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Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

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Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#51

Post by ImaCake »

dusted wrote: post #34

It's probably cliché, and there are so many good books.. I must say "1984" because I read that as a kid, and it was not only the first "real book" i read from cover to cover, but also the one that I felt most strongly influence my thinking.

I know people love 1984 but I found it exceedingly boring when I tried to read it. But it does have some very interesting ideas. My issue with 1984 may have been prior exposure to it's best ideas elsewhere.

Orwell is a great writer, highly recommend both "Homage to Catalonia" and "Animal Farm". Complex topics written in an accessible style.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#52

Post by aristofun »

laumars wrote: post #43
aristofun wrote: post #31

The Bible - as an original source of all types of stories and narratives you’ll find in 99% of all fiction books and movies. New Testament — as an original source of most of moral principles and ideas modern european civilization is based upon (also fundamental stories and narratives).

I’ve read the Bible and frankly I wouldn’t recommend. Putting aside that the different translations can sometimes drastically change the meaning of some stories, the English Bible as a whole is harder to grok than Shakespeare. Then there are issues about how it was written by man, in the literal sense. Female testaments were left out. And some of the male testaments were only included hundreds of years after the deat…

I didn’t say it was an easy read. For good or for bad - those books require efforts.

But once you dig to at least 1% of the stories and ideas - you save weeks skipping tons of shallow books out there.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#53

Post by ricardbejarano »

lbacaj wrote: post #30

The best two books for engineers are 1) “How to win friends and influence people” 2) “Never split the difference” The first one will teach you how to work with people. The second will teach you how to negotiate salaries, raises, and promotions among other things. I don’t recommend many technical books because engineers can find all of that on the internet and are much more at risk of being bad at people stuff.

Chris Voss (Never Split the Difference) is largely responsible for my income level today.

Absolutely life-changing book.

He also made a MasterClass.com video course with the same content, if you'd rather watch than read.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#54

Post by tosstoyevsky »

kh_hk wrote: post #38
Shared404 wrote: post #14

Not for everyone, but those who it is for very much should read this - but not without understanding that it can be quite triggering at times. : The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma -Bessel van der Kolk It's not an easy read for said people, but very worthwhile. Was introduced at a friends place and got a little ways in, waiting to pick up my own copy now. Edit: Also "The Art of Wa…

Not a book I would recommend without a trigger warning.

For the Art of War? If you need a trigger warning for a book that’s been around for 2500 years you should stick to Golden Books.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#55

Post by backtoyoujim »

aristofun wrote: post #31

The Bible - as an original source of all types of stories and narratives you’ll find in 99% of all fiction books and movies. New Testament — as an original source of most of moral principles and ideas modern european civilization is based upon (also fundamental stories and narratives).

Or th4ey

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#58

Post by RheingoldRiver »

Not everyone but since this is HN I'll say Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors. It's intended for technical writers as an audience, and there's a couple chapters developers can skip that are about formatting with pretty diagrams and using DITA and stuff, but at least 80% of it is applicable to all kinds of writing that devs will have to do, and everyone needs to be able to communicate with the written word effectively. Literally every developer should read this book (and everyone should read some writing book relevant to their own field). It's amazing.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#59

Post by mek6800d2 »

BoumTAC wrote: post #29

For European, I would recommend Basic Economics from Thomas Sowell. To have a total opposite mindset of the socialist we have here was mind blowing for me.

Yes, Sowell has that effect on people. Once you get your mind back together, I recommend that you (and anyone) read Zola's masterpiece, Germinal, a testament to the virtues of capitalism.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#60

Post by hertzdog »

The power of stupidity, Giancarlo Livraghi

Quite unknown, I discovered it more than 10 years ago. It is an easily and pleasantly readable book: I discovered my stupid actions, and I still use it to evaluate what I am going to do. It isn’t a survival guide or a “how to” manual, but it offers practical solutions to improve those human qualities that counteract stupidity.

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