The Elusive Quest for Growth by W. Easterly -- read it when I was in college hoping to study development (poverty, growth) economics; changed the way I look at poverty, economics and politics in general. Likewise I helped me ditch modern liberalism for classical one.
I love The Master and Margarita. A lithuanian friend introduced me to it and she told me that it was censored back when Lithuania was still part of the Soviet Union and they used to share those parts in secret (copied on a typewriter).
It's quite trendy at the moment, but Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari was quite the life changing book. As well as An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Commander Chris Hadfield was a rather inspirational tale.
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. It helped me be have more cohesion in my thinking in regards to my love for science and my very religious upbringing.
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck - great insight into the human condition
One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson - concise and pithy while containing lots of useful pointers
The Divine Center by Steven Covey - the spiritual grounding that informs his later more secular books and much more interesting if you don't mind religious thought mixed in with your motivation
The Foundation trilogy by Issac Asimov - Caused a huge detour in my life. Immersed myself in speculative fiction for decades due to the brain-quake caused by this material.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein - A detour of a different sort. Great introduction to alternative modes of thought to my uncultured religious teen mind.
LDS/Christian Scriptures - regardless of your belief level, the ideas/thoughts/stories/literature encompassed in scripture is enriching to the mind
As an atheist, I am curious what in the Bible has influenced you.
I read it and I found that without the faith part (which makes it a book important to you, no matter if you like it or not) it reads as a story like others. I am not trying to be critical in any way, it is that I failed to find really deep thoughts inside, which would make me think after reading it.
It is full of stories which have a moral, not different from many others and not thought provoquing (of course this is my personal opinion) - as a casual reader I be glad to be pointed to such parts there.
In fact, there's quite a lot of practical and interesting insights into relationship, finances, discipline and more, for example the book of Proverbs is full of literal advice on dealing with family, children, marriage, business ethics. The letters of Paul to the Romans and Corinthians contain very interesting thought provoking statements on love, relationship, respect. Even if you remove faith completely from the picture you can definitely find very interesting content.
When I was younger, I read the Bible from cover to cover, twice.
Now I am much older and as an atheist, I wish I hadn't wasted my time on such simplistic themes written by simplistic men. There are much deeper and more profound books also written by man, and far more complex.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 124 ms ] threadBehave - Robert Sapolsky.
Gene: An Intimate History - Siddhartha Mukherjee
The squel "Lila" is also quite profound.
Lord of the Rings
Cryptonomicon
Anathem
Moby Dick
The Master and Margarita
Walden
Arabian Sands
Gawain and the Green Knight
Beowulf
I have the english translation by Burgin and O'Connor, which is excellent. https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov/dp/...
Ok, I'll have to read this version too then (only know a german one so far). And probably learn russian.
Vagabonding - Rolf Potts (It's easy and cheap to move around the world these days)
The Black Swan by Nicholas Nassim Taleb
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
I read a lot of everything I can find but always get back to these.
“The Lucifer principle” introduced me to evolution and evo-psych thinking.
Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
Pavarotti: My World - Luciano Pavarotti, William Wright
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World - Jack Weatherford
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard Feynman
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Ecclesiastes
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
The Prince
How To Win Friends and Influence People
The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson - concise and pithy while containing lots of useful pointers
The Divine Center by Steven Covey - the spiritual grounding that informs his later more secular books and much more interesting if you don't mind religious thought mixed in with your motivation
The Foundation trilogy by Issac Asimov - Caused a huge detour in my life. Immersed myself in speculative fiction for decades due to the brain-quake caused by this material.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein - A detour of a different sort. Great introduction to alternative modes of thought to my uncultured religious teen mind.
LDS/Christian Scriptures - regardless of your belief level, the ideas/thoughts/stories/literature encompassed in scripture is enriching to the mind
I read it and I found that without the faith part (which makes it a book important to you, no matter if you like it or not) it reads as a story like others. I am not trying to be critical in any way, it is that I failed to find really deep thoughts inside, which would make me think after reading it.
It is full of stories which have a moral, not different from many others and not thought provoquing (of course this is my personal opinion) - as a casual reader I be glad to be pointed to such parts there.
Now I am much older and as an atheist, I wish I hadn't wasted my time on such simplistic themes written by simplistic men. There are much deeper and more profound books also written by man, and far more complex.