Ask Slashdot: What Books Have Had a Significant Impact On Your Life? 700
gspec writes "A little background about me: 36-year-old computer engineer working in the Bay Area. While I bring in a comfortable salary, I consider myself an underachiever, and my career is stagnant (I have only been promoted four times in my 12-year career). I have led a couple projects, but I am not in any sort of leadership/management position. I realize I need to do something to enhance my career, and unfortunately, going back to school is not an option. One thing I can do is to read more quality books. My question: which books, of any type or genre, have had a significant impact on your life?"
How to win friends and influence people (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How to win friends and influence people (Score:4, Funny)
I always preferred Zapp Brannigan's Big Book of War
Re: (Score:3)
The Case For Mars (Score:3)
"The Case For Mars" Robert Zubrin
When humanity stops looking towards a viable future of expansion, it always stagnates. This book puts humanity's future in perspective
Anything from Packt (Score:2)
Arthur C Clarke (Score:2)
American Pratcical Navigator (Score:4)
Ouch (Score:3, Funny)
I dropped a phone book on my foot once.
Easy list (Score:5, Informative)
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov is and will always be my favorite series of books. Those are the first real science fiction books I read, they were welcome reprieve from those terrible books I had to read in high school.
Dune by Frank Herbert. The sheer scope of events which take place in this sage showed me how insignificant daily events really were. While it was fictional, the way the Shaddam, the Baron Harkonnen, and Muad'Dib feel about their subjects/followers/slaves gave me a hard dose of reality. There are a lot of people out there, and most of them have no idea that you just got picked on walking to class, dropped some spaghetti on your shirt, or had a really crappy day.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Lord Of The Flies
The Chrysalids
To Kill a Mockingbird
Wuthering Heights
Cue For Treason
The Hobbit
1984*
Brave New World*
It's been a while so I don't remember all the assigned books, but I only really remember one which was really bad, plus all the Shakespeare, which I never really cared for. Most of my classmates didn't like Wuthering Heights, but I think a lot of that was just prejudice agains
Re: (Score:2)
Agree on Dune.
But, unlike you I did not read the Foundation books until later in life and frankly I think they're a little overrated.
Re: (Score:3)
Yet somehow strangely familiar...
Pretentious book that doesn't answer question (Score:2)
The life changer for me was George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones. Actually I like the HBO version better because of the nudity.
Heh. (Score:5, Funny)
The Penthouse Letters. It was very informative.
Re:Heh. (Score:5, Funny)
"Dear Sirs, I never believed the stories in you magazine until one day..."
As far as technical books are concerned... (Score:2)
Moneyball (Score:4, Informative)
It's amazing what billy beanne has done on a tiny budget and going against what all the experts said
In the end it's about using data rather than hunches and old wives' tales to make business decisions
Two golfers (Score:5, Interesting)
Two golfers had been meeting weekly for years - lets call them Joe and Bob. Joe started to notice one day that Bob was getting a lot better. So Joe asked Bob what he was doing, and Bob replied that he was taking some golf classes on the weekends.
Joe, not wanting to be outdone, bought a golf self-improvement book. And gave it to Bob, complimenting him on his desire to improve.
A few weeks later, Bob was back to his old self, and Joe was happily able to compete again.
Moral of the story: When Joe bought Bob the book, Bob stopped practicing and started reading. Don't substitute reading for doing.
Re:Two golfers (Score:4, Insightful)
Some... (Score:5, Interesting)
The C Programming Language - Kernighan and Ritchie
The Design of the Unix Operating System - Bach
Computer Networks - Tannenbaum
The Art Of Computer Programming - Knuth
Security Engineering - Anderson
Godel Escher and Bach - Hofstader
The Demon Haunted World - Sagan
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Adams
Adolph Hitler, My Part In His Downfall - Milligan
Re: (Score:3)
Goedel Escher Bach is the reason I picked this handle. That was 25 years ago; has it really been that long?
Re: (Score:3)
I was going to suggest many of those. My few additions:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. No explanation, just go read it.
Milgram Obedience Studies - Groupthink. For obvious reasons.
