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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?

#61

Post by kkoncevicius »

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…

I read it recently and didn't like it that much. 1/3 of the book is author praising himself for what he had accomplished, another 1/3 are success stories from his patients and one-sided presentation of research that agrees with his points. The rest 1/3 of the book I found interesting.

As many modern books - it suffers from lack of focus; my opinion.

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

#64

Post by [deleted] »

aristofun wrote: post #52
laumars wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by dusted »

ImaCake wrote: post #51
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.

Yea, I'm not sure how well it'd have fared with me if I'd read it in my 20's, but at 13, it was mostly new stuff to me (this was also before The Internet was really so much a thing, so my exposure to ideas was somewhat limited).. I did also enjoy the dystopian style described, I still remember it described the hallway as "smelling like cabbage" and I pondered the significance of this and found that cabbage was "poor people food" and other such details that enriched my experience, but yeah.. I'd be surprised if some single book could introduce wholly novel and interesting ideas into an informed adult in 2022. LaVeys bible would be a healthy read for a lot of people I think, but it's kind of difficult to convince people to read that one..

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

#66

Post by Shared404 »

tosstoyevsky wrote: post #54
kh_hk wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, the first book I recommended.

The above commenter is very right - that's the role I'd intended the line beneath it to fill, though it clearly doesn't.

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

#69

Post by keiferski »

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).

Agreed. The King James version especially is full of "Huh, so that's where that phrase came from" moments. If you like literature at all, definitely read The Book.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bible

In terms of literary quality, I especially recommend Ecclesiastes and the Gospel of John.

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