maybe I’m an illiterate or maybe I was bad choosing books (I think the later could be true).<p>So, keep reading but also keep having new (healthy) experiences!