The Fountainhead - individualism to a limited extent is a positive thing, but Atlas Shrugged just punches the idea into the ground repeatedly. Roark is still an inspiration in my programming. Bag the ideology and all the idiots who reply based on ideology. I stopped reading for a few years after that one.
Fierce Inv
I'll give you more than one (Score:2)
The Bible. Except for atheists and agnostics, most people should insert their favorite holy book [wikipedia.org] here.
My college calculus book. Naturally. [wikipedia.org]
Half a bookshelf full of Dr. Seuss [wikipedia.org] books from my school library that I read as a kid.
Re:I'll give you more than one (Score:5, Interesting)
The Bible.
Nah .. forget the Bible .. Read The X-rated Bible [amazon.com] instead. It cuts out all the boring bits, plus has some great factual analysis on the original verses.
More books... (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of Heinlein's work, although my personal favorite is Job:A Comedy of Justice (I'd swear the South Park guys got their idea of Heaven and Hell from their).
I'd add in Atlas Shrugged also, I didnt read until I was 35+.
How I found Freedom in an Unfree world. (Score:2)
Great book that teaches you that you have to live your life for yourself and not let rules or other people try to keep you down.
I grew up on classics (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
My favorites (Score:4, Interesting)
Why Societies Need Dissent - Cass Sunstein
The Road to Reality - Roger Penrose
Liars and Outliers - Bruce Schneier
Diplomacy - Henry Kissenger
Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams
Free to Choose - Milton Friedman
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond
Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Bible
Flatland (Score:3)
Re:Flatland (Score:4, Informative)
Well... (Score:2)
Lots of them. Here are a few pulled from my Goodreads list, in no particular order
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman - these are kids books, but when I reread them recently I realized that they had a profound effect on my adolescent mind.
Neal Stephenson - his science fiction gave me a taste of what the world could be.
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall - It's kind of silly, but a few years ago this book planted the seeds that got me running -- and not just running but running almost daily and LOV
Conrad's Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness (Score:2)
The Foundation series (Score:2)
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right." [wikipedia.org]
PHIKAL and THIKAL (Score:4, Interesting)
The C++ Programming Language (Score:4, Funny)
Robert J Sawyer novels (Score:2)
And now for something completely different (Score:2)
All of Blake's works are amazing and frankly transformative in my life; I don't know why but for some reason hearing points made that I had to unravel to understand just made them stick more and all of it is written with a beauty in language that really drives his values in passion and joy across as being significant for more reasons than just the words but because there is meaning in those words that can cause affect.
Just my strange and abnormal two cents
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Score:5, Interesting)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It can help you to look at life in a different way...
Re:Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Score:5, Interesting)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It can help you to look at life in a different way...
Read it once .. read it twice .. then read The Tao Of Poo [wikipedia.org] and realized that this small book managed to capture and impart all of the same concepts in something that could be easily read in an afternoon.
Re:Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Score:4, Informative)
I've read ZMM about seven times. I get something different out of it on every read. It is an attempt to apply rational thinking to the idea of rationality itself, in addition to just being a great story. The section on 'gumption traps' is worth the price of admission alone.
Definitely my favorite book.
Re: (Score:3)
I think that ZaaMM is basically autobiography, and Pirsig happened to have an interesting life. And the fact that it was rejected for publication well over 100 times allowed him the time and the incentive to refine it to the point of near perfection. It is my favorite book.
Unfortunately, it's absolutely impossible to get anybody to read a book written back in the mid 70's anymore. I always recommend it to younger people, and have never ever had anybody take me up on the offer.
There's a great book called
The God Delusion (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The God Delusion (Score:4, Informative)
Definitely! It's the second-greatest lesson you'll ever get on why you should only write non-fiction books on topics you know know something about. (The best, of course, being God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens.)
If this stuff interests you, you're far better off reading Breaking the Spell by Dan Dennett. It's a far better book in every respect. Or anything by Robert Ingersoll.
