What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

Okay at the risk of being offensive, all the comments before mine are made by overly intellectual fools.

I'm not usually so insulting--but as a father of two, if my 3 year old and 1.5 year old could only read one book, it would have to be "Oh, the places you'll go" by Dr. Suess.

Sorry to stomp on Das Kapital and its ilk, but if you get only one book, I can't imagine a better first message to convey than the endless possibilities inherent in each of us.

The world is your oyster! Even if you're old and have wasted most of what you were given. Especially today, in some of the most amazing times that have ever existed (even if you didn't draw the long straw). Today is SO much better than most of history.

Definitely The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. If only so they would understand The Answer and the latent absurdity of our civilization.

Although the bit about the plague from a dirty phone might be a little too close for comfort these days (but that just goes to show how fascinatingly “complete” the book is).

Not for everyone, but those who it is for very much should read this - but not without understanding that it can be quite triggering at times. :

  The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma   
  -Bessel van der Kolk

It's not an easy read for said people, but very worthwhile. Was introduced at a friends place and got a little ways in, waiting to pick up my own copy now.

Edit:

Also "The Art of War" is fun. It mostly boils down to common sense, but it's interesting to see application of first principles to ancient warfare.

I'd say that The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't [0] is the book for the current moment. Don't be put off by the subtitle. It's not about condemning a particular group as fuzzy thinkers. Rather, it's a manual for overcoming your own biases with immediate, actionable advice. For example, if you express your beliefs as "percent confident" rather than "true or false," it's easier to update them based on new evidence.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Scout-Mindset-People-Things-Clearly-e...

It's probably cliché, and there are so many good books.. I must say "1984" because I read that as a kid, and it was not only the first "real book" i read from cover to cover, but also the one that I felt most strongly influence my thinking.

Mini-Habit by Stephen Guise.

"A mini habit is basically a much smaller version of a new habit you want to form. 100 push-ups daily is minified into one push-up daily. Writing 3,000 words daily becomes writing 50 words daily. Thinking positively all the time becomes thinking two positive thoughts per day. Living an entrepreneurial lifestyle becomes thinking of two ideas per day (among other entrepreneurial things). The foundation of the Mini Habits system is in “stupid small” steps."

I did a summary here : https://www.chestergrant.com/26-highlights-from-mini-habits-...

As a "general" recommendation I think "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster (1909) is an especially interesting read today. Extremely prescient and a fun, short book.

For someone more ambitious I might recommend "The Anatomy of Melancholy," by Richard Burton (17th c.). At least the preface (around 100 pages) and maybe a smattering of the book proper. It's hard to explain - better to look it up.

For something more recent and immediately relevant, I think "Are Prisons Obsolete?" by Angela Davis was quite eye opening about the history of racism in law enforcement and the production of the modern prison system.

The best two books for engineers are

1) “How to win friends and influence people”

2) “Never split the difference”

The first one will teach you how to work with people. The second will teach you how to negotiate salaries, raises, and promotions among other things.

I don’t recommend many technical books because engineers can find all of that on the internet and are much more at risk of being bad at people stuff.

Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut.

It is a book about turning beauty into ruin. About the stupidity and cruelty of man. And also about the authors love of humanity and finding joy and love in the fate we all share.

Vonnegut stared into the abyss and never lost his idealism.

I know this is irrelevant for most people on here I pick Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning'. I started having thoughts of ending myself for the past two, three years and this book really helps my brain get out of that mental state. It's a very short book than can be read in an afternoon.

I decided to learn/understand why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. This year, I’m planning to read the books, at least, of the top 5 religions of the world.

Read Bhagavad Gita[1], had read the Bible[2] in hotel stays but will read it again, and the Quran[3] is waiting in the book-shelf. No, not religious at all; in fact, very far from it.

Some time back, someone did a nice collection of HackerNews recommended books[4].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran

4. https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/

I've gifted copies of Six Easy Pieces [0] to numerous people now, it's the only book I can say that for.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5553.Six_Easy_Pieces

With respect to those in this thread, I'm seeing a lot of suggestions of fairly niche books that I have never heard of or would consider reading.

It may be that there is no one book that I think everyone should read. Everyone has different tastes and interests, and what I think is a must read is probably on someone else's list of books never to read.

