Ask Slashdot: What Are Some Books You Wish You Had Read Earlier? 437
Reader joshtops writes: Hey, community. Could you folks please name some books that you wish you had read earlier -- especially because these books presumbably had an impact on your life. The books could be from any genre or year.
Back to the Future (Score:5, Funny)
Grays Sports Almanac 1950-2000... back in 1990
Dune (Score:5, Insightful)
Shocking how much more to it than the movie/tv versions. In fact, they only serve as spoilers.
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The same thing is true of Harry Potter. I did love the movies, but years later my son and I read all of the books together. It's amazing how much more is in the books than was in the movies. There are whole storylines that were just dropped in the movies. I do understand the reasoning - making a "Completely Textually Accurate Harry Potter" movie would have made each movie 8 hours long and very boring - but the books have so much more depth to them compared to the movies.
Re:Dune (Score:5, Informative)
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Frank Herbert wrote Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune as a unit. Indeed, the last two books were finished (though not published) before the first. The other books were more or less pot-boilers - or, at most, sequels written in response to demand.
Many readers were shocked and disappointed by the undoing of the apparently omnipotent Paul Atreides. But that was Herbert's idea all along - to undermine the idea of the supreme hero. See Tim O'Reilly's biography of Herbert for details.
Re:Dune (Score:5, Funny)
I just finished reading "Second Cousins Once Removed of Dune". Quite a page turner.
Re: Dune (Score:5, Insightful)
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I agree about the unabridged Stranger in a Strange Land. The political power machinations of those bastards is some of the most riveting reading. If there ever was a SF crossover book for non-SF fans to read, this is it.
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Extremely minor nit, but Chapterhouse: Dune was the sixth book in the Dune series, and it didn't _quite_ finish off the series.
I've read Dune multiple times, and I read the original Dune books 2-6 once, many years ago. I don't remember a lot, but I didn't like them very much.
Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson took things in all different directions with prequels, sequels, and whatever you call a book that comes between two sequential and previously published books in a series. They're entertaining--at least t
Re:Dune (Score:5, Informative)
whatever you call a book that comes between two sequential and previously published books in a series
An interquel
Re:Dune (Score:5, Insightful)
I explain The Lord of the Rings this way: walk walk walk walk walk walk fight run run walk walk walk walk run walk walk fight walk walk walk .....
Chapter 2: walk walk
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My wife would agree with you, but add something about how unwashed and grubby they usually were.
But then again, when you're trudgin' across the tundra, mile after mile, trudgin' across the tundra - with not a parish in sight, you get grubby.
The book I wish I had read earlier... (Score:2)
The book I wish I had read earlier...
My Diary.
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Eh, I just finished your copy of it. It wasn't that interesting.
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Eh, I just finished your copy of it. It wasn't that interesting.
Did you read the part where I died. Didn't seem realistic to me.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Score:5, Insightful)
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
By the time I'd read it I had figured most of it out, but if I'd read it earlier I could have saved some time getting there.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Along these lines, "That's Not What I Meant! How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships" By Deborah Tannen
It is amazing how improving your ability to communicate increases your effectiveness and makes habit 5 from the 7 habits much more achievable
Re:Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Score:5, Informative)
Executive summary:
0. The usual stuff about why all other self-help books are crap but this one isn't.
1. Be proactive
blablabla
2. Begin with the end in mind
goal-oriented blablabla
3. Put things first
prioritize blabla
4. Think win-win
the others are your partners pretty easy, eh?
skip two virtues, something about communicating in emphatic ways, etc. not really important, fuck it
7. Sharpen the saw
take a break and never stop learning, etc. blabla
$$$ SUCCESS
easy-peasy
Re: (Score:3)
#1 habit of highly ineffective people: Don't bother understanding it, just get someone else to produce an executive summary for you.
The Bible (Score:5, Funny)
Definitely The Bible. Doesn't matter which version. I was well into my 30s before I started sacrificing chickens after accidentally touching women during menstruation.
Re:The Bible (Score:5, Informative)
Let me suck some of the humor out of this moment with a fact check: chickens weren't part of the Jewish sacrificial system during Biblical times.
As far as animals were concerned, sheep, goats, oxen, and bulls were regularly sacrificed, with different ones being used for different types of sacrifices. Doves were an acceptable sacrifice in some cases, though I believe they were only used when the person offering the sacrifice couldn't afford the appropriate animal.
