Ask HN: Good books? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#71

Post by Symmetry » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 1:24 PM UTC

Trying to confine myself to books I haven't seen others mention:

"Guns, Votes, and Democracy" is a wonderful book about democracy in the third world and is both insightful and surprisingly readable.

"The Retreat to Commitment" is the only philosophy book I'd actually recommend.

"The Design of Everyday Things" is a book for anyone who makes or uses things.

"The Transparent Society" is a thought provoking book on the future of privacy.

"The Mystery of Capital" is a book on the importance of non-corrupt government in successful capitalism, a good point of view to have in addition to Rand.

"The Strategy of Conflict" on how to use game theory in the real world, and negotiations especially.

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#72

Post by GHFigs » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 1:29 PM UTC

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gigerenzer. Ignore the breezy Gladwellesque title, it's much better than that and touches on philosophy, human behavior and economics. He presents an alternative view of the same sorts of phenomena that Kahneman & Tversky's work in behavioral economics, about which I might say more but my nephew is tugging at my sleeve.

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#73

Post by arethuza » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 1:41 PM UTC

Kliment wrote: post #50

arethuza wrote: post #42

Someone mentions Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" below - which is very good. However, can I strongly recommend his book "Collapse" - which is rather thought provoking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_... On a related note, a novel that looks at some interesting very long lived organizations and has some interesting philosophical components I'd recommend Neal Stephenson's Anathem: h…

I loved G,G&S, but found Collapse disappointing in comparison. There was a lot of unnecessary personal gushing about his home state which had no contribution to the work and undermined the credibility of the argument. It picks up after that though. It's a much more political and argumentative book than G,G&S, and seems to force a view on the reader (a view I happen to agree with, but still felt uncomfortable with the…

YMMV - I rather liked the very personal descriptions of Montana. By comparison I found G,G&S rather dry.

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#74

Post by nsfmc » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 1:59 PM UTC

I recently read Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49", which is amazing and dense and hilarious. Highly recommended, but it's not an easy read, so be forewarned. It's short enough that you can easily power through it on a plane ride or whenever you have downtime.

A little while back, i started reading DFW's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," a collection of shortish essays. DFW's writing is a bit like Douglas Adams where you really start to think and write like he does if you're not careful.

Both Pynchon and Wallace though, have a ridiculous command of the english language, so it makes for really engaging but sometimes challenging reading.

Have fun!

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#75

Post by sabat » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 2:09 PM UTC

jakevoytko wrote: post #62

If you liked "Atlas Shrugged", you will love "East of Eden" by George Steinbeck. It has some passages on self-determination that puts anything found in Rand to shame. It's a tome, and it starts slow - do yourself a favor and make it through the introduction of one of the villains, Kathy (chapter 8 or so). It doesn't slow down after that. "The Watchmen" by Alan Moore. It may be a graphic novel, but the issues it raise…

Isn't that John Steinbeck rather than George?

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#76

Post by esspem » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 2:28 PM UTC

1) If you like Atlas Shrugged, then maybe you will like "For a new liberty" by Murray Rothbard (the founder of anarcho-capitalism movement): http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp

That's a deduction of libertarian principles from non-aggression axiom and application of that principles to current problems.

2) If you are interested in philosophy, then read "History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russel. Unfortunately It's written from the socialists point of view, but if you ignore Russels' left views, it's an excellent introduction to the history of philosophy.

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#77

Post by jakevoytko » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 2:41 PM UTC

sabat wrote: post #75

jakevoytko wrote: post #62

If you liked "Atlas Shrugged", you will love "East of Eden" by George Steinbeck. It has some passages on self-determination that puts anything found in Rand to shame. It's a tome, and it starts slow - do yourself a favor and make it through the introduction of one of the villains, Kathy (chapter 8 or so). It doesn't slow down after that. "The Watchmen" by Alan Moore. It may be a graphic novel, but the issues it raise…

Isn't that John Steinbeck rather than George?

Yes. Somehow that survived three rereads. Thanks for the correction!

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#78

Post by sahglie » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 2:44 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #41

Most books by Hermann Hesse, really... Narziss&Goldmund changed my perspective on life. If you have anything artistic in you, it's a must-read. Steppenwolf, Siddharta and the Glass Bead Game are other must-reads. Gabriel Garcia Marques, One hundred years of solitude. Practically all of Jorge Luis Borges' short stories. Mind-bending. Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. Michael Ende's Never Ending Story. Enj…

Anything by Hesse will change how you think! "Demian" is also a must read.

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#79

Post by DuncanIdaho » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 2:46 PM UTC

Reading first and second Dune trilogy would give you a lot of what you are asking for.

Also I would recommend reading Alamut from Vladimir Bartol.

For more serious works - I would offer Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy.

Re: Ask HN: Good books?

#80

Post by jaywhy » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 2:47 PM UTC

Karl Popper's 'The Open Society and Its Enemies'.

From the outside Popper's book looks as just a simple attack on Plato, Hegel and Marx, however at it's core is one of the greatest defenses of democracy, liberalism, and rational thought ever written. As you read it, you'll find even though the failed political and economic philosophies of Hegel, Marx, and Plato have very few followers in modern politics today. The methodologies they used, to "discover" their philosophies, still remain and are utterly rampant across the whole political spectrum.

I hope you enjoy Popper as I did when I first read him. The book was like an inflection point for me, before it I was someone else, after it I was changed forever. Only great books can do something like that and this is one of them.