Fiction or non-fiction, what are some books that have had a great impact on your outlook in life?
http://www.amazon.com/Plato-Platypus-Walk-into-Understanding/dp/0143113879
Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
I found this book sitting on a lonely shelf at my local used bookstore. It seemed like something quirky enough to add to my collection. Three years after reading it I have explored almost every branch of philosophy in depth. I often use it as a reference book on what I want to read about next. Before reading this book I thought of philosophy as too big of a subject to take on, something that I would love to learn but didn't know where to start. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to start learning about philosophy.
It was pretty funny also...
Thanks for mentioning this, I had never heard of it but it sounds like fun. I just ordered it and look forward to reading it. Cheers!
Always glad to share knowledge! They have a whole series of similar books, all focusing on different topics. I'd love to have the set one day.
I was influenced as an 18-year-old by the controversial Carlos Castaneda. His book the Teachings of Don Juan made me question what I perceived as reality at the time. Also, it served as justification for the drugs I was experiencing at the time.
For me politically/socially, The Possesive Investment in Whiteness by lipitz. Spritually, or i guess emotional perspective wise, Siddhartha by hesse. I could drum up more but those two definitely did a number on my perception when i read them.
I was never so crazy about Slaughterhouse Five though. It's got some good moments, but can that kind of structure really make a novel that is satisfying to read?
1. We Still Hold These Truths by Matthew Spalding. 2. His Needs Her Needs by Willard F. Harley. 3. Love Life For Married Couples by Dr. Ed Wheat. 4. Democracy In America by Alexis de Tocqueville. 5. Anthem by Ayn Rand. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 6. Call of the Wild by Jack London. 7. A World Split apart by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
http://www.amazon.com/ENVY-A-Theory-Social-Behaviour/dp/0865970645 - a book that helps me understand human interactions.
http://hpmor.com/ - a book-in-progress that is helping me understand cognitive biases, rational actions and the way I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road - a book that reminds me there's more to life than just succeeding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion - the book that made me realize there was nothing more important than books.
thank you! this is almost exactly what I meant. just quickly though, can I read The Silmarillion just by itself or do I need to have read other Tolkien works beforehand?
I recently finished Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. While it is essentially a fantasy novel, the theme of the story felt to me like a social commentary influenced by new age and eastern religious ideals.
I'm currently reading Samuel Avery's The Pipeline and the Paradigm, in hopes to get a more complete grasp of the Keystone XL situation than a news article here and there provides. I would recommend it to others who are interested in the subject but don't know where to start; the facts are concise and the commentary is charismatic.
I loved both of those books. Tom Robbins was a favorite of mine when I was younger.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Anything by Bret Easton Ellis.
Fair warning to anyone considering a foray into Bret Eason Ellis' work: reading Less Than Zero is going to leave you with the feeling of an irreparable void in the pit that was once your stomach, but is now only a vacant space where your faith in humanity once resided.
That being said, I do highly recommend it.
Aaaand, now Less Than Zero is near the top of my wish list (right behind Neuromancer). I think that is just the type of reading I need to help me with what I'm going through right now.
I currently reading Time Out of Hand: Revolution and Reaction in Southeast Asia.. I'm about four chapters in and I like it so far. I'm definitely learning a lot about a culture I didn't know very well. I'm also reading through this because I need a balance of fiction/non-fiction.
The Road is an attempt to make simplicity seem profound, and an exercise in which Cormac McCarthy sees just how far he can go without replacing his broken typewriter. Next he will give up on full stops and commas.
The Road is the most heartbreaking thing I think I've ever read. It's a terrifying journey into the primal nature of mankind. You keep reading, hoping for salvation that may or may not be granted. It shares many themes as Cormac's No Country For Old Men and manages to make them even darker. Great novel. Still haunts me from time to time.
Sophie's World really got me thinking about philosophy. I don't know how international it is but it's basically a tale about two girls and a lot of info about philosophers and what they thought.
It really got me thinking about the worlds and different ways of viewing it as young girl.
Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion (Dan Simmons) makes you wonder about the future of humankind. The Sixth Extinction (Elizabeth Kolbert) puts into perspective the disruption to biodiversity humans have caused
Round the Bend by Nevil Shute - but don't spoiler yourself, you will regret it. (Link is to Amazon not Wiki for this reason).
"Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!" convinced me to study physics. Now, I have no delusions of grandeur and thjnk I will be the next Feynman or anything, but this book did show me what physicists actually do. Before I had always thought they were a serious bunch or antisocial or unemployable, but reading about his exploits showed me that what you study has little bearing on how you comport yourself in the rest of your life.
Shaken? If by that you mean a book that was so clearly well done as to make me question my politics, relationships and hope in humanity, I'm gonna have to go with The Uses of Pessimism by Roger Scruton.
One of the greatest things the book provides, in my opinion, is some very powerful concepts that allows you to be direct with people without personal affront. For example, I was working with some non-developers on a project for a competition but we were unable to get the data that we needed; when I was asked quite directly whether or not we should abandon the project, I told him "Continuing with this would be unscrupulous optimism." There is no reason to simply hope that we'd get the data we needed in less than 20 hours (it was for a contest). It would be a waste of my time, theirs, and stress + painful, and an end product that I critically think would just end up as a load of fear-mongering, hence unscrupulous.
Now the funny thing is this book was in part funded by a conservative think tank. Needless to say, it's not within the range of my usual reading. However, it has made me think a lot more conservatively, so I guess that counts.
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