I would not recommend a single book for everyone to read, because people have different tastes and interests - and even if you recommend a single book based on people's interests - if they are really interested in that and the book is important to that interest it's likely they've already read it.

So probably a recommendation on any field should be made based on calculations both of how essential it is, but also how it's reading may change assumptions about the field if the person has not read it. It seems somewhat arrogant.

And in the end it's annoying to get recommended a book one considers essential to the field, as it implies one does not know what one knows.

All that said - for the field of:

Fantasy - Gormenghast

America - Democracy in America

Programming - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

I haven't read the English translation, but Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman had a profound influence on my trust in people, and expecting good intentions by default. Especially during bad times (COVID, geopolitics, etc.) it was a source of well-founded positivity that I needed.

Anna Karenina would be my recommendation. I had a lower oppinion on novels in general before reading this, but Tolstoy is just phenomenal with his characters.

It made me realize how great books should help improve your empathy towards others, and being more understanding to behaviour you'd normally just vilify.

Influence by Robert Cialdini. We live in a commercialized world - Cialdini gives a very engineer friendly, pragmatic and empirical review of the psychological tricks used to make people comply.

I read Discworld novels for relaxation, they are hilarious and full of humanity, wisdom and insightful fury at injustice. But it's very hard to recommend just one.

_Small Gods_ is about religion, belief and humanity's relationship with their gods, and about eagles dropping tortoises onto stones to crack them open.

I have gifted numerous copies of the book - “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse. I think the book changes the way you see the world.

The Bible - as an original source of all types of stories and narratives you’ll find in 99% of all fiction books and movies.

New Testament — as an original source of most of moral principles and ideas modern european civilization is based upon (also fundamental stories and narratives).

I've keep a record of my books read (and unfinished, and written up etc) over the last few years here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WSI8g_9BnNmfUM0ZupN1...

If they're 'Written Up', they're generally pretty good.

I guess it would depend on the category, like if you are doing any sort of front-end dev then one book I'd recommend over any other is Don't make me think which is still relevant today.

For the smb/indie-hacking I think E-myth revisited really changes your whole perspective about running a small business, especially when you read yourself on the pages.

Also there is one book which I don't think everybody should read but was truly life changing for me was Driven to distraction. It helped me get a evaluation and understand that ADHD is a very real thing (real as something which Doctors can spot on a MRI and it's not something you can overcome with strong will and determination).

Maybe not for all but,

Bhagavad Gita: As it is.

Do not read the explanation which are biased to god and religion.

But you can definitely read the stanzas. The idea that we are actor whose duty is to act is a powerful concept, especially when you are feeling low.

The book also has some egoistic stuff like "I am god, obey me." But once you filter some of these, you see bigger picture.

Not sure if it's the only book I'd recommend if I have to stick to the rules, I think others have already done that for me here but:

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

is very funny but also the back story to how it got published is both sad and interesting.

...and if I can pick a second book:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance by Robert M. Pirsig.

...and a third:

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

To have or to be - Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm is a great author and in this book he looks at the difference of having (owning stuff) vs. being (enjoying experiences). He argues that too many people are focused on "having", and that our whole society and even language is built around that. For example, you would say "I have a relationship". He argues that it's a weird choice of words, since you don't own the relationship.

How about "Zero Waste Home" by Bea Johnson

For its potential impact on humanity...

> Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot (and only in that order) is my method to > reducing my family’s annual trash to a jar since 2008 -- Bea Johnson

https://zerowastehome.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4n-jOJol3I

Everyone should read a platonic dialogue. Plato's Republic in particular due to its influence on western thought. Although some of the ideas may seem absurd from our modern point of view, it's still thought provoking and a good example of old school philosophy. Also, Plato casually outlines why our current system of government is doomed to fail...which is probably pretty important to understand.

The Little Prince. Ages young and old will get something out of it.

Basic yet eye-opening for me was "Talking to my daughter about the economy" by Yianis Varoufakis (ex Greek finance minister).

It does an "explain like I'm 13" for how the idea of markets and money started, how and why it changed through the centuries and where we are now.

It's so easy to read, that it took me a couple of days to finish it.

The Enchiridion, aka The Handbook.

Simple language. Simple lessons. Life changing guidance that has stood the test of time.

Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky

1984.

Yes, I know you've probably read it already, but it's probably time to read it again.

