Ask HN: What books got you curious and inspired about fields other than CS?

limitless mind rusell targ

Ages ago, "Gödel, Escher, and Bach" turned me from a kid who liked computers into someone very into music, math, philosophy, and literature. It does a great job of showing the reader the joy of playing with abstract concepts across several fields, including writing.

Probably known to most people, but "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond turned me on to a lot of things. The work covers many topics, including history, geography, evolution, giving a very wide view, which serves as a good starting point to start exploring some of these topics deeper.

- Structural engineering -

"Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down"

J.E. Gordon

- Rocket engineering and history -

"Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants"

John Drury Clark

Physics for Entertainment by Yakov Perelman

innovator's dilemma Got me interested in the science of running technical businesses.

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston about climbing Giant Redwood trees in California. It started my own tree climbing which I learnt entirely from YouTube and some falls. In the book the author describes making love in a hammock high in the trees. Hell, what could be better than that?

- Yakov Perelman's "Physics for entertainment" was fun, and repeating an experiment at work once almost got me fired

- "Made to stick" by Chip and Dan Heath

- "The Dissapearing Spoon" got me curious about chemistry

-"Uncle Tungsten" by Oliver Sacks got me started on the rest of his books, taking my fascination in chemistry and nudging it towards medicine, neurology and psychology.

- "The Social Animal" and "Influence" showed me more about psychology

- Borrowing a copy of the classic textbook Gray's Anatomy while recuperating from a serious accident showed me how fascinating the human body is

"The Body Electric" & "Cross Currents" by Dr. Robert O. Becker got me into health effects of wireless radiation exposures.

"The undercover economist" by Tim Harford got me interested in economics.

"Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky on community organizing.

Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad