Ask HN: What book changed your life?

Unpopular opinion but … as a lifelong Dune acolyte, I think Chapterhouse is favorite one after the original…

There are countless opinions/suggestions on how to read the Bible (and the same applies to the Qu'ran for example).

If you are totally new to the Bible the important thing is probably to try and get enough from it at the start that you'll be interested enough to continue. I've read it through many times and some/much of it is pretty impenetrable, obscure, and even dull.

So from this perspective, and note that this isn't a great sequence theologically, I'd go with the book of Acts, the gospel of John, the books of Proverbs and Psalms, and then the letters of John.

As for which versions of the Bible, avoid older ones like the King James (KJV, NKJV) or Revised Standard (RSV, ASV, NRSV); the archaic language and structure will be off-putting. I'd perhaps go with the Contemporary English Version (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+1&version=...) but the linked page will let you see the various translations of the same text using a drop-down.

There is no one ideal version of the Bible but personally I'd avoid any translation used by a single denomination or sect such as the NWT - which is produced by the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I'm meaning this not as a judgement regarding the organisation but as an example of a group whose translation has alternative readings at various doctrinal points (eg the trinity) and it is not worth getting sidetracked by theological disagreements at this stage.

Whatever route you choose be prepared for a hard slog as a casual reader.

For the benefit of other readers, as is mentioned elsewhere the NWT is a translation which amongst Christians is only accepted by the Jehovah's Witnesses. Mainly because they produced it.

It's actually reasonably readable but there are differences in meanings due to the decisions of the translators. This is true with all translations, so not a direct criticism, but the NWT tends to differ on areas where the JW belief system itself differs from the mainstream. So personally I'd suggest avoiding it as it will give the new reader a very exclusive perspective on the faith.

> Is there an agreed on book to start with and an order to follow?

No, so I'll get shot for this but ... read the first (Dune) then stop.

- Total Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Initially this came across as shallow truths masquerading as profundity, especially with his unwillingness/inability to explain himself during discussions. Finally I read enough that some things just 'clicked' into place and my perspectives shifted along with my outlook on life.

- Letters from the Desert by Carlo Carretto (first half).

I was brought up a protestant so was never really exposed to catholic thought in my formative years. When I finally started exploring the classics for myself I found them often overly wordy and mystical, so I moved on to more modern (relatively speaking) works like this and the Way of the Pilgrim too. The simplicity of the writing and the clarity of the thoughts in the first few chapters of Letters from the Desert hit me hard.

- The Quran

A wonderfully phrased book that captures its times very well. Ideally to be read alongside something like Islam: A Short History or Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, both by Karen Armstrong, to provide the context.

As an aside the Qu'ran is available for free online in audio format both as interlinear English/Arabic but also as Arabic only, and as a non-speaker of Arabic I often find listening to it being chanted a very calming and uplifting experience despite having no clue what is being said.

- Getting Real by 37 Signals.

As a programmer/developer/engineer since the late 1980s this was a revelation, bringing a clarity to my own thoughts and feelings about much of the world of enterprise software development. Very obvious points in retrospect that nobody ever (including me) seemed to have realised during my entire career before then.

- Web Copy that Sells by Maria Veloso.

A strange choice, given that there is nothing 'profound' in here. What it is, though, is a very well written book on persuasion which finally got me to see that I'd spent years avoiding 'sales' as something that wasn't for me whereas in reality it's for everyone and we do it all the time.

- The Body by Charles Colson.

Colson was jailed for his part in the Nixon stuff, then became a Christian. It's an incredibly moving book which is not his autobiography but an analysis of what is going wrong with the church. The impact comes from the stories he relates at the start of the chapters (especially the opening ones about 9/11). Those tales gave me an understanding of the potential 'greatness' in people.