The book may be on any topic. Relating to your profession or not. A book that had a significant impact on you or your life in any manner possible.
You can name multiple books though if that is the case with you.
Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
1–10 of 50 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#2Meditations by Marcus Aurelius was a really good one for me. There's a translation by Gregory Hays that's pretty easy to consume after you get through the first section. I think it's a unique perspective on how to react to the issues of life.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#3The Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.
In my mid twenties, this book helped me pay off all my student loans and build an emergency fund with 4-6 months of runway. It changed the way I think about money.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi.
This built on top of Dave Ramsey’s by helping me create a system to build my wealth through investing and still continue to save towards future goals/emergencies.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#4Meditations by Marcus Aurelius was a really good one for me. There's a translation by Gregory Hays that's pretty easy to consume after you get through the first section. I think it's a unique perspective on how to react to the issues of life.
Yes! Gregory Hayes’ Meditations translation is definitely easier to approach than others I’ve seen. Would recommend as well.
I would also recommend A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine to get a good intro/overview of Stoicism in general.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#5- A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul: explores themes of belonging, ownership, home, independence, escape, freedom.
- Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: explores love in it's many forms.
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry: about love, the absurdity of life, beginnings and ends.
- Miles by Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe: about jazz and the life of it's greatest creator.
- Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson: ramblings of a pope.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#6Sapiens by Yuval Harari was a life-changing book for me.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#7The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.
The Global Empire by Alexander Bard & Jan Söderqvist.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#8I read Finite & Infinite Games by James P. Carse after coming across it in a comment on HN. It's one of those books that changes how you view interactions with others, and puts things into perspective.
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is a close second. I read this when I was going through a particularly difficult time in life, and it has stuck with me since.
David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity definitely changed how I look at skepticism and pessimism in general (a weird take-away, I agree).
There's only one book that I often find myself going back to, which is Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha. It's a very profound work IMO, and provides a sense of grounding to me.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#9Still working on it but I think 'Sometimes a Great Notion' by Ken Kesey will meet this criteria when I am finished with it.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?
#10The Greatest Show on Earth, The Selfish Gene, The Sixth Extinction, and now The Origin of Species have/are shaping the way I interpret my surroundings and how they evolve over type.
The Elements of Typographic Style, though I'm yet to finish it, has helped inform my view of text layout in every day life.
Never Split the Difference will definitely continue to be useful in terms of negotiating all kinds of situations in life.