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Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#53
War with the Newts (1936) by Karel Čapek (of R.U.R. fame). Classical sci-fi novel and political satire in which a new intelligent breed of Newts are taking over the world and no-one realizes before it's too late. Still relevant today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_with_the_Newts

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#54
Lots of good essays already, so I'll chime in with some literature/fiction suggestions off the top of my head:

- Borges, Ficciones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficciones); that's the quintessence of mind-blowing literature: an unparalleled mix of genius, culture and crazy imagination.

- Celine, Journey to the End of the Night; a harsh, hopeless journey to the bottom of humanity. It's not an easy read even though the style is so simple. Think Houellebecq, but much better :)

- Dostoyevsky; I was obsessed with him when I was younger. "Notes from the underground" is one of the best introductions to existential nihilism I can think of. "The Idiot" one of the few books that made me cry.

- The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony; if you're into Greek literature, this book will become your Bible; it requires a lot of attention and dedication though, it's incredibly dense.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#55
Crazy to Grasp:

- Hermann Hesse - The Glass Bead Game

- Hofstädter - Gödel, Escher, Bach

- Bulgakov - Master and Margherita

- Melville - Moby Dick

- Joyce - Ulysses

- Everything by Baudrillard (esp. 'Agony of Power')

- Everything by William Burroughs (The ticket that exploded, Place of dead roads, Discipline of DE)

Not that crazy to grasp, but still amazing:

- Everything by Egon Friedell (mostly Historical, unbelievably dense and awesome)

- Chatwin - Songlines

- Ludwig Marcuse - Philosophy of Happiness / Philosophy of Unhappiness

Re: Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?

#59
"The Gods Themselves" is a easy to read but truly mind blowing book. Asimov's characters are a bit wooden but the ideas in the book really got me to look at the world differently.

The line "I have an idea, a simple idea, based on the quite obvious fact that the number two is ridiculous and can't exist." has stayed with me for over a decade now as has the surprising lovemaking of the aliens.

For a hard read that you may enjoy I'd suggest "The Book of the New Sun". I'm re-reading it for the fourth time and it just gets better.

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