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Ask HN: I have no commitments for the next 6 months – what books should I read?

4 points by cvigoe ↗ HN
I'm a 3rd year undergraduate student and for various reasons I'm taking the rest of the year out and returning to studying Electronic Engineering next September. I know there are a lot of "Best books of 20xx" posts on HN, but I'm looking for overall recommendations for someone who is intelligent and thinks a lot, but has done almost no reading before (excluding school readings etc.) and wants catch up with the rest of humanity in terms of literature. I intend on spending the next 6 months doing a lot of reading, and when I return to college, I intend on getting into a good habit of continued reading. I'm interested to see what the HN community considers the top books of all time to add to my list, both fiction and non-fiction. My current list is as follows (no particular order):

  1: Happy City (Charles Montgomery)

  2: Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)

  3: Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl)

  4: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel)

  5: The Tender Bar (J. R. Moehringer)

  6: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Charles Duhigg)

  7: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Ashlee Vance)

  8: Superintelligence (Nick Bostrom)

  9: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Douglas Hofstadter)

  10: How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)

  11: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Eliezer Yudkowsky)

  12: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner)

  13: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (Randall Munroe)

  14: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (Douglas Adams)

  15: Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference (William MacAskill)

  16: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Edward Tufte)

  17: Butterick's Practical Typography (Matthew Butterick)

14 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 47.8 ms ] thread
Freak_NL
> […] recommendations for someone who is intelligent and thinks a lot, but has done almost no reading before (excluding school readings etc.) and wants catch up with the rest of humanity in terms of literature.

You are undoubtedly aware of books that are relevant to and liked by people in the STEM field; your list already shows this quite clearly. So I would say that you do not need any recommendations for books that would appeal specifically to your peers. On the contrary; while your list is not too bad (but very US-centric; e.g., Carnegie), it is the type of list you would hand an undergraduate to prepare for his studies.

That is a noble goal in itself, but has nothing to do with catching up with the rest of humanity in terms of literature.

My advice: go look for literature in the broadest sense, but cut down on the self-help and non-fiction. Find out about the classics you've missed out on or couldn't appreciate in high school, and ask people in person about their recommendations. Have you considered asking a librarian at your local library?

Freak_NL
Also, in terms of inspiration and at the risk of devolving into a list of generic favourites, you could do worse than taking this list as a starting point:

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/4chanlit/images/e/e2/136...

Source: http://4chanlit.wikia.com/wiki/Recommended_Reading/sub . Ignore the fact that this list was compiled on 4chan, the books listed are all quite good.

cvigoe
Thanks! Yes I was aware that my list was very STEM heavy, most of my friends are in STEM fields which of course has heavily influenced the list. Funnily enough, the thought of asking a librarian had completely slipped my mind, definitely something I'll do.

With regards to your response to the "catching up with the rest of humanity", I definitely agree that my list so far does not reflect that intent, but this is exactly why I am reaching out! Hopefully I will be able to compose a more holistic list in time!

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brudgers
Instead of composing a list, pick up a book and start reading. If it's good keep reading. If it isn't put it down. One of the great things that comes with getting old(er) is that different books are better or worse at different time in my life. And, sometimes the same book is a different book at a different time in my life.
danieltillett
Rather than suggest books, can I suggest that you go to your local library and select some books at random off the shelf (make sure you use a real random process). You will find mostly crud, but around 1 in 20 will be something you will cherish that you would never have found in a thousand years any other way.
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brudgers
Blood Meridan, Cormac McCarthy.
pprbckwrtr
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Joan Didion)

Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Zindel)

The Things They Carried (Tim O' Brien)

This Side of Paradise (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) Essentially a children's sci-fi novel, but it doesn't read that way.

A Moveable Feast (Ernest Hemingway) My personal favorite (along with his short stories, which I highly recommend), but if it's your first time reading Hemingway, might be better to go with The Sun Also Rises.

Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates)

On the Road (Jack Kerouac) *One of my personal favorites, but most people either love or hate it, so maybe save this towards the end.

On my own reading list:

Speedboat (Renata Adler)

Money (Martin Amis)

Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

pprbckwrtr
This was formatted better when I first typed it out! I have no idea why it italicized some things.
0942v8653
Asterisks turn into italics:

    some *formatted* words
becomes "some formatted words"

If you put a space after the first one it won't be formatted: some * formatted* words

nickolasBruce
Good list. I really recommend these to everyone. they are listed in my order of love to like. Hope you enjoy Conor. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (864) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (159) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (268) Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (337) The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (130) and last but not least The Stranger by Albert Camus (this one is short, idk how many pages, but its like 60. and if you read it from an existential point of view, it can have life altering effects.) Keep in mind, these are my absolute favorites. I don't think you can go wrong with any one of them. =]