YMoYL! (Score:2)
Silly question (Score:3, Insightful)
What Color is Your Parachute? (Score:2)
Humbly suggest that you explore career options - WCYP? provides a good way in, there are plenty of other options too. When you find a career that inspires you, growing in your capabilities, responsibilities, rank, and salary will seem like the most natural thing in the world, and not the epic struggle it is when you're stuck in a place/career/situation you don't like.
Other suggestions: (1) Make sure you are dating, meeting people (or talking to your gf/bf/spouse if you are attached). The right partner can b
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Score:5, Informative)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567 [amazon.com]
This book taught me more about coding (and recursion, and all sorts of other concepts) than any language-specific book I've read. I carried it around for a couple of years, making my way through as I could. Highly recommended.
Dostojevski (Score:2)
Particularly the Idiot and Crime and Punishment.
I don't think any of them will help you with your career, though - unless you plan to kill someone with an axe and are looking for advise for or against it.
Books (Score:2)
Dune (Score:2)
After reading Dune, I could no longer accept religion at face value.
Gödel, Escher, Bach (Score:2)
Time Enough for Love (Score:2, Insightful)
While there are other great books (Dune was mentioned earlier), I have found Time Enough for Love has had more long term affects on my thinking than any other. In large part because it is so darn quotable:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#Time_Enough_for_Love_.281973.29
Also it is about the wisdom of a man who has lived for thousands of years, so I think the idea that it is a man's attempt to condense as much wisdom in one book as possible. Let me just reference my favorite quote:
Do not confu
Mine would be... (Score:2)
The TI-994a Extended Basic manual and "Cosmos" when I was a kid.
No books really stick out from college, I'd say it was more of a cumulative effect from the individual books.
"UNIX in a Nutshell" in the early 90's - sure it's just a dump of man pages, but I think I memorized everything between the pages and it got me started in UNIX.
"Learning Perl" - perl has paid the bills and let me go home at a decent hour. Thanks Larry!
All of them... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, except for the ones by Ayn Rand - those made me more stupid. So I had to read some Chomsky and Borges to fix that.
My List (Score:5, Interesting)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
1984
Neuromancer
Atlas Shrugged
Three Pillars of Zen
The Bible
The Art of Happiness, The Art of Happiness at Work
Foundation
Most of Robert Heinlein's books and short stories. (man who sold the moon is still a favorite)
An introduction to microcomputers, Volume 1
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Finite and Infinite Games (Score:2)
By James P. Carse
Although written by a religious scholar, this is not a book on religion, per se.
george macDonald & rudolf steiner (Score:2)
two books:
left brain — rudolf steiner — philosophy of freedom:
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA004/English/GPP1916/GA004_index.html [rsarchive.org]
right brain — george macDonald — phantastes:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/325/325-h/325-h.htm [gutenberg.org]
desert island keepers
LBJ: The Path to Power (Score:3)
And all the subsequent Robert Caro LBJ books, especially the third book on the Senate. Very well researched and written. Five book series (BIG books, too) that he started writing in the 1970's. The last one isn't even out yet.
Not specifically for the LBJ content, though it is interesting, but for showing how the US government (especially congress) REALLY works from the inside. And showing what types of people become politicians and how megalomaniacal they tend to be.
The Day the Universe Changed (Score:3)
But one I'd suggest, which I pretty much never see anyone else mention, is The Day the Universe Changed (companion to the BBC miniseries, now available on YouTube [youtube.com].) It's sort of about the history of science, but more so it's about how our discoveries about the world changed (and continue to change) our perception of it.
The Last Lecture (Score:4, Insightful)
A touching story about focusing one what matters in life from the point of view of a nerdy geek with months to live.
Magazines (Score:3)
I would however also suggest reading Robert Cialdini: Influence and Bruce Patton: Difficult Conversations. Neither are about business strategy or leadership instead they both focus on how to consider other peoples positions, how to interact effectively and build productive relationships.
