111–120 of 599 posts
Blindsight by Peter Watts
I loved this book too - curious how it impacted you?
The Culture Series by Iain Banks, quite a good scifi series in my opinion.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. This book changed my life. I read this book when I was maybe 17? And read it again last year, a decade and a half later. The most powerful lesson I learned here is what anthropologists call cultural relativism. This book also taught me that everyone is under the influence of Mother Culture and her stories. I think internalizing this can help a lot with understanding other people, building sel…
Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, aka Three Body Problem. Explored existential topics in a way I've never encountered anywhere else. I truly believe that decades from now this series will be viewed as the LOTR of our time. I've recently been reading the Foundation series, and have found the concept of The Mule character to be incredibly eye opening. I can't say directly it's had a positive impact on my life but it…
Agreed. I don't put it on-par with Dune, but there are definitely concepts in the TBP trilogy that are simultaneously difficult and mind-opening. Some of them are quite haunting, actually. Most of the deeper exploration of these ideas takes place in the third book.
I would recommend 19the century great novels, that really was a golden age of literature, so many great works came out in the period near the mid of the century.
Also George Eliot, in the current context, would recommend her novel Romola, set in Florence, perhaps the finest treatment of Savanarola in the whole of fiction.
- When Nietzsche Wept
- The Schopenhauer Cure
- The Spinoza Problem
These books gave me a very hopeful outlook for humanity's future.
It makes you feel like you have an innate duty to do productive work.