Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books? • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by zen53 » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:26 PM UTC

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

#52

Post by awolf » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:27 PM UTC

Atlas Shrugged bu Ayn Rand

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

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

#53

Post by GeoffWozniak » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:27 PM UTC

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

Second for Meditations. I'm slowly reading it, reflecting on the passages. Seems like the way to read it.

It's a bit like an ancient Roman Twitter account.

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

#54

Post by sshumaker » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:34 PM UTC

Guns, Germs and Steel - It will change the way you think about the course of human development and the forces of history.

The Innovator's Dilemma can be summed up in two paragraphs but is still worth reading - it explains why giant companies fail to keep innovating.

Stumbling upon happiness - how people's perception of what makes them happy has little basis in what actually makes them happy - and why.

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

#55

Post by a-priori » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:34 PM UTC

I recommend The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker.

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

#56

Post by pinstriped_dude » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:40 PM UTC

Can everyone commenting on this thread also add 2 lines on -

1) What the book is about 2) Why do you recommend it?

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

#57

Post by makmanalp » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:41 PM UTC

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely: http://www.predictablyirrational.com/

Interesting book on why people act irrationally.

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

#58

Post by pwk » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:41 PM UTC

The Gold Bug Variations, by Richard Powers: a love story that touches on music, genetics, history, art... lots of themes that HN readers might appreciate.

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

#59

Post by chasingsparks » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:43 PM UTC

A lot of the classics mentioned can be found for free in .txt, .html, or ePub via Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

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

#60

Post by JangoSteve » Mon, Mar 29, 2010, 5:47 PM UTC

My favorite non-software books (I've mentioned these a few times around HN before):

* Atlas Shrugged (also good: The Fountainhead) by Ayn Rand

* Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

* Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Freedman

* The Plague by Albert Camus