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

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171–180 of 365 posts

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

#171
I don’t think I can suggest a singular book everyone should read, but I can say which book probably had the biggest effect on my way of reading.

I’m dyslexic and growing up reading was always a challenge, despite doing well at school and university I was a slow and uncritical reader. My girlfriend (now wife) was teaching The Great Gatsby to a class and practically made me read it. The process of reading that book and discussing it with her completely changed the way I read, it was an enlightening and incredibly enjoyable experience. It was as much about the discussions we had about the book as the book itself.

So my recommendation is find a book that you can read and discuss in depth with someone else. For me it has become a delight for us to both read a book and then talk in depth about it. You gain so much more insight.

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

#172

I decided to learn/understand why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. This year, I’m planning to read the books, at least, of the top 5 religions of the world. Read Bhagavad Gita[1], had read the Bible[2] in hotel stays but will read it again, and the Quran[3] is waiting in the book-shelf. No, not religious at all; in fact, very far from it. Some time back, someone did a nice…

May I recommend the Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast? It’s a podcast that goes through the entirety of the book of Matthew, but without the sermon. Instead he covers historical, social and cultural context to help people better understand how the original audience would have read it and come to a better understanding of what the Bible says. Again: without the sermon.

His YouTube content is great too

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

#175
The Nature of Consciousness, by Rupert Spira.

If you set aside your preconceived notions and read it as a series of hypotheses that must be confirmed within your own direct experience, it will transform your experience of reality and set you on the (pathless) path to enlightenment.

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

#178

I decided to learn/understand why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. This year, I’m planning to read the books, at least, of the top 5 religions of the world. Read Bhagavad Gita[1], had read the Bible[2] in hotel stays but will read it again, and the Quran[3] is waiting in the book-shelf. No, not religious at all; in fact, very far from it. Some time back, someone did a nice…

As a non-religious myself, I can't understand how you found the willpower to read the Bible and even want to read it again. I tried reading some chapters and was either bored to death or couldn't understand the text because of how badly it is translated/written.

Religious myself. Agree that having a modern translation can make a great difference in readability. I've read parts of the King James translation, and the language makes it a though read.

Personally I enjoy this translation: https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/study-bible/books/ I read it in Dutch, but it's available in multiple languages.

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

#179
Someone else mentioned it, but I'll add some meat to the reasoning: Taleb's Fooled by Randomness.

He's cooked quite a lot of soup on this stone, and he's built a comically aggressive persona, but the original book is still quite relevant.

Being aware of randomness will change how you think of just about everything, not just financial markets. Jobs, relationships, rivalries, morality, competence, and so on.

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

#180

Okay at the risk of being offensive, all the comments before mine are made by overly intellectual fools. I'm not usually so insulting--but as a father of two, if my 3 year old and 1.5 year old could only read one book, it would have to be "Oh, the places you'll go" by Dr. Suess. Sorry to stomp on Das Kapital and its ilk, but if you get only one book, I can't imagine a better first message to convey than the endless p…

If you squint enough, Das Kapital is the extended version of "Oh, the places you'll go" :)
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