“How to change your mind” by Michael Pollen. I read a lot of books, and this is one that caused a change in my life. The succinct summary is that psychedelics are misunderstood and there is more and more research showing their potential, especially in the treatment of trauma. I had a difficult childhood. It’s something I still struggle with personal interactions because of this, even after years of therapy. After rea…
Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
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Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#102Blood Meridian (or The Evening Redness in the West) by Cormac McCarthy. Quickly became my favorite book after reading it a second time. I've never read a book with more effective language.
I second this, it’s incredible, so well crafted.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#103A Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell.
A good book regardless of what you think of Sowell’s politics.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really liked the first one. How is the second one? Sort of been avoiding it because of how much I liked the first, and not wanting to be disappointed.
Not OP, but I read both of them too. The second is not as good as the first, got a little too weird (already a weird setup as you can assume from the first book). It's enjoyable but filled with a lot of tropes, compared to the first one which was quite original IMO.
Yeah I agree with this, it gets more into the sci-fi horror genre which some people might like and others not. I would say though that it’s still a very good book and if you liked the first I would definitely recommend.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#105‘The Magus’, by John Fowles. Masterful.
I have only read a few chapters but I highly recommend ‘The Beginning of Infinity’ by David Deutsch, it’s just so interesting!
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#106I really really enjoyed "The Comanche Empire" https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300151176/comanche-empir... It took a long time to get through (very dense, academic) but was a sprawling look at a powerful indigenous culture that I knew nothing about. Plus, it was enlightening and a bit foreboding to learn how an empire could be at the very height of its power and then, through circumstance, climate, demographics, a…
Any idea how it compares to Empire of the Summer Moon?
My library has that one not, your suggestion.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#107Foundation- this book blew my mind. What I found fascinating about it is that it’s a science fiction book but at its core it’s about how to resolve Geopolitical issues using diplomacy. It feels like this should be a primer for anyone who wants to understand and improve modern geopolitics.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#108A Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell. A good book regardless of what you think of Sowell’s politics.
Mine would be "Black Rednecks and White Liberals". Illuminating to say the least.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#109The Overstory by Richard Powers. A few touching stories about trees and Americans. One of the best things I've read this decade, perhaps this lifetime.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?
#110The Dispossessed , by Ursula K. Le Guin. It identified so many of the "edges" of society and how I think about and interact with the world, on a daily basis. Without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe even the best. The only other book that came close this year was Robert Sapolsky's A Primate's Memoir .
Highly recommend Left Hand of Darkness if you haven’t read it yet
One of those books that if you just told me what it was about, I wouldn't care, but reading it was a very enthralling journey and a positive experience.