Starting Strength by Rippletoe

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Not that the analysis is flawless as there are many critics. The reason to read the book is to understand the how and why different societies have evolved and why there was a massive difference between Western Europe and other parts of the world. From geological impediments to the evolution of the large animals in the region (zebras are quite skittish and harder to tame/ride than horses), the environment is a major contributing factor to these civilizations development.

Books:

Most of you will know it, but to make sure: I wouldn't want to die without having read

"Gödel Escher Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid" (Douglas R. Hofstadter),

a 1000-page recursive poem about consciousness, bio-chemistry, mathematical versus musical beauty, zen koans, recursion, symmetry, formal rule systems, AI and more. Every second chapter is written as a dialog.

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky)

In our time, media manipulation is at its historic peak, so perhaps everyone should know a bit about the political-economic underpinnings. How issues are framed and chosen, the influence of money, reporting biases.

Dining with Terrorists: Meetings with the World's Most Wanted Militants (Phil Rees)

A former BBC journalist tells about meals with 'interesting' people and the trickiness associated with the definition of 'terrorism'.

I'm also going to throw in some movies for good measure.

Films:

Meaning of Life https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085959/

Adam's Apples https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418455/

Harold and Maude https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067185/

It's hard to pick only one but "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton Gordon Malkiel gave me some much needed financial literacy in my 20s.

Medicine Stories by Aurora Morales.

Refuses to accept the narrative of the colonizers, oppressors, slavers, winners of wars, and rewrites it, calling things and events by their real names.

Pulls the veil of lies and delusions. Gives voice to the people who survived and endured.

Exposes the methodologies of propaganda and oppression and offers roadmaps of healing from the normalized violence of poverty, racism, colonialism.

Incredibly well written - concise, unflinching and yet levelheaded.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

For an insight into how our logic engine doesn't, itself, function in what we would consider a logical way. Reading this book made it easier for me to empathise with people whose situations I could relate to but their reactions to said situations made me question their sanity.

Be thankful for a high functioning brain. Be understanding that very minor differences have majorly different outcomes.

Someone else mentioned it, but I'll add some meat to the reasoning: Taleb's Fooled by Randomness.

He's cooked quite a lot of soup on this stone, and he's built a comically aggressive persona, but the original book is still quite relevant.

Being aware of randomness will change how you think of just about everything, not just financial markets. Jobs, relationships, rivalries, morality, competence, and so on.

Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation

Product-led growth for deep tech category creation sounds like a new thing, but there's almost a century of quantitative social science on pretty much that. The book is a super easy & enjoyable distillation of it.

~10 years after reading, still inspires a lot of my first-principles thinking for how we approach basic product, marketing, partnering, etc

The selfish gene by Richard Dawkins. Everybody should understand evolution.

The power of stupidity, Giancarlo Livraghi

Quite unknown, I discovered it more than 10 years ago. It is an easily and pleasantly readable book: I discovered my stupid actions, and I still use it to evaluate what I am going to do. It isn’t a survival guide or a “how to” manual, but it offers practical solutions to improve those human qualities that counteract stupidity.

Things nobody tells you about relationship dynamics when you are young. Whats a head of you emontionaly? I recommend these to my son.

Erich Fromm The Art of Loving

David schnarch Passionate Marriage: Sex, Love & Intimacy in emotionally committed relationships.

And before you get married... Get some new perspective why ...

Wolfgang gädecke, Sexuality, Partnership and Marriage : From a Spiritual Perspective

There were many similar threads on HN in the past, and my recommendation is always the same: "The problems of philosophy" by Bertrand Russell

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5827/5827-h/5827-h.htm

Absolute stand-outs from my teens, twenties and thirties, respectively, are The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien, Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

Every visual/graphic/product/web designer should read The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

I don’t think I can suggest a singular book everyone should read, but I can say which book probably had the biggest effect on my way of reading.

I’m dyslexic and growing up reading was always a challenge, despite doing well at school and university I was a slow and uncritical reader. My girlfriend (now wife) was teaching The Great Gatsby to a class and practically made me read it. The process of reading that book and discussing it with her completely changed the way I read, it was an enlightening and incredibly enjoyable experience. It was as much about the discussions we had about the book as the book itself.

So my recommendation is find a book that you can read and discuss in depth with someone else. For me it has become a delight for us to both read a book and then talk in depth about it. You gain so much more insight.