Not Books: Classes and Ass Kissing (Score:4, Informative)
If enhancing your career is your goal, I'm not entirely sure reading books is going to do it for ya. It's not like you can leave a copy of "The Question Behind the Question" on your desk and your boss is suddenly going to think, 'Hey, I need to promote that guy.' Ain't gonna happen. So here's some specific career enhancing techniques:
1. Quit your job and get a different one. Oh, I know that's easier said than done, and you probably have some nice benefits you've accumulated by now. The sad fact is, that is the quickest way to a management level and on to a C-level if that's your goal. If you look around and you rarely see people promoted within your company, guess what - you're not going to get promoted. That means it's time to pad your resume (yes, stretch the truth to the breaking point so it's obvious you've managed people) and apply for management jobs elsewhere. If you get offered a job, negotiate a higher salary and better benefits.
2. Learn accounting and marketing. Try to get on the job experience in both of those areas working with those individuals. Accounting is important to understand if you want to become a manager because budgeting comes into play and you can do some creative GL accounting within your department to get what you need accomplished. Marketing is important to get experience in because that's where all the Cool Kids work. Knowing the Cool Kids and hanging out with them will get you bonus points with management.
3. Kiss people's asses. Or, at least grace your boss's desk with a decent bottle wine or a six pack if he did something you appreciate. In an earlier time this was a concept called "courtesy".
4. Take some classes outside of work. On a basic level, look for one of those seminars held on weekends at hotels in your area, specifically a class in negotiation. We all negotiate every day of our lives and it is immensely helpful to understand when and how to do it properly. If anything, it'll help your marriage. Maybe it's worth taking a management class as well. Here's some Fred Pryor seminars in your area: http://www.fredpryor.com/site/default.aspx [fredpryor.com]
5. See the above about learning accounting and marketing. Maybe you could take a class at a local community college.
6. Ask your boss for a promotion. Surprisingly enough, it could be that simple. Don't wait for an opening to appear, just go directly to your manager or his manager (if you know him well) and ask. Maybe your company never knew you were interested in a promotion. Maybe they just thought you're happy doing what you're doing. If there isn't a job open, it's completely possible they've been thinking of creating a new job and just didn't have the right person available to do it, nor did they think they could hire the person externally. Maybe that guy is you.
7. Finally, if you just want to read some books, I liked Jack Welch's autobiography. I also liked "Good to Great". I'm reading Keith Richard's biography right now, "Life"; pretty much a textbook for what not to do to your body.
Stranger in a Strange Land (Score:3)
I'm not sure if it really addresses the asker's needs but Stranger in a Strange Land [wikipedia.org] by Heinlein had a profound effect on me when I read it the first time as a young teenager.
Discworld (Score:5, Interesting)
In my opinion, you can't have a decent quality of life without large doses of humour on a regular basis.
I have never found a better writer than Sir Terry Pratchett for dry, engaging wit, and the occasional turn of phrase that will still leave you chuckling days later. His Discworld series also provides concise and often cutting criticisms of society and some of our more inane foibles, camouflaged behind the general fantasy setting (the Campaign for Equal Heights [lspace.org] movement for Dwarves, for example). His characters are engaging and his situational comedy is absolutely stellar!
Please don't be thrown just because it is situated in a world that is shaped like a disc, perched atop four elephants who in turn are standing on a giant turtle swimming through the deeps of space :) Yes, it's set in a 'silly' world, and populated with fantastic creatures, but the challenges and triumphs his characters face are usually very applicable to this here modern, mundane world. I heartily recommend all of his works, but the Discworld books in particular.
Happy hunting!
The one that makes you a success.... (Score:3)
How to win friends and influence people. Flat out 900X better and more important than ANY other book out there, and should be required reading for most people yearly.
Ah the mid-life/mid-career crisis (Score:3)
More likely your second because most men have their first one in their 20s, when adulthood turns out to be not at all like what you expected.
Rather than fish for books, I'd recommend having a look around at your friends, workmates, and acquaintances about your age or a little older and identify three things:
1. Who is having the most fun?
2. Who has reasonable job security, to the extent that exists today?
3. What skills do they have that you don't?
Use these things to guide your choices for skills to develop- maybe they are technical, or maybe they are people skills, but you'll be working towards filling a deficit that can open new/better opportunities for you.
