Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 184 posts

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#61

Post by lionhearted »

If you're talented and get frustrated with stupid people, you have to read "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa. I mean, you have to.

Musashi was one of the greatest (maybe the greatest) swordsman of all time. He invented a Japanese longblade/shortblade mixed style of swordsmanship, at one point fighting himself out of an ambush when he was attacked by over 30 men. He was undefeated in over 60 duels, including defeating arguably the second best swordsman in Japan at the time while fighting with a wooden oar he carved into a rough swordlike shape.

Here's Musashi's Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi

The book by Eiji Yoshikawa is historical fiction - it's period accurate and follows all of Musashi's most well known story. It fills in some other details we don't know of Musashi's life - how he might have trained, some minor scuffles with bandits of the day, and it added a love story.

The book is exceptional. Musashi has immense amounts of raw talent, but is in conflict with himself in the world, arrogant, keeps getting into problems and trouble until he comes to more mastery and wisdom. Seriously, I read a lot, and this is hands-down my favorite book of all time. It's a hell of an enjoyable read, really pleasant and beautiful, fun and adventurous, but also filled with deep wisdom. It's a great swashbuckling story, but also teaches you about thinking critically, tactics, strategy, training, tradeoffs, and so on. Just a masterpiece. Easily the most influential book of my life.

No affiliate link:

http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572

Whilst on subject, I'll also recommend Husain Haddawy's translation of Arabian Nights, which is uproariously funny and also contains a lot of wisdom, and "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber, which I consider the Bible of small business. I buy a copy of E-Myth and make anyone I'm going to partner with read it before I'll do business with them.

Arabian Nights:

http://www.amazon.com/Arabian-Nights-Norton-Critical-Edition...

E-Myth:

http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou...

Edit: Wow, that's quite a few upvotes pretty quickly. If you pick a copy of one of these and enjoy it, feel free to shoot me an email if you want to chat about it. These books have been huge for my life, and not enough people read, so I don't get to talk books as much as I'd like. Also, people with similar tastes feel free to make recommendations either commenting here or by email. Lurkers too! I'm always looking for great books.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#62

Post by davi »

Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape Brian Hayes

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393329593/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp...

This book is a "how it works" guide to the infrastructure of modernity: the power grid, mining, steel production, etc. Great photographs & readable text. I read it cover to cover and was enriched thereby.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#63

Post by wallflower »

"How Buildings Learn: What happens after they're built" by Stewart Brand (ok, it's about systems and software arch)

"Walt Disney: Triumph of the American Imagination" by Neal Gabler (This is awesome because the 1st third is about his multiple failures)

Any David Macaulay book (breathtaking deconstruction construction)

Any book on child crafts and games, vintage better. (The writing is superb and a lot of activities are excellent)

Any book on network marketing (I'm not involved but have been pitched many times. The talk about funnels for recruiting is realistic).

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#64

Post by kristiandupont »

wooby wrote: post #4

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I am reading that right now, as recommended by I don't know how many people and I have to say that while it started out interesting, I find it increasingly more boring with every page. Which annoys me because it seems that everybody else gets something out of this book that I am simply not.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#65

Post by lionhearted »

staunch wrote: post #22

You will not be wasting your time poking around the great stuff in http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/index.html One of my favorites is Caesar's The Gallic Wars, because it's so amazing that we have his very own account: http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.html Josephus' account of The Jewish Wars is amazing. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is a must-read: http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html

It's amazing how many good historical works are out of copyright and free. I got an Amazon Kindle as a gift, and it's been really wonderful for me.

If you like Roman history, you've got to check out Gibbons' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It's just a masterpiece. I flip through my copy of Meditations from time to time (actually, now I look at it on my Kindle, but I used to flip through my paper copy) and just pick out random quotes. A great work. "It is not the thing itself that disturbs a man, but the man's perception of and reaction to the thing. The thing may not be able to be changed, but a man's perception and reaction may be changed." I'm butchering that quote, but it's incredibly meaningful to me, and I try to reflect on it when things seem to be going wrong or I get inconvenienced.

While talking about classics, there's a lot of good philosophy out of copyright. Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra aren't perfect works and I disagree with a fair bit of it, but there's some absolute jewels in them too.

Lately I've been looking for a decent electronic copy of Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and Kierkegaard's Either/Or, but I've been having a hard time finding copies that are decently formatted and readable.

Also, got any other recommendations Staunch? I'm going to get Gallic Wars, and it seems like you and I have similar taste if you have other recommendations.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#66

Post by tfh »

Here is what comes to my mind a my all favorite books:

  * no exit - jean-paul sartre
  * brave new world - adolous huxley
  * 1984 - george orwell
  * foucault's pendolum - umberto eco
  * l'etranger - albert camus
  * 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - jules vernes

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#69

Post by matt1 »

dschobel wrote: post #49

I'll repost my suggestion from the last "great reads" thread on HN. ---------------------------------------- The Bet by Anton Chekhov You can read it here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bet.shtml It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. It's so fantastically misanthropic, I cannot recommend it enough. The polemic against society at the end is just epic.

I read this story in high school and several years later I had a strong urge to read it again. I couldn't remember the title or the author, so I paid someone $10 on Google Answers to identify it. Highly recommended.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#70

Post by MichaelGG »

makmanalp wrote: post #57

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely: http://www.predictablyirrational.com/ Interesting book on why people act irrationally.

Predictably Irrational is just a "popular" summarized version of work in this area of psychology. If you like it, consider looking at some of the work by Daniel Kahneman:

http://www.amazon.com/Heuristics-Biases-Psychology-Intuitive...

Post reply on HN