Curious to know which books you've read that genuinely felt worth the time and attention you gave them. Can be fiction, non-fiction, self-help, technical, philosophical, or anything else.<p>The only criteria: the book helped you in some meaningful way—changed your perspective, taught you something valuable, or simply stayed with you long after finishing it.
Ann Leckie's <i>Ancillary Justice</i> series.<p>Culture, gender identity, hive mind, all rolled up into one extremely dense universe with a rich history told through warfare and cutting remarks, humanising potentially inhuman central characters with a vague number of limbs.<p>It takes ten pages to get used to the dense yet clipped writing style, but once it clicks, you cannot put the book(s) down: the plot moves forward at breakneck speed.
In general the Incerto series by Nassim Taleb (Black Swan, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game) was worth it. The Selfish Gene, System thinking A primer, I am a strange loop, Sapiens are some books that I read recently that had a lasting impression.
<i>The Complete Yes Minister</i>, a novelization of the TV show, but probably more approachable. A kind of "high brow" skewering of politics and government. There's a lot of interplay between politicians and civil servants that mirrors some play between politicians and people, especially in the case of "systemic lag".<p><i>Erasure</i> by Percival Everett. A book on racial conformity and expectations. A weird case where the movie (American Fiction) might be better than the book. Pretty easy and quick read however. I don't know what it was but this book has stuck with me ever since I've read it.<p><i>The Code Book</i> by Simon Singh. This is the book that got me into cryptography. It's a bit old and outdated now (published in 1999) but it was responsible for forming a lifelong interest in me.<p><i>Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door</i> by Christopher Mims. The premise was supposed to be tracking a product from production to consumer, but then the COVID happened. The book turns into an exploration of how just in time production and supply lanes work today.<p><i>The Dictator's Handbook</i> by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita. I had a professor who was friends with BBM, so when we were discussing selectorate theory we actually got to meet him. At it's core this is a cynical book about realpolitik, talking about how leaders get in power, stay in power, get money and foreign aid, and deal with revolutions and war. It is very political focused but the theory can be abstracted out to most big organizations. It fundamentally changed the way I look at interactions between countries. This is 100% a more mass market appeal book than the original paper (and imo a bit dumbed down) but everyone I've recommended it to has come back appreciative about it.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse<p>This book has stayed with me for years. It's a quiet, deeply reflective journey about self-discovery, the search for meaning. What resonated most was this idea that true understanding can't be taught—it must be lived and experienced.<p>It’s a short read, but one that invites you to slow down. Each time I return to it, I take away something new depending on where I am in life.
Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction by Edward Fesser<p>I stumbled across this completely by accident while doing research for a history of science class I was designing years ago. It took... a while... to stop saying "but why does this matter!" every two seconds while reading it, but eventually I was able to open my mind to metaphysics as a discipline and get it into my head exactly what he was talking about, and why it was useful. After that, it was smooth sailing. I owe a lot to this book.
A short list of books that cost some candles after I reached 40 (has been very picky about books since then). I not only read them into late night but also went back to them whenever I need some mental boost.<p>- The Soul of a New Machine<p>- Showstoppers<p>- iWoz<p>- Athens and Jerusalem (Shestov)<p>I'm devouring many F & SFs (right now reading Arthur Clarke) but so far nothing really sticks. A lot of them are interesting but I'm keeping counting the pages I read. I used to burn candles reading them back in the day, but the magic was lost. I'm going to try out some recommendations I got on HN and see what happens.
Peter Bevelin's <i>Seeking Wisdom</i>.<p>The other day someone on here recommended <i>The Philosopher's Toolkit</i>, and I ordered a copy based on that recommendation. I've only started to dip into various parts, but I can already confirm that it is a good introductory compendium of the basics of philosophy, logic, and argumentation. In the same vein is Daniel Dennett's <i>Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking</i>.<p>A personal favorite is Frances Yates's <i>The Art of Memory</i> (think: intersection of rhetoric, mnemonic systems, philosophical systems, and the occult during the Renaissance).<p>Matthew Butterick's <i>Practical Typography</i> and <i>Typography for Lawyers</i>. Bryan Garner's <i>The Winning Brief</i>.<p>Umberto Eco's <i>How to Write a Thesis</i>. Adler's <i>How to Read a Book</i>. Pierre Bayard's <i>How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read</i>.<p>I could go on. Book posts are my favorite posts on HN, but they always lighten my wallet and at home I'm surrounded with ever-growing piles of great material.
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Siddhartha Mukherjee
It's an inherently interesting subject but (and it's been more then 10 years since I read it) it's a history of people innovating. I remember really enjoying the way it tries to get at the whys and the hows of people coming up with good ideas.<p>The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
Christopher Clark
The origin of WWI is a story that's been told repeatedly. This version is delightfully depressing. I can't quite describe the book. If you say X happening was the fault of everyone it's easy to imagine that's synonymous with saying it's no one's fault. That's not what's being argued - here it's that it's literally everyone's fault.
The 1632 series by Eric Flint changed my perspective on what it takes to keep modern civilization going. In the book (which became a series) he extensively studied the town of Mannington, West Virginia, and it became Grantville, a town which was thrown from the year 2000 back into the summer of 1631 and the middle of the 30 years war in Thuringa, Germany.<p>Their struggle to comprehend the new world into which they were thrust, coping with war and loss of modern supply chains, and a full blown war... make for interesting reading. There were a lot of details about infrastructure in the book and throughout the series that really made me ponder just how hard it is to keep this all afloat.