Also, if memory serves, touching a woman during menstruation merely made you ritually unclean until evening, at which point you'd take a bath and then be back to ritually clean again. I don't recall it requiring a sacrifice, though I've only read the Bible cover-to-cover maybe a dozen times so far, so I could be mistaken.
Re:The Bible (Score:4, Interesting)
Thank you. I made many deliberate theological errors in an attempt at absurdist humor. And also because I didn't feel like firing up Leviticus to see exactly what kind of bird needs to be sacrificed and in what fashion. Christians don't even really obey anything in the Old Testament - except when they do.
Re: (Score:3)
Same for me as well, with exceptions.
The version is not relevant, as what I was looking for is manuscript evidence, the oldest and most accurate, with the least distortions.
Next was reading from the original languages for as complete an understanding as possible: sentence diagramming, defining jargon, categorical exploration of subjects/jargon, adopting the viewpoint of the writers and readers at the time the documents were written and read.
Last was putting away all of the preconceived notions given by beli
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most pastors are full of shit, most Christians are not trying to find God only support for their legalistic thinking, and every single atheist I have ever met is fighting a straw man and not the Bible.
I think most atheists are not trying to fight the Bible, but rather the beliefs professed by those full-of-shit pastors and Christians you mention, who in turn hide behind the Bible to shield themselves from criticism of those beliefs. The kind of in-depth analysis of the actual text you describe is a great way to pierce that shield, and one I've frequently seen used; not quite to the impressive degree of detail you describe, but atheists knowing the Bible better than the believers that hide behind it is a
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Whatever you can say about Trump - one thing he is not and has never been is a religious conservative.
And they no this - look how poorly he did in the primaries with them. And take a look at Utah in the General.
Look, you don't like Trump. Got it. But making up idiotic sh!t like this. Dude. It's too transparent,
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Whatever you can say about Trump - one thing he is not and has never been is a religious conservative.
Exactly, if anything he is the antithesis of one; he is a real estate promoter and uses the same style as President as he did pushing real estate. Unfortunately, while it worked fine in the New York real estate world and during the election it has caused, and will continue to cause, problems for him as President.
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"And they no this" should be "And they know this"
Best books I've read (Score:2, Interesting)
All the Adventures of a Curious Character (on Richard Feynman) by Ralph Leighton
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Consciousness Explained (Score:3)
Rereading Daniel Dennett's "Conscious Explained" now... really opened my eyes to what consciousness is and isn't.
(I reference it in my own comic on dealing with mortality, as plugged in my sig)
Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Con (Score:3)
anyone that's going to dig in to Dennett's explanation of consciousness should also consider two epistemological works by rudolf steiner:
The Philosophy of Freedom - Some results of introspective observation following the methods of Natural Science:
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/... [rsarchive.org]
and
The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/... [rsarchive.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, why? I thought it was a pretty fair article, so thanks for that.
And I think Dennett's more right than not. Consciousness isn't what it intuitively seems to be on the surface, it takes more introspection to get a feel for it.
At least try "The Mind's I", a book of essays by lots of folks he co-edited with Hofstadter.
Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein (Score:5, Interesting)
I first encountered Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy in adulthood and I immediately wished someone had introduced it to me in middle school. For the purposes of this discussion, it's about a kid who keeps getting moved from one society into another. Each time he assimilates into a new group he notices the strengths and weaknesses of the new culture. Most of the coming-of-age books I was exposed to glorified the misfit and tried to reassure the reader that it's OK to be different. Citizen of the Galaxy doesn't bother with that at all---the protagonist integrates more-or-less successfully into every society he joins and he never gets angsty about not fitting in. This would have been a good thing to read when I was younger.
Re:Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein (Score:4, Interesting)
(This is perhaps something to keep in mind before reading just one or two Heinlein books and deciding based on the society of the protagonists that Heinlein was a fascist or a hippie or a communist or a libertarian or a cannibal.)
"Snakes in Suits" (Score:2)
Before I ended up working for a psychopath.
Down and Out (Score:2, Interesting)
Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell.
While 1984 is better known, Down and Out is much more relevant especially today.
The User Manual (Score:5, Insightful)
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RTFM. Wiser words were never acronymized.
Here you go:
The Male Body: An Owner's Manual [amazon.com]
The Female Body: An Owner's Manual [amazon.com]
How to Win Friends and Influence People (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously.
