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

When rabbit howls. I don't remember the author, but it will definitely make you look at things differently. I also really liked lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk.

Tractatus Logico Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Considered to be the philosopher's pholosopher!

It's a religious scripture. Unfortunately you need to learn Arabic first. Translations don't do it justice to say the least. The book is called The Quran. It talks about parallel universes, "aliens", super heroes, travelling through space and time, how ants communicate, and even modern superpower alliances. It's a hard read even if you know Arabic. For instance, reading a phrase from the first chapter will not make sense unless you reach later chapters. It even has encrypted letter combinations that have not been unlocked yet. i've read it twice from cover to cover, and about to start my third.

The Tao of Programming, by Geoffrey James.

Not the GP but here is my answer.

NOTE1: spoiler alert.

NOTE2: please don't think of me as some heartless Objectivist - I have adjusted my views since I read it about 10 years ago but at the time, the following points were earth-shaking revelations to me:

* It revealed to me how influence peddlers in society use a combination of coercion and guilt to suppress an individual's individuality

* It revealed that these "thugs" are interested in suppressing your thoughts and controlling your money. I read this book during the Bush years and the suppression of speech in the name of "patriotism" rang true, while prior regimes' punitive taxation policies also rang true as meeting Rand's definition of thugs.

* She basically posits that an individual's greatest purpose of existence is to create and to do the best for themselves that they can.

Within the above kernels, which with moderation I feel are very powerful insights, are interspersed a lot of distractions. Her writing style is retch-inducing and her hatred of native people in continents that were abused by colonialism is bafflingly naive. My edition of the book had about 1100 pages, 100 or so of which were Galt's long speech - it was an endeavor to finish this book but I am happy to have learnt the above insights.