Personally, I think there is limited benefit to enhancing coding skills, such as learning a new language or framework- they are a dime a dozen and the industry always has a new fad. On the other hand I think there's a lot of value in learning new analytical skills. Everyone and their dog wants to mine actionable intelligence from their customer data and the ability to scrub, synthesize and model is a key asset. Plus when the data is sufficiently rich it can be a lot of fun compared to setting up yet another web site. If you want to take it all the way to home plate, pick up some machine learning skills, eg by taking one of the Stanford or Udacity online courses and dazzle your employers with your ability to predict that your customer is pregnant... ;-)
btw, IMO a promo every three years seems about par for the course- not fantastic but nothing to complain about. The real difficulty is that promotion velocity tends to slow over time, since there can only be so many head chefs.
$0.02
Life altering book? (Score:3)
Diesel Traction - A Manual for Enginemen [amazon.co.uk]
My late father found a copy of this in an old railway workshop he was converting into a heavy goods vehicle workshop and brought it home, when I was about six or seven years old. I picked it up and read it, fascinated by the cutaway diagrams of the engines and gearboxes that went into the different styles of locomotive, and the circuit diagrams of all the control gear. There were detailed explanations of how the automatic gearboxes in diesel-mechanical locomotives worked, and how the injector pump, fuel rack and injectors worked in a diesel engine.
At that point, I realised that while I would probably never work on a 1962 diesel railcar, I held in my hand the key to knowing *everything*. All I needed to understand absolutely anything I ever encountered was the right diagram, and the mental toolkit to look at what was in front of me and understand how different parts work together as part of a whole system. From that moment onwards everything else was easy.
You've just got to look at things and see the exploded diagram in your mind's eye.
Expert C programming (Score:3)
by Peter van der Linden
A profound influence that made me aware of the depth of programming expertise.
Unfortunately PvdL's recent books doesn't live up to this awesome tome.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not the Bible. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You must be new here. Your answer is not only "not helpful", but it plays to the Slashdot crowd. Your intent was to look intelligent and enlightened, but in reality you look intolerant and ignorant.
That being said, I'll take the bait. As a rebuttal to "not showing anything of actual import or meaning."(sic), a Christian would argue that its importance is that they are no longer damned by their sins. The historian would argue that its importance is that it provides historical context for various periods
Re: (Score:3)
True - on one hand, you have a group of people vociferously claiming conclusive knowledge of a mystical sort that is beyond their abilities to explain - they just know it because it feels right and they haven't seen any contradictions of their beliefs; If you disagree with them, you're written off as nothing more than an ignorant savage.
And on the other hand, you have the Christians, who will do all of that, too, but they'll pray for you while they do it.
[citation needed]
As an atheist I would be very interested in what kind of mystical knowledge I presumably claim I have.
(And yes, I do understand that this was a joke)
Re: (Score:3)
You may not hold a conscious position, but I don't believe it's possible to be neither. Either you hold the preposition "I believe in at least one god" to be true, or you don't. The relevance doesn't come into question.
I don't think about the question unless someone else brings it up - much like you have now - but that doesn't mean I can't reason about my own beliefs (not faith).
(Yes, you may also take the Ignostic position that claims the preposition to be senseless since 'god' is undefined. Nevertheless,
Re:Not the Bible. (Score:5, Interesting)
One of my English teachers strongly recommended reading the Bible, not for the religious content, but because there are an enormous number of literary references to it.
Re:Not the Bible. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Feh. The Bible is merely one collection of texts out of Greco-Roman classical antiquity, and not the most influential among them. It is certainly not the work on which Plato, Aristotle, or Homer based their works. And are you discounting the entirety of the pre-Christian Roman Empire's contribution? Because a lot of people would consider that the basis of Western civilization and morality.
Has nothing to do with validity or desirability: (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't matter if it's a valid basis for morality. The question was if it had an impact and it's had a major one on you as seen in the very phrasing of what you said. The FSM is a riposte to it. "fuck god" is said as an example of a disagreement with it. It's embedded in many of the very idioms of the language you happen to use (obviously it would be different if you spoke Chinese rather than English).
No matter whether it is a valid basis or not, it's been used to define much of culture in many countries and the ideas in it shaped history. Sometimes it did so in pretty bad ways, such as the Crusades. Sometimes it led to better things.