There's a thousand fantastic resources available on how to be a better programmer. Accruing technical acumen has always been the easiest part of navigating my career. Knowing how to work with humans has always been tricky. I wish I would have read this book back in high school.
Re:How to Win Friends and Influence People (Score:5, Interesting)
Totally agree.
But I've noticed that quite a few didn't notice the warnings on not to fake it. You have to work on yourself to actually BE interested in people.
If you fake it, it will come across as weird.
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Ditto. The title is deliberately deceptive, in a good way.
Some of us weren't raised with social skills. This book changed by life.
The Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson (Score:3, Insightful)
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I read the first book about 20 years ago. It was good, but never had the chance to finish the rest.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy (not) (Score:3)
No... don't. Everyone in our college clique who read it became fantastically unsuccessful. I only got a half way into the first book and somehow managed to salvage my life.
I'd read the The Book of the SubGenius instead. At least then you'll know how to fail upward.
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Aw, that's a shame. It's a really funny series. Now, there's not much I'd take seriously in there (other than maybe a little glee in occasionally being subversive), but I've read it repeatedly without it ruining my life.
Scifi/Fantasy (Score:4, Interesting)
Kind of wish that I'd read Ringworld earlier, didn't get to anything Niven until I was already in my 30s. It's interesting to see what all Niven did with works in other genres like in the scripts he wrote for Star Trek: The Animated Series that included characters from N-Space.
Atlas Shrugged (Score:5, Insightful)
1) It's damn ok, if not mandatory, that a person feel good about making money off their talents
2) Pure unabashed capitalism is an extreme philosophy.
Re:Atlas Shrugged (Score:5, Interesting)
Never understood that selection. The Fountainhead is an incredible book. It explains the basic principles incredibly well. And it does so without all the obvious stupid mistakes Rand makes in Atlas Shrugged. Shrugged was obviously written by someone with first hand experience in the problems with Communism but had no idea of how to do Capitalism correctly.
Don't tell anyone to read Atlas Shrugged, it just makes them stupider. Point them at The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand's true masterpiece.
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Atlas Shrugged is a powerful book, I think her philosophy is flawed, but she makes a strong statement and case. Never read Fountainhead to know if it is even better.
The main problem with Atlas Shrugged is that it needed a strong editor. Rand tends to prattle on a lot, there are parts of the book that you could just skip over 20 pages and not have missed anything important. Overall well written though.
Re:Atlas Shrugged (Score:5, Insightful)
They are full of one dimensional characters who's defining traits are egomania and greed, or are impossibly Mary Sue, such as Mr. Roark, who was evidently born with the perfect knowledge of every subject. The central thesis is terminally flawed by the assumption that some sort of capitalist utopia can be achieved by a collective of completely self centered sociopaths. I think in the end they say more about Mrs. Rand than any true economic or social insight.
But I highly encourage people to read them so they can see their banality for themselves, and to arm themselves for when they get trapped in a corner by a randroid at a party.
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I was left with two distinct ideas after reading this book that I'd wished I'd had 20 years earlier. 1) It's damn ok, if not mandatory, that a person feel good about making money off their talents 2) Pure unabashed capitalism is an extreme philosophy.
Anthem by Rand as well.
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." - John Rogers
Seriously, anything by Ayn Rand is the last thing a teenager should read. It's the terrible advice you could get at an impressionable age from that kid that all the adults agree you shouldn't hang out with, dressed up with big words, bound in a respectable-looking book, and coming from an "adult." It's an old man in a lab coat giving you heroin in a pharmacist's bottle.
The Naked Ape; The Selfish Gene (Score:3, Interesting)
The Naked Ape (a Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal), by Desmond Morris, 1967.
The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins, 1976.
These give clues about what we are, and why.
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Nice. Selfish Gene would be on my list. I'll be sure to check out Naked Ape.
In that sciencey/origins set I'd add:
* Before the Dawn (using genetic information to trace human development and migration)
* Song of the Dodo (about extinction)
* Guns, Germs, and Steel (about geography influencing civilization's development)
* any of the Leaky or Johanssen books about Lucy, Lucy's child, etc. - as much fun for the bickering between the camps as for the developing understanding of early human/pre-human evolution
A Catcher in the Rye (Score:2)
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Score:5, Interesting)
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The short list (Score:2)
The Four Agreements [wikipedia.org]
Meditation [wikipedia.org] related literature including Buddha's Brain [rickhanson.net] and Wherever You Go, There You Are [amazon.com]
Also "The Bible" and "The Torah", but so that I can properly address the cognitive distortions of the Christian/God-centric mindset as needed in an authoritative manner.