Crafting Interpreters, by Robert Nystrom. One of the best, perhaps <i>the</i> best, programming text I've read--and I started reading them in the late 70's.
<i>The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors</i> by James Hornfischer. The amazing courage shown by the US Navy sailors as their tiny 2,000 ton Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts faced a Japanese fleet of Battleships, Cruisers, and Destroyers at The Battle Off Samar. Inspiring and horrifying, the DDs and DEs of the US navy were protecting "Escort Carriers" which were smaller aircraft carriers made from cargo ship hulls. Warning, may inspire you to learn a whole bunch more about world war 2.<p>And 2 books that sort of go together:<p><i>Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway</i> by Walter Lord, and <i>Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway</i> by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. Read Incredible Victory first, learn about the luck, good and bad, that led to a much-needed victory in the Pacific. Then read Shattered Sword and get a fuller picture of events, especially from the Japanese side. Learn about how hubris and dogma led to the Japanese Navy's defeat. Then learn about how saving face led to history not being accurately told by the witnesses on the Japanese side.<p>All 3 are great books that are well worth your time.<p>Others that I've enjoyed:<p><i>Parable of the Sower</i> by Octavia Butler (near future post-apocalyptic sci-fi).<p>The non-fiction Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson (more WW2 non-fiction, nice details about North Africa through Italy, then France to Germany).<p><i>Midnight in Chernobyl</i> by Adam Higginbotham.<p><i>Most Secret War</i> by RV Jones (nerdy, funny history of one scientist's world war 2 experience).<p>The Discworld City Guard books, starting with <i>Guards! Guards!</i>, by Terry Pratchett. Fantasy fiction satire, hilarious and comforting. Highly, highly recommended!!<p>Peter F Hamilton sci-fi adventure books: <i>Pandora's Star</i> and <i>Judas Unchained</i> are a duo of great space opera stretching across multiple planets and people. Don't spoil yourself by reading any descriptions of Judas Unchained before you read Pandora's Star. Also by the same author, The Night's Dawn Trilogy: <i>The Reality Dysfunction</i>, <i>The Neutronium Alchemist</i>, and <i>The Naked God</i>. Fantastic big canvas space opera with lots of threads, great world-building, and amazing situations. Both sets of books are highly recommended escapes from reality.
_The Code Book_ by Simon Singh changed the course of my life when I read it as a kid.<p>I'd love an update to cover elliptic curves and lattice based cryptography, and to update the at the time speculative section on quantum computing. But the majority of the book covers historical events and is still just as valid as it was then.
The book I consistently reread is Notes from the Underground. Anything by Balzac is highly rereadable also. I don't read much fiction anymore but fiction has left the deepest imprints on me. I did just read Jew Sus by Feuchtwanger, I'd recommend it. All of Kafka's works are up there too.
The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/soulofnewmachine0000kidd/page/n6/mode/1up" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/soulofnewmachine0000kidd/page/n6...</a>
Understanding Postmodernism. I know there are deeper books out there on the subject but this was accessible and opened the door to many other deeper books of thought that continue to shape me.
The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter.
I gift this book at every opportunity and consistently receive overwhelmingly positive feedback, even from those who typically don't read much.
Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.<p>One of the few books where you look so differently at the world after reading it that you literally feel like a different person.
The Machinery of Life by David Goodsell. It's a short book with beautiful diagrams and explanations of microbiology.<p>The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Its thesis is that everything is built up of smaller things that are all trying to replicate or get replicated.<p>Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein. I haven't read the book, but reading about the book's argument that language is a type of multiplayer game, along with the aforementioned ideas about things being built out of smaller things that are trying to replicate changed how seriously I take ideas in general. I'm not looking for a universal truth anymore, I'm watching different collections of ideas compete with each other based on how well they replicate and how well they compete once they've entered a brain.
I am a lifetime avid reader but there are very few books I come back to and re-read. I guess the books which impact you the most aren't the ones you'd expect. Here are some that come to mind:<p>*Novels in Three Lines* - Felix Feneon; like clever sarcastic haiku<p>*Riddley Walker* - Russell Hoban; It's written in an imagined language making it completely and utterly immersive<p>*Waiting for Nothing* - Tom Kromer; Great depression era destitution, and travel<p>*Days of Life and Death and Escape to the Moon* - William Saroyan; In an era of great writers, Saroyan remains wildly under appreciated.<p>*Really the Blues* - Mezz Mezzrow; Written in 1920s jive slang, it's emblematic of an era<p>*The KLF* - John Higgs; The book is subtitled "Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds" All those things are true and Higgs brilliantly tells the tale.
Having been a reader approxumately all my life, approximately all the books have been worth my time.<p>Though the best book is far and away <i>Three Little Pigs</i> which my now grown-ass-man child called “the wolf book” when requesting it at bedtime at the age of incredible. I highly recommend it — time spent with your child I mean,<p>But if you want an HNish book recommendation?…<i>The Art of Computer Programming</i> is well worth trying to read because it will be challenging for as long as you keep at it. Good luck.
Learned Helplessness - Martin Seligman
A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Malkiel
The Millionaire Next Door - Stanley
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand<p>Second the Incerto series by Nassim Taleb