If you're in software, read Peopleware. _Especially_ if you lead, or intend to lead, any kind of team.

The Chimp Paradox is probably my #1 general book recommendation because I think we would all be better off if we could better identify and manage our irrational impulses. It's one of those books that can genuinely improve almost every aspect of your life if you take it onboard. It's helped me with countless things in life, from sticking to diets and just being a more reasonable person generally.

There is also a book by the same author called, "My Hidden Chimp" which I believe is a child-friendly version of the The Chimp Paradox. I've not read it myself, but my girlfriend teaches at a primary school where the kids are reading it at the moment. She seems to think highly of it so that might be a good alternative for younger audiences.

Dune. I'd like to recommend all 6 by Herbert, but since I can only recommend one I'll say Dune. My favourite book. I even have this beautiful edition: https://imgur.com/LQPoi4m

Enchiridion of Epictetus (and other Stoicism works like Marcus Aurelus Meditations). I myself prefer the epicurism point of view, but this book learn you mainly than there is not point to be to much emotional on the many things in life than you cannot control.

Nonviolent communication is a very good one.

It’s not “the one book” but it will help a lot of people immediately.

Impro by Keith Johnstone. Still the best book about improvisation and life, full of warmhearted stories about loss and renewal of spontaneity. I recommend the first 2/3 of the book to literally everyone (Masks is quite specific to stage work).

The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. An absolutely brilliant account of the founding of Australia. A review: https://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Personal/Books/Hughes-Fatal-Shore/ Questions to think about as you read: Why weren't criminals transported to the Americas instead of to Australia? What if they had been? Do governments ever consider the long range implications of their policies? Were German the only people who practiced government-sponsored barbarism against subsets of their own people?

Not everyone but since this is HN I'll say Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors. It's intended for technical writers as an audience, and there's a couple chapters developers can skip that are about formatting with pretty diagrams and using DITA and stuff, but at least 80% of it is applicable to all kinds of writing that devs will have to do, and everyone needs to be able to communicate with the written word effectively. Literally every developer should read this book (and everyone should read some writing book relevant to their own field). It's amazing.

- Way of the peaceful warrior

- Range

- Conversations with God

- Factfulness

- Accelerate: Building and Scaling High-Performing Technology Organizations

Book of Ecclesiastes (part of the books of wisdom of the Hebrew bible)

ancient era existentialism written in poetic form. Unlike the other suggestions here, it can be accessed for free and takes only ~20 minutes to read

“The Scapegoat” by Rene Girard, which suggests that we are deeply vulnerable to imitating others; and that when we imitate, this tends to lead to deep conflict, for we often imitate desire for scarce objects (e.g. a certain role at work, a particular romantic partner, etc.). We also tend to imitate hatred for a given party, as we tend to imitate hatred, too; thus engaging in the process of scapegoating, when, in fact, scapegoats are almost always innocent.

Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud by Peter Watson.

Just an amazing survey of how people have thought and created over the course of human history. For me, it put so many periods into context; I finally know the different between the renaissance and the enlightenment!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/408204.Ideas

The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile [1]

It's one of the biggest longitudinal qualitative studies on work life and company succes. It has given me by far the most valuable insight into what really matters in building happy and effective workspace.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11721498-the-progress-pr...

I'll make a suggestion that is somewhat odd for HN since it is effectively poetry:

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

This little book stumbles into my life every 5 or 10 years and always reinvigorates my appreciation for the beauty of life. It is like being swept away by a beautiful piece of music - it can touch your soul. Then again, like music, it is not for everyone nor even repeatable for yourself depending on what mood you are in.

The three-body problem.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CF4JFZ?searchxofy=true&binding...

Just ignore the last volume which is a joke from another author.

I'm unable to enjoy any other Sci-Fi fiction after this one.

The Real Story of Money, Health, and Religion by Loren Howe.

I found about it thanks to this HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29801661. I thought the video was amazing so I searched for the author and found the book written by the same person. It didn't disappoint.

Talebs Fooled by randomness.

Not for everyone, but some people would probably benefit from reading Clayton Christensen's books such as The Innovator's Dilemma, Competing Against Luck and How Will You Measure Your Life?