Books I Wish I'd Read Earlier (Score:3)
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Perhaps a grammar primer would have been more useful.
The Walking Drum, Louis L'Amour (Score:2)
I actually read it at exactly the right time, maybe I was around 14-15 years old. Helped me put some things in context and get some good priorities in life, helped me get where I am now.
Ulysses - James Joyce (Score:4, Funny)
Mere Christianity (Score:2)
There are plenty of great books that I wish I had read earlier:
1. Masterminds of Programming
2. Infinite Jest
3. The Sun Also Rises
are just a few examples. However, the one that came to mind first was Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. I really tried to stay away from it because I heard so many people say that it was a great book. I didn't want to read it just out of spite.
When I finally read it, I really enjoyed it and it helped me think through some things differently that I did not expect.
The Cat in the Hat (Score:4, Funny)
This book would have changed my world had I read it when I was four. But now that I'm 44, not so much.
Yaz
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This book would have changed my world had I read it when I was four. But now that I'm 44, not so much.
Yaz
Then you must not be part of the illuminati and understand the secret hidden message about the book and the new world order.
Ulysses (Score:2)
Sherlock Holmes (Score:3)
The Go Programming Language (Score:2)
The Road Ahead (Score:2)
There is more to read than you can but go for it anyway!
Bill Gates' twee The Road Ahead is definitely a book that should not be on your list. That dweeb completely missed the importance of the internet.
Suggestions
1984
Brave New World
Paris in the Twentieth Century, by Jules Verne
The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White
The English Language | A User's Guide
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (Score:4, Interesting)
Bad Science should be basic requirement in all high schools. People need to understand the difference between good science and bad science. Too many people think good science is bad, and bad science is good.
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Some people even think consensus is science!
Contact and GEB (Score:5, Interesting)
Contact by Carl Sagan
and
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
Never Split the Difference (Score:2)
https://www.amazon.com/Never-S... [amazon.com]
Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
Interesting read, and you end up with Tactical Listening skills. Changes how you view negotiation situations completely. And everything is a negotiation in life. ;)
No, I'm Not getting too old for this, but... (Score:2)
The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Definitive Guide to Dimensional Modeling
I don't have the energy/drive to plow through tech books, absorbing their sweet, sweet knowledge I did 20 years ago.
I'll still get there, but with significantly more breaks and annoyance at not being done already.
The Mythical Man Month (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are an engineer, manager or other technical career.... OR a MANAGER of anybody who falls into those categories, this should be *required* reading every few years.
Truths I've learned from this book include...
"If one woman can make a baby in 9 months... Then let's get 9 to make one it 1 month..." is a logical fallacy often used by management.
"Technical teams should be clearly scoped and fairly small or the amount of effort required for communications and coordination will consume more resources than the actual work. "
The classics (Score:3)
Only the classics, i.e.
TAoCP (Donald Knuth)
GEB (Douglas Hofstadter)
The Illuminatus! trilogy (Robert Shea & Robert A. Wilson)
Taleb's Incerto series (Score:2)
Taleb's 4-part Incerto series (see http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/247576/incerto-4-book-bundle-by-nassim-nicholas-taleb/9780812997699/ [penguinrandomhouse.com]) is fantastic reading. Changes your perspective on the nature of randomness and how much control we actually have over our system and our environment. Not just control, but how little information we even have about the situation! (it is easy to get "fooled by randomness"). Antifragile is particularly a very good concept we should follow in all of our systems; it occ
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman (Score:3)
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I read Surely You're Joking as a high-school junior, and loved it so much I decided to major in physics. I spent most of my college years feeling like I was continually failing to live up to Feynman's example, but not knowing how to get more out of it, because when it comes down to it, few people are as dynamic as that guy. So, you may have missed out on a better college experience, but you might have also just missed out on four years of feeling guilty and inadequate.
Most Secret War (Score:2)
"Most Secret War" by R. V. Jones
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Se... [amazon.com]
A story of doing vital technology on the time scales of total war. This book should be read by anyone who cares about practical innovation.
How to retire rich at 25 (Score:2)
Dianetics (Score:4, Funny)
Dot bomb (Score:2)
dot.bomb: My Days and Nights at an Internet GoliathOct 15, 2001
by J. David Kuo
Ideally in 1995.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Score:2)
I wish I had read this [wikipedia.org] *before* I had to repair my motorcycle because it, in fact, did not help me fix it.
