Slaughterhouse-Five, Galapagos, Sirens of Titan
Basically, any Kurt Vonnegut book that isn't Cat's Cradle (good but overrated).
Bias note: I'm still young, but these shaped me easily.
Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
31–40 of 144 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#32'Impro' by Keith Jonstone.
It appears, superficially, to be a handbook about the art of improvisation in theatre. But it's actually a book packed with wisdom about the ontology of creativity, the facilitation of learning, and how most human interaction is an interplay of "statua transactions".
The chapter on status is alone worth reading, and something I wish I were aware of as a younger man.
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#33I wish I hadn’t ever read Ayn Rand’s books. They were a waste of time and a distraction for too many years. I’ll say this though, I’m glad I grew up and I’m glad that when I got to the end of the Fountainhead I had already figured out what was wrong with her. If not for that, I wouldn’t have recovered.
You actually managed to finish them? I couldn't haha
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#34I was so stubborn that any book, even one that foretold my exact future, would not have gotten through to me. Even now I struggle to impart any pearls of wisdom into my daily life.
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#35The Divided Self + The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise + The Politics of the Family - all by RD Laing
Civilization and its Discontents - Freud
Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher
Gateless Gate - Mu-men? Very old Chinese mystical text that somehow resonated w me considerably..
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson
Inherent Vice (currently reading and enjoying a lot! - loved the movie so much I got the book but I think I enjoy the book way more even) - Thomas Pynchon
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#36Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#37I wish I hadn’t ever read Ayn Rand’s books. They were a waste of time and a distraction for too many years. I’ll say this though, I’m glad I grew up and I’m glad that when I got to the end of the Fountainhead I had already figured out what was wrong with her. If not for that, I wouldn’t have recovered.
I’ve heard this, too. For those of us, like myself, that don’t realistically expect to read her books, what was wrong with her and why do you regret reading them?
This links to a lot of good stuff:
https://nintil.com/2016/04/09/why-ayn-rand-is-not-and-ought-...
As a philosophy / ethics person who has studied and read a lot of philosophers and never her, even from basic argument structures of hers there are fallacies galore that show no sign of being addressed.
I think the view is a magnet towards selfish people looking for justification of their views. I think her arguments, when viewed objectively (ironically), have the effect mentioned in the top level comment of pushing people away from the pitfall conclusions she makes.
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#38I read many books on philosophy, sociology, and tons of literature when I was young. I wish I would have read Algebra 1-3, Analysis 1-2, Mathematical Statistics etc.
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#39"Letters from a Stoic" by Seneca "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins "Deep Work" by Cal Newport "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Jared Diamond
+1 for The Selfish Gene, one of the best books I've read. If you have any interest in the process of evolution/natural selection, I highly recommend it. It's not as "political" or explicitly atheistic as some of Dawkins' more recent work either, so people who have a negative opinion of that sort of thing shouldn't be turned off by his name being on it.
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?
#40Moby Dick
I'm halfway through it. I'd held off on reading it for years just due to its reputation but I'm finding it incredibly enjoyable, humorous, and in many ways not at all what I was expecting.