You could say the same about the Koran for those in Islamic countries. Regardless of whether someone had read it or agreed with it, it had tremendous impact on the society around them.
Re:Not the Bible. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I owe the Bible a lot (Score:4, Interesting)
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/07/reading-fiction-empathy-study [guardian.co.uk]
Reading books also can expose you to many ideas, models, and world views that you might not otherwise encounter. Learning a new world view can radically change your personality and belief systems. Case in point; Young Christians learning about Atheism.
cej102937
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not the Bible. (Score:4, Interesting)
That's my favorite besides Jonah, which has the additional virtue of being very short.
Not that either is going to be of interest to someone looking to enhance their career.
Ecclesiastes showed me why enhancing my career didn't matter and to look to other things for fulfillment.
Re:Atlas Shrugged (Score:5, Funny)
Atlas Shrugged fantastic book Atlas Shrugged part 2 is in theaters today as luck would have it
Paul Ryan is on Slashdot?
Re:Atlas Shrugged (Score:5, Funny)
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Voyage From Yesteryear (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not sure if it was more heartening for convincing me that something resembling utopia is actually possible, or disheartening for convincing me it's something we'll never achieve on this planet unless we go through an incredible amount of pain and suffering first.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Have you actually read it? I find that most people that "rejoice it" have not. It's full of rape scenes.. In fact all of her books are focused on rape fantasy... Very very odd.
the right kind of jerk (Score:5, Informative)
the words used indicates he considered promotion to be enhancing career. Therefore he just needs to become the right kind of jerk.
The Prince -- Machiavelli
The Art of War -- Sun Tzu
Steve Jobs -- Dylan Baker
You know what, forget the last one, world doesn't need any more of those extreme over-the-top jerks
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Most of us are no good at judging literature and consider Dan Brown to be a totally kickass author?
Lots of us go to church so we're used to really boring, repetitive, preachy monologues full of unjustifiable logical leaps and question-begging?
Political science and theory education is all but non-existant outside of university major programs specializing in those areas? Ditto general philosophy and reasoning.
Re:Atlas Shrugged (Score:4, Interesting)
Most of the people who criticize Atlas Shrugged haven't read it, even if they say they have. It's a great book. I second the recommendation!
I read Atlas Shrugged and to my knowledge all of Ayn Rand's other published works. In fact I thought she was the shiznit when I was 16. It all seemed so simple: these people over here are good, and those other people over there are evil. However, I have come to understand real life is a good deal more complex than that, and the binary distinctions favoured by ideologues like Rand in no way correspond with reality.
I have come to believe that any philosophy based on hate is fundamentally untenable.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I got first
Who wrote this? I checked Amazon and Google Books and found nothing, so I'm guessing it's obscure. Then again, I only checked the top-10 results for each. Do you have an ISBN?
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously? Might as well throw The Hunger Games and Harry Potter on the list too, then.
It's decent juvi-fic, but life altering?
Re: (Score:2)
+1
Though I like KSR's "The Years of Rice and Salt" the best.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't skip Salinger.
Skip Raise High the Roofbeams and Seymour, an Introduction. Never, ever, ever read it. Ugh.
Skip Catcher.
Read Nine Stories, then read Franny and Zooey if you loved that.
If you loved both, maybe circle back and try Catcher after all.
If you loved all three of those... still don't read Raise High....
Re: (Score:2)
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I find this to be the greater work in the Philosophy of Science since Karl Popper's "the Logic of Scientific Discovery"
I couldn't get past the first chapter or two before I threw it down in disgust due to what I considered to be an author who wandered all over the place without actually saying much. IMHO he needed a much better editor.
That plus the fact I grew up knowing that Swans were back.
Re: (Score:3)
I feel that I should be able to offer insightful advice to this question. After all, I spent the first 14 years after college working in Silicon Valley, though I have now worked 12 years for a company I founded in NC. I always had difficulty reading, but lately I've read about a book a week, by converting them to text, converting them to sound with the Mary TTS text-to-speech system, and blasting them into my ears at 3X speedup. While not literary for most of my life, I am now in a position where I've re