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White (Score:3)
The Elements of Style [amazon.com].
It's not actually a book I wish I'd read early, it was a book I did read early and have been grateful for ever since!
It's a short, clear, concise book as you would hope for from a book to help improve your writing. It has many small points that really stick with you, in my case for decades.
For some reason the Kindle edition (linked to above) seems to be totally free at the moment so you have no excuse not to grab it! The paperback itself is fairly small if you prefer paper.
Financial books (Score:3)
What I really wish I'd read more of earlier are financial books. How to handle money, how to budget, how to eliminate debt or be much more careful about using it than the average American is, how to invest, how to plan for retirement, all of those things.
I'm not really attached to these, but they're examples of a few reference points that made a difference to me in terms of how I thought about my finances:
* a Dave Ramsey book (they're all kind of redundant) - for budgeting, saving, and month-to-month financial management
* The Millionaire Next Door - some framework for understanding what habits contribute to wealth, and which ones don't
* The Four Pillars of Investing - a lot of history and basic investing environment
* The Intelligent Investor - a more detailed perspective on investing and history
Amusing Ourselves to Death (Score:4, Interesting)
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by the media theorist and NYU prof Neil Postman.
Read it a week ago after letting it languish on my bookshelf since college. Really wished I had read it ages ago! I'd have a lot more books than TV series under my belt.
Postman prophetically saw how TV would drastically reduce both our individual and our culture's collective capacity for critical thought and intelligent discourse by conditioning us to expect entertainment in every sphere of our lives (not just TV). In this important book, he sounded the alarm bell for American democracy. And his warning is even more relevant and critical today in our binge-watching, distractable, and social-media driven culture.
Here's a snippet from Postman's own forward:
"... What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture... As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right."
Lord of the Rings (Score:3)
Sagan (Score:2)
1984 (Score:3)
I'm in my mid-forties now, and it has influenced and informed my opposition to a surveillance state ever since. I remember thinking how awful it was that Winston would go out into the forest with his lover, thinking he was alone -- but they were STILL able to record him out there. As others have said, 1984 was supposed to be a cautionary tale, not an instruction manual.
Re:The manipulated man (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, if you can't experience it firsthand you can always read about it I suppose.
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I too like reading watered-down eastern philosophy to make me feel #deep
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Curious. I'm not out to start a fight here, but recently I was reading a web site called Meaningness ( https://meaningness.com/ [meaningness.com] ) that introduced me to Eckhart Tolle by vigorously arguing with him ( https://meaningness.com/metabl... [meaningness.com] ). That's about as much as I know about the guy, though, but it discouraged me from pursuing his writings.
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You should find "Final Blackout". I read it long ago, as well as "Battlefield Earth". It is a very good story.
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Are you REALLY sure LRH actually wrote any of them?
IIRC, "Battlefield Earth" was when he was alive but "Mission Earth" came out after he died. The weird thing about "Mission Earth" was the narrative structure: the first seven volumes was written in the first person, shifts to the third person in the last three volumes, set several centuries ahead and looking back on the story. Makes me wonder if someone else wrote the remaining volumes.
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I thought Battlefield Earth was bad enough. That cured me of wanting to read anything else by him.
When I attended Alien Con last year, there was a L. Ron Hubbard table with his all books, someone dressed up as Psychlo alien, and a huge Styrofoam spaceship. If that wasn't crazy enough, I've overheard people talking about their alien abduction experiences and the government cover up.
https://blog.cdreimer.com/2016/11/20/escaping-from-the-alien-con-2016/ [cdreimer.com]
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An encyclopaedia would have been more useful, I think.
Re:My recommendation? (Score:5, Funny)
I would have loved to read it but I am a bit tied up at the moment.
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Though you type remarkably well with your remaining limbs...
Free books from the UNIX founders (Score:3)
A quick google of "The UNIX Programming Environment PDF" shows several available sources. Archive.org has a few other titles.
The AWK Programming Language [archive.org]
The C Programming Language - First Edition [archive.org] (useful for old systems, HP-UX bundled K&R compiler), Second Edition [archive.org].
Practice of Web Programming [archive.org] (audio), also CBC Spark [archive.org]
DMR final web page mirror [archive.org]
The UNIX Time-Sharing System [archive.org] (C Programming Language alternate text)