Which book do you keep asking people to read?

Nonviolent Communication.

Hard stop.

How often can a $10 purchase have such a drastic effect on your mentality and life for the better?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/189200528X

(Fear not, I do not personally profit off this link in any way, <3, only want the best for you bb)

You can often get bulk discounts on books from the publisher.

My Dad was very fond of Richard Bach's "Illusions" when it came out, So he bought several cases over the next couple years, to give out copies to people.

I've never bought cases, but I've given away "spare" copies of numerous titles I'm fond of. There's several titles I'll buy used if I see them so as to have backups for giving away or damage to shelved books. NFI how many copies of "Illuminatus! Trilogy" and "Lord of the Rings" I've given away... dozen or more in each case.

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K LeGuin. Never has gotten the game it deserves.

Nabokov ends one of the most captivating fragments of Pale Fire with a sentence "I trust the reader has enjoyed this note."

He totally got me.

It is not the book I would recommend most often, it just came to my mind.

What I would recommend the most are psychological books. 'Mind and Nature' by Gregory Bateson is one of my favorites.

Posts like this one are awesome, always happy to sieve through.

i should also suggest: "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein

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

Political debates aside, the depiction of a rising AI is somewhat timely.

A Secular Age by Charles Taylor. So much of contemporary conflicts / culture / etc. have been illuminated to me by understanding this book. It’s super long, however, so you may want to read How Not to Be Secular by James K. A. Smith first, which is a summary of the larger book.

Since most people get psychology exactly wrong:

First, Life Strategies by Dr. Phil (the ONLY book by Dr. Phil that I recommend)

Particularly, Law #3: People Do What Works

quote:

"By “works for you,” I mean you get some kind of payoff for performing the seemingly undesirable acts. And as you will see, this formula holds true even if at some other, perhaps more conscious or apparent level, you recognize that the behavior in question isn’t working for you; you may even see that it creates pain. Yet based on results, you are getting some sort of payoff, or you wouldn’t do what you do or accept what you accept. A simple example is overeating. At a conscious, rational level, you know it is counterproductive, but at some other level, it is rewarding you enough to maintain the overeating. So, based on results, since people only do what works, overeating must work for you in some way."

Second: "If Life is a Game, These are the Rules" by Cherie Carter-Scott.

particularly, Rule 7:

quote:

"OTHERS ARE ONLY MIRRORS OF YOU

You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself."

Projection is a big deal. "Every Accusation is a Confession" is everywhere.

Third, works by Anne Wilson Schaef: "The Addictive Organization" and "When Society Becomes an Addict"

These describe addictive behaviors and patterns in organizations and in society, and one can see them in cults (unfortunately, we deal with such behavior these days a lot) and even in "the mob".

The point is that outside of addiction itself, the appeal of "Don't Make Me Think" and the cult's legitimization of truly vile behavior such as hate, prejudice, theft and violence is the reward or payoff that lures people, even if membership is self-defeating.

As I read about some of the traits: Crisis orientation, denial, projection, lying, perfection (demanding it from others), ethical deterioration and so on, bells started ringing ... this is what I saw going on at some jobs, and in society.

Similar thread here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36262466

how to win friends and influence people

The Art of War - Sun Tzu. One of my favourite books ever. Everyone should read it.

War and War by Laszlo Kraznahorkai - an obsessive old Hungarian bureaucrat finds a mysterious text, and travels to New York City to transcribe it onto the internet before he dies. Fascinating story.

“Rich dad, Poor dad”. It changed my understanding of money and has put me on a path to financial security I would otherwise not have enjoyed.

"The Library at Mount Char" by Scott Hawkins.

His first novel. Very original, not quite sci-fi, not quite fantasy. Some rough edges. Excellent.

The Selfish Gene

“Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” by Chris Voss

The Wandering Inn, you will not be able to read anything else while reading this, if you get hooked.

"windhaven", a very underrated SF novel that most people I recommend it to have loved

1984 by George Orwell. Helps underestand the world we are living in.

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

the instruction manual

“Behave” by Sapolsky

Sartre's Nausea

HPMOR

"Permutation City": Greg Egan

"Godel Escher Bach" : Douglas Hofstadter

It was “Thinking Fast & Slow” until much of it was discredited. I do believe awareness of Behavioral Economics can be good, but be wary of its cynical anti humanism.

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.

The 4 Gospels of the Bible, which you can get free on the App Store.

The Country School of Tomorrow