Ask HN: What book(s) changed your life?

It is an almost stream-of-consciousness dissection of the social, cultural, geographic, and hydrologic history of an area that most would write-off as desert wasteland. It gave me a portal into the complexity of an ordinary place and how it is viewed through the lens of a genius.

The Places In Between - Rory Stewart

An introduction to how radically different and complex societies outside-the-fold of the Western world can be, and how ancient many of their traditions and way of life are. It also reminded me that real adventure necessitates risk.

The Great War for Civilisation - Robert Fisk

Taught me that whatever I know about foreign conflict, I know nothing about foreign conflict.

The Best and the Brightest - David Halberstam

Provides a template for how the US government embarks upon adventures abroad. Taught me how stupid tremendously smart people can be when you get them all together in one room.

I came across it aged about 19. He speaks about 10,000 things I'd experienced but assumed couldn't be put into words. And he's always very inspirational. I read in him daily for 10 years or so, this and his other writings, and still never go long without, although by now it's in my blood. John Jay Chapman said it well:

It is nothing for any man sitting in his chair to be overcome with the sense of the immediacy of life, to feel the spur of courage, the victory of good over evil, the value, now and forever, of all great-hearted endeavor. Such moments come to us all. But for a man to sit in his chair and write what shall call up these forces in the bosoms of others – that is desert, that is greatness. To do this was the gift of Emerson. The whole earth is enriched by every moment of converse with him. The shows and shams of life become transparent, the lost kingdoms are brought back, the shutters of the spirit are opened, and provinces and realms of our own existence lie gleaming before us.

Going through life you naturally learn more and more about dealing with people and situations, but reading about the why is fascinating and definitely gives you a fresh perspective on things.