1. The psychick bible by Genesis Breyer P. Orridge.
2. Breakthroughs in science by Isaac Asimov
Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
51–60 of 92 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#52Bomber Command by Max Hastings. This book explained the change in Allies attitudes around bombing during WWII from "only barbarians bomb civillians" to the mass fire bombing of heavily populated cities. It was also eye-opening to read about the massive death rate in bomber command. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Command-Pan-Military-Classic... The Art of Electronics , and especially the student manual that accompani…
> I'm not sure if it's aged well. There are a bunch of people on HN who still do electronic work who could recommend better newer books.
Not a professional in this area, but between various HN comments I've read and YouTube channels like EEVblog, I've seen the third edition of this book recommended multiple times as the best book. It's actually sitting on my to-buy list because of that.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#53The Story of Civilization - Will and Ariel Durant Reading this so far has been one of the most rewarding learning experiences of my life. If you are interested in how philosophy, religion, and civilization has emerged and grown in our species, than you will be constantly delighted while reading this. The Durants are equal to none.
It is a bit unfortunate that the Durants crammed all non-Western history in a single volume while devoting ten to European history, but it was a product of its time. Still, it is certainly well written and few historians attempt this sort of "complete" history these days.
True... it’s an amazing volume on western philosophy but fails to adequately look at philosophy from other cultures.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#54"when breath becomes air" by Paul Kalanithi.
Influenced me a great deal & one of my all time fav reads.
A short excerpt :
https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2015spring/before-i-go.html
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#55“Soft skills” are typically the hardest.
The Power of Vulnerability: Brene Brown
Non-Violent Communication: Marshall Rosenberg
The Secrets of Consulting: Gerald Weinberg
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#56Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
by Peter L. Bernstein
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128429.Against_the_Gods
The Physics of Wall Street: A Brief History of Predicting the Unpredictable by James Owen Weatherall https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13356644-the-physics-of-...
Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines (1953) by B. V. Bowden. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/10719/Faster-Than-Tho...
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#57Euclide ; the elements.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#58Not really a book, but...
The Berkshire-Hathaway shareholder letters are very entertaining and informative, and reading Warren is probably the best way to deeply understand the last ~40 years of US business climate.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#59One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics by David Berlinski
Often gets low ratings because people mistake it for an educational book. It’s a mix of history, biographies and verbal exposition on the development of mathematical theorems, with a good poetic slant. Reminds me I really need to look into his other books, his writing is scarily good.
Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?
#60I recently read Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari and it nearly broke my mind. It was on Obama and Bill Gates' reading lists that year and it is phenomenal. It's like one of those books that took some ideas I had been kicking around for years and blew the whole thing wide open. If you want to get a taste, go look up 'The Legend of Peugot' from the book. There was also a sale on the ebook for $3 on Amazon this weekend -- no…
> it nearly broke my mind. Can you perhaps mention some examples?
There are a lot of fantastic ideas (whether one agree or not with the author) in this book. 2 that come to my mind:
- we tend to think that our species was a result of evolution - a concept that's somehow nice and smooth. In reality, the author argues, at each step of the evolution, the 'better' species simply exterminated the previous one. Think about that ! We (or our ancestor) just exterminated those poor Neanderthals that we so fondly think of now
- when he describes a corporation and applicable law (I think it's about Peugeot) comparing the lawyers to shamans. It really makes you realizes how most things and laws of what govern our world are just pure invention and it's very similar to religion actually