Ask HN: What are your favorite books? I'm bored

"The Coming of the Third Reich" from Richard J. Evans

I read it recently and it did changed the way I look at the politics and government now. It made me fully understand that things like separation/accumulation of powers are really important. As in when activists of all kinds complained about such set-ups before, I treated it only abstract theoretical problems. Not anymore, I see the point now. The Third Reich did not happen overnight as it seemed from high school version of it, it was made possible by thousands tiny steps by varying parties.

There were other things to learn from that book too, but the above was the most important. It is a first part of a trilogy and whole of it is worth reading. That first part was the most eye opening to me through.

Thinking, fast and slow by Kahnemann.

Come summer, my recommendation for best book I ever read shifts to Asimov's Foundation series. Light, fast paced, brilliant in the use of sci-fi to raise interesting sociological questions. It makes a great vacation read.

Ask again in four months for the serious stuff...

Bertrand Russel – A History of Western Philosophy.

Easily my most favorite non-fiction book. Even though there are some flaws in the treatment of some philosophers (and their models) here and there (esp. 19th Century ones – but it might just be that I'm more familiar with these myself), it's a great read: Well written, thorough, and never shy with his own opinion. The chapter on scholastic philosophy was an eye-opener for me, as was the part about the 11th-Century church reforms.

Before I read this book, I rarely cared about pre-Kantian philosophy, as I thought it to be outdated and not really relevant anymore. Russel encouraged me to re-discover the philosophical models from a cultural-historical point of view – something that sounds obvious to me now, but at the time I discovered the book (in my early twenties) it was not.

Herman Hesse - Steppenwolf. Actually everything by Hesse.