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Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

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Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#221

Post by emodendroket »

pmoriarty wrote: post #74
keyP wrote: post #34

Bhagavad Gita for me, both, personally and professionally https://www.ancient.eu/Bhagavad_Gita/

The Bhagavad Gita is a tremendously beautiful and profound work, and it's a tragedy that it (and the whole Mahabarata , really, of which the Gita is only a small part) are not more widely read in the West. However, I see its core messages as deeply problematic. The entire work is a justification of violence, obedience, and traditional social roles. It's simply amazing to me that Gandhi, the most famous advocate of no…

> However, I see its core messages as deeply problematic. The entire work is a justification of violence, obedience, and traditional social roles. It's simply amazing to me that Gandhi, the most famous advocate of non-violence in history, was a huge fan of it.

Well, one of the interesting things about religious texts is how divergently people understand them, even when they're being totally sincere.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#222

Post by alasdair_ »

pmoriarty wrote: post #53
SirensOfTitan wrote: post #15

Probably Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger or Prometheus Rising back in 2010. The “reality tunnel” concept has defined much of my personal and intellectual exploration of the past 10 years. “ When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented. We tend to think they are mad, or that they are crooks trying to con us in some way, or…

Cosmic Trigger was great, but I must say it's hard to speak of Robert Anton Wilson without mentioning his magnum opus, The Illuminatus Trilogy .

The Illuminatus Trilogy is my favorite book of all time.

A lot of people have a hard time with it, considering it nonsense and giving up a fifth of the way through. I'd strongly suggest sticking with it. There is a reason is seems like nonsense and the reason is given at the end of the book - the whole purpose of all of it is to reprogram your brain. It's a journey worth taking.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#223

Post by doctorcroc »

raamdev wrote: post #64

Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, because it made me a better father; Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because it taught me of the importance of something that I’d occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it…

Egoscue was a paradigm shift for me. I had never considered posture as a critical factor in health, and since reading his books, I've gone down the rabbit hole of posture and myofascial therapy, and I'm appaled at how ignored this domain is in society. Most of us are walking around with so much energy trapped in the tension of our bodies, and our knowledge work further disembodies us. To anyone reading this, I highly recommend buying The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion, it's like 6 bucks on Amazon, and will change your life.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#225

Post by mrpotato »

Fiction:

* Jack Reacher: I've read all but the latest one. I would recommend it if you liked the story in both movies.

* Discworld: I'm currently on The Truth. These books have been really entertaining and witty.

Non-Fiction:

* The Doors to Perception by Aldous Huxley: The book covers Aldous' thought about his experience while under the influence of mescaline.

edit: formatting

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#226

Post by emodendroket »

wry_discontent wrote: post #199

Overthrow, by Stephen Kinzer really changed the way I perceive the US position in the world and made me question a lot of things I learned in school. I also really enjoyed Manufacturing Consent, which is prime reading right now for anybody in the US because it's about media manipulation in free society.

I definitely second Manufacturing Consent! What a great book; how many books of political theory hold up that well 30 years later? I would recommend anybody who has any interest at all in current events read it.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#227

Post by palerdot »

The Count of Monte Cristo - This is one breathtaking epic. I have been putting off reading this novel for quite some time and occasionally see this name popping up in HN too, but never gave a serious thought for giving it a go. Was I wrong! This is an epic in its true sense, and you will feel a sense of amazement as you progress through the novel. I'm quite a reader, and I have not experienced such amazement when reading any other book (atleast in recent times). Perhaps, I read this book when I was pretty down and kind of hopeless where my life is taking me, because this book is all about HOPE. Even if you are not a reader, the storyline itself will beat any of the entertaining stories out there. But this book is more than its storyline. At the minimum, you will learn to hope which is a big takeaway from this novel. If you are on the fence reading this, just go for it.

Other books which I find interesting

- The Slight Edge

- Sapiens

- The Master and Margarita (apart from the fact it is a great novel, this is so wickedly funny )

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#228

Post by emodendroket »

lucb1e wrote: post #173

Factfulness is the most impactful book I've ever read. It's about making decisions based on facts rather than feelings and setting a few common misconceptions straight. Such as that the world is going to shit (we've been doing great in reducing worldsuck), violence is increasing (it's not), that most people on the planet don't get vaccinated (globally, 90% of one-year-olds have some vaccination), etc. It provides pra…

This is the first I heard of Factfulness, but I have heard some similar arguments before. My question though, is: does it really matter? Are people in the Rust Belt going to be mollified by the revelation that, on average globally, life is much better? Or are they going to compare themselves with their parents and conclude that the world is going to hell regardless of what the averages say? Is the latter response unreasonable? These questions seem to be of urgent import in many democracies around the world.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#229

Post by dlkf »

Reference and Existence - Saul Kripke

These lectures were given in 1973 but they weren't properly published until 7 years ago. Kripke was probably the most influential philosopher of language of the second half of the past century. Reference and Existence is largely about how to talk about fictional entities and empty names. Kripke's philosophy is a really nice demonstration of applying rigorous logical thought to domains outside math/science, without getting mired in over-engineered abstractions and mathturbation.

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