His explanation of Correlation vs Causation while likely obvious to some was eye-opening for me as well as his idea of looking at products from what Job they fulfill standpoint

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

This is one of the best books I've ever read in my life. I'm a big fan of Malcolm X. The change in his life was huge and with every big change that happens to his ideas he doesn't get devastated or shocked but he pursues it with a better understanding. The culture and will power of this man is something respectable.

That's two books, but:

The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks

The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind - Julian Jaynes

A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley.

The book is almost childish in some sections, but the lessons are great. I'm still using many of the lessons daily such as taking a break when stuck on a hard problem, doing the most difficult task of the day first or that it is okay if you don't understand something immediately.

I've thought about this multiple times myself and I'm torn between two -

Mister God, this is Anna - by Fynn

Finite and Infinite Games - by James P. Carse

A very classic one, also recommended by many other people:

How to win friends and influence people, Dale Carnegie.

It was the original "self help" book, and the principles there are so simple yet powerful that will resonate a self evident. However these are mostly ignored, and the same as with common sense which happens to be the less common of the senses.

I really liked Epictetus' Discourses. He has a very sort of no-nonsense Dr House vibe going with his bum leg and constant criticism of his pupils. A lot less full of shit than some other Roman Stoics. Maybe not everyone's jam, but I found the tools it provides for dealing with shitty situations highly useful.

You Are The One You've Been Waiting For: Bringing Courageous Love To Intimate Relationships by Richard C. Schwartz

Despite the horribly long title it turned out to be a great book on what we actually look for in relationships, and how to deal with the difficulties every relationship causes. A very non-boring psychology book.

Since we can only pick one -> "Animal Farm", no question about it. Easy read, succinctly describes human nature.

But if I could, I would supplement it with these two, because they were so prescient in describing what happened to us in the past 30 years:

Erich Fromm - "Escape From Freedom"

Aldous Huxley - "Brave New World"

Never even heard of Chimpanzee Politics. Sounds great. Thanks for the tip.

non-fictional: everything Robert Greene

fictional: everything Dostoevsky

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software.

Wonderfully written book on how computers work.

It's even a good read for the curious non-technical reader. However, some chapters might be a bit hard for them. The first road block seem to be the chapter on logic gates, but with some help it's not that bad.

“Too loud a solitude” for yourself. “Daemon” for the world. “Godel Escher Bach” for everything else.

The Nature of Consciousness, by Rupert Spira.

If you set aside your preconceived notions and read it as a series of hypotheses that must be confirmed within your own direct experience, it will transform your experience of reality and set you on the (pathless) path to enlightenment.

Honestly surprised that "Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan was not mentioned so far.

Permanent Record, by Edward Snowden

'The Book' by Alan Watts

Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel.

Perfectly explain the progressive religion we find ourselves under.

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. Makes you look at work so differently. We aspire to do our best work, but what if the outcome of the work on the world is adding up to it becoming a worse place?

Citadelle (titled in English as The Wisdom of the Sands) by Antoine de Saint-Exupуery. He didn't finish the book but it's about philosophy of his life and I think that Antony was a good example of a strong-willed man.

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius

War and peace by Leo Tolstoy

Brave new world

The Enchiridion By Epictetus http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html

https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-hacker-news this website is pretty cool!

Journey to the West

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

..and not just for the fun Monkey bits.

Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt, written in 1946.

Talks about minimum wages, inflation, tariffs, devaluing currency and so on in a very small book, based on (rather game-theoretic) analysis.

Reads like it was written today.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Tao Te Ching.

Accelerando - Charles Stross (actually Glass House as well)

No one mentions Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari? I liked it very much. I know it can be biased but really makes you understand how humans operate.

Good Economics for Hard Times, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Great introduction to current social issues and how modern economics can help us make sense of them.

The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street and Get on with Your Life by Bill Schultheis. Short concise, actionable advice.

Easy to read and highly recommended for everyone comes Rutger Bregman and his Humankind. It paints a cool new'ish perspective on the human.

How Emotions are Made, Lisa Feldman-Barrett

IMHO, it will take another century before the world works through the full consequences of what she's written.

I’m vulnerable to recency bias. The books that my recent life has pivoted on are Die Wise and Come of Age by Stephen Jenkinson. Both books are journeys that bedevil any effort to summarize. I highly recommend listening to the author read them as audiobooks - the words move too quickly on the page, and the author is kindling a modern spoken tradition. The early going to Die Wise was difficult, but my mind gave way to curiosity and they stole my heart and mind away from the rat race.

