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Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#731

Post by kbelder »

xlaacid wrote: post #371

Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs bio. I legit disliked Steve Jobs. I could not put this book down for the week it took to read. Then I became an Issacson junky. He just digs into the minutia and makes it digestible. Currently reading Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Will appeal to philosophy nerds mostly. Fascinating how a kid of 26 changed the fields of philosophy, mathematics, and economics, but no one really knows of him…

>I legit disliked Steve Jobs.

Do you mean before reading the bio, during, or after?

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#732

Post by kukkeliskuu »

Keith Johnstone: Impro

Nominally about improvisation theatre, but has many insights about human behavior you will not find anywhere else, especially about status hierarchies.

Maurice Nicoll: Psychological Commentaries On The Teaching Of Gurdjieff And Ouspensky, Parts 1-6

This book is probably the best introduction to the teachings of Gurdjieff that have quite literally changed my life. Gurdjieff was a spiritual teacher whose approach is quite different from organized religions, new age gurus and such.

This approach is for people who have experienced or have a sense that there is something that the materialistic world view cannot explain, but feel that existing religions are lacking, for example they require you to believe in things that do not make sense.

In this approach there is no need to believe anything. You become convinced by your own experiences about some fundamental truths about human organization and capabilities, allowing you to start learning more.

You could say that it is "preparatory work", allowing you to learn enough to be able to discern helpful teachings from those that are less helpful.

The book is out of print. To get a physical copy you need to order it used from Amazon. Usually they are sold one book at a time. Just get any one book, there is no need to buy the full set. The books record individual discussions, and the same topics repeat in all the books. If the book resonates, I recommend that you continue with In Search of Miraculous by Ouspensky.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#733

Post by tb_technical »

015a wrote: post #696
tb_technical wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, and I don't know who he is either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_Star_Codex Its at least a bit interesting that this idea that "Ayn Rand exists as a roundabout litmus test for assholes" is quite weird, one I've never heard before, except from him. To arrive independently at the exact same, weird conclusion, there must be something to it.

If you want to believe that I'm this person there's nothing I can say to dissuade you.

But I'm not him.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#734

Post by mcphage »

jq-r wrote: post #122
mcphage wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ready Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum?

I've managed to get about 1/3 in but found it boring and messy. That was years ago so I might give it another shot. Thanks for reminding me about that book.

It took me a few tries as well, but when I finally got through it I loved it more than Name of the Rose.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#735

Post by TheFlyingFish »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #362

These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars. I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me. I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read. Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books ar…

I'm with you! I've always had a hard time finding Literary Works anything but a total slog. Recently I tried The Road by Cormac McCarthy and just couldn't get through it. Far too grim for my taste.

Anyway, if this is where to share our trashy fantasy guilty pleasures, I recently discovered and devoured the Cradle series by Will Wight. Fun if you're at all into "progression fantasy" (also known as LitRPG) where the characters go through a very clearly-delineated "leveling up" process.

Also the only books I've ever run across with outtakes at the end, which I thought was fun.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#737

Post by wakawaka28 »

llamaimperative wrote: post #16

Henry George’s Progress & Poverty conducted what can only be described as a coup on my worldview, and I am not alone in that experience. It is an incredible argument that will just utterly transform how you understand a walk down the street. If you’ve been seeing references to the Land Value Tax (LVT) here on HN, this is the book that originated the concept. Like most conceptual breakthroughs, it didn’t emerge solely…

Taxing land is definitely not a revolutionary concept. What made George famous is that he wrote a manifesto that blamed the "rich" land owners for all the ills of society, and proposed that solving the problem would be as simple as levying another tax. It sounds good but has little substance or relation to actual economics.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#738

Post by Dove »

qingcharles wrote: post #448
Dove wrote: post #128

There can be only one answer to that - the Bible . Twenty years ago, I was convinced the content alone justified the claims of a divine origin, which opinion has only grown stronger in the years since. Even if you don't believe in it, it is worth reading as literature - an extraordinarily epic story, and a lot of stuff to say about humanity and divinity along the way. Everything else, comparatively, seems to me like…

I'm atheist-agnostic, but I've read the Bible several times and the Qu'ran twice. I think it is important to have at least a passing knowledge of these books, and TBH, as long as you cherry-pick, there is a lot of good life advice in there. I'm fascinated by both books for their history and authorship, though. Who wrote them? Why did they write them? How did they write them? What parts of their content is backed by h…

There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy

I know, right? These works are deeply mysterious and not to be dismissed lightly. I remember coming away from the Bhagavad Gita with the same sense of Who? What?? How??? What on earth?

An experience not to be missed, to be sure. The world is full of the bizarre and inexplicable, and would surely be diminished by a need to explain everything.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#739

Post by m463 »

TheFlyingFish wrote: post #730
m463 wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I prefer junky fantasy books. Kindle books like that are what fill in the gaps in my free time. One recent fantasy series I liked was The Good Guys/The Bad Guys by Eric Ugland. Somehow kept me turning pages. some others (not fantasy) Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin; But sometimes there is a lot of dreck to wade through. Been thinking of making a "stop reading and…

The problem with a "kill list" like that is that most of these overused tropes are overused because originally, they worked really well. E.g. if you strictly followed the first item on your list, you'd miss out on the Belgariad, which is really quite good (in my opinion, and that of the GP poster, at least. I'm personally less sold on the Malloreon, it's a bit too much of a retread for my taste.) That said, I do agre…

I think I need a "kill list" when I'm just not engaged with the book.

There have actually been plenty of books that probably had elements on the list, but were thought provoking, entertaining, or had excellent character development or some other novelty that I didn't even think of stopping.

It's also interesting to look at the list when you're thinking about continuing with book 2 or book 3.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#740

Post by tb_technical »

jrflowers wrote: post #722
tb_technical wrote: post #691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah as I've said before - don't remember much of the book. But freedom of association isn't exactly a concept the rand lovers have a monopoly over.

So to clarify here, you don’t know what the book is about — but you are confident enough in your knowledge of the Correct Feelings a person should have about it — that you hang the futures of your social interactions on that calculus? Of course Rand lovers don’t have a monopoly over freedom of association. That said, doing something that looks antisocial and silly from the outside and then responding to the lightest…

Dude I read it in 8th grade. That was close to 30 years ago. All I remember about the book was the rant about cigarette brands at the train station and some notions about selfishness being a moral good or some such nonsense. It didn't speak to me then, and every time I've been dared to read it I've been bored to sleep.

Now as for why I do this? This book creates such a wild reaction in people that it's an effective tool for sorting out radicals, purity commissars, and generally annoying people. And it works.

I don't actually care about the book. I don't understand why people care about the book. I care about keeping pains in the ass out of my life. And, let's be honest here, the feeling is clearly mutual with some of these people.

And people here clutching at pearls over a white lie?

People find ways to self select with all sorts of methods. Mine doesn't involve immutable characteristics, and I prefer it that way.

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