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Ask HN: What books have helped make who you are today?

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Re: Ask HN: What books have helped make who you are today?

#11

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse is a big one. Ecclesiastes is also excellent, and you shouldn't shy away just because it's in the Bible.

_Siddhartha_ is my mother's favorite book. I find that Buddhist and Stoic philosophy deal with many of the same subjects, specifically, gaining peace with the trials of life. I, however, prefer the Stoic's emphasis on discipline and perseverance over the Buddhist's emphasis on acceptance and understanding. I don't think that one is qualitatively superior to the other, it is just that Stoicism works better for me.

Re: Ask HN: What books have helped make who you are today?

#12
post #3

_The Myth of Certainty_ by Daniel Taylor _Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing_ by Soren Kierkegaard _The Invisible Computer_ by Donald Norman _Death March_ by Edward Yourdon _War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning_ by Chris Hedges _What Do You Care What Other People Think?_ by Richard P. Feynman

Do you have any recommendations on what to read first in order to be introduced to Kierkegaard's writings/thoughts?

Re: Ask HN: What books have helped make who you are today?

#15
Inner Experience by George Bataille The Complete Short Stories by Jorge Luis Borges (especially The Library of Forking Paths; The Library of Babel; Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote and The Aleph) and his essays. Poems by William Blake especially the Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Anything by Mircea Eliade (especially the myth of the eternal return, Anything by Frances Yates (especially The Art of Memory (GET THIS BOOK)), the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, the Tao Te Ching, the writings of Chuang Tzu, Currently: Zen Mind, Beginner's mind. Much much more really.
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