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

The 7 habits of highly effective people.

The section about "stewardship delegation" alone makes this book priceless.

How to win friends and influence people

David Allen's Getting Things Done

The death of Superman (Graphic Novel)

A book that everyone should read, at an individual level, is a book that no one should read.

''The Man Without Qualities'' - Robert Musil (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften)

Infinite Jest

Thiking Forth. Even knowing that you will never touch Forth in your life is really worth it.

Getting More by Stuart Dimond is a good book on negotiating and building relationships.

Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.

I would recommend No More Mr Nice Guy for everyone with low self confidence

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Scout Mindset by Julia Galef.

It is a light read so I recommend it widely. It is about the general topic of making good decisions and having correct opinions which is helpful to all of us.

Caveat: I expect many HN readers to be familiar with LessWrong, SlateStarCodex, and the rationality community in general. In this case, there is probably nothing new in the book for you.

tongue in cheek

The dictionary! It’s THE book you need to write many other books!

Messiah by Boris Starling

Firstly, as a meta comment I think HN has jumped the shark.

Secondly, come on. You can listen to around 200 audiobooks per year while commuting, doing chores, excercising etc.

Lastly: if you only ever want to read a couple of few books, these should be the dictionary and thesaurus.

It's a silly question, any book with facts not philosophy.

The Myth of Sisyphus, by A. Camus

If a single book, it would be this one.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger.

The Overstory by Richard Powers

A book that encourages your imagination

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Rational Male, you will not understand it anyway

Real time relationships, the logic of love.

The New Testament, or any book that explains the key themes. Even if you are not religious, Western societies are built around this. If you live in the West or do business with the West, it explains many explicit or implicit cultural norms.

If you want to go deeper in understanding the West, it's recommendable to also get a rough idea of it's philosophers, especially the Greeks and the important ones up to Kant, including Descartes' idea of the social contract.

If you still want to know more, you should read about the most important economic ideas, e.g. Smith, Keynes, Marx.

The Tao Te Ching

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

The World without us

Its an incredible non-fiction book

On genealogy of morality - Nietzsche

Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm

The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

Idries Shah, Knowing How to Know

Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince

How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis

The Palgraves Golden Treasury.

Since someone’s done Hofstadter — Italo Calvino Le Città Invisibili or Invisible Cities. It’s a novel about complexity and civilisation and the difficulty and intangibility of memories, history and storytelling. It’s told in a series of 55 miniatures, each about a city that reveals some aspect of human experience. It’s like nothing else and utterly brilliant.

For European, I would recommend Basic Economics from Thomas Sowell.

To have a total opposite mindset of the socialist we have here was mind blowing for me.

the bible

Sapiens

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by the same author

It’s striking how fundamental the principles from those books are. An assembly code of the society:-)

at the risk of sounding like a broken record freedom from the known

The Denial of Death.

1984

How the mind works - Steven Pinker.

the mind illuminated

God Emperor of Dune

The 4th book of Frank Hurbert's dune saga. Or I personally think it's THE ending of the actual dune story line. Not only it completes the cycle started in Book 1 titled "dune". The 2 later books are really spin-off that tells a much smaller story.

God emperor shows Hurbert's astounding depth and width in understanding humans as the building blocks of the civilization. And gave an unprecedented interpretation of humanity (and ruthlessness).

The words are poetic with a sense of intonation built-in that renders a supernatural feeling, and had made me rethink how humans should live together.

It's also a book that ends at the beginning, and used one sentence to reveal the climax of the whole dune story line. One had to appreciate Herbert's immense imagination and skills to bring those into words, that depicts minuate details that are enthralling yet always points to the ultimate idea. A literary genius and magnificent architect in human language at the grandest scale.

That's the one book Ill bring along if I am on an one-way trip to Mars!

Karl Marx - Das Kapital

When I see comments such as a book needing a "trigger warning", or concerns with the race or gender of the author, I can only shake my head with sadness. Those who believe such things have been poorly served by their education. Those who recommend books such as Das Kapital are either trolling the thread or historically ignorant of the death and destruction caused by Marxism. Try something like Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Nozick and quit being part of the granfalloon.