Books that changed your life/perspective?

[Inxoy]

I've never read Atlas Shrugged, so don't have a strong opinion about it, but this makes me laugh anyway. http://www.angryflower.com/348.html

Meh. So, that there is a position anti-randians take. The "real work is done on the backs of everyone else while the rich owners collect the money"

The book addresses this very well I think. Sure, there are some worthless wealthy people but that isn't who the book's protagonists are.

This is usually how really bad conversations/confrontations start. I'll just say this: it's a good story.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Preferred Cat's Cradle myself.

[penwash]

I've never read Atlas Shrugged, so don't have a strong opinion about it, but this makes me laugh anyway. http://www.angryflower.com/348.html

Meh. So, that there is a position anti-randians take. The "real work is done on the backs of everyone else while the rich owners collect the money"

The book addresses this very well I think. Sure, there are some worthless wealthy people but that isn't who the book's protagonists are.

This is usually how really bad conversations/confrontations start. I'll just say this: it's a good story.

I agree with you.
When I worked for corporate America, I was sheltered from business deals and contacts with these individuals that I and my co-workers label as "wealthy, lazy people" who just sign contracts and have us "drones" do all the work.

Now that I have my own business to run, I end up meeting a lot of these people face-to-face, done negotiations, meetings, etc.
I end up finding less and less proofs to my preconception about lazy rich people and I realize that there are probably more people who became successful because they are not afraid of hard work and they have the tenacity not to give up.

And remember, one does not have to be rich to be a jerk.

[heraclitus682]

When I was a younger man my pick would have been Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums. Melville's Moby Dick makes me want to leave it all behind and go fishing. Danielewski's House of Leaves showed me that a novel can be truly scary.

[TSherbs]

Nausea, Sartre

[Annie]

To Kill A Mockingbird. Read first when I was 12 and many times in the 40 years since.

[nusiax]

Delta of Venus Anais Nin

[Diabolical_Engineer]

A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter Miller: I heard the radio play for this when I was a little kid listening to NPR in the car with my Dad. It helped kick off an enduring love of SF.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross : The Laundry reminds me way too much of some places I've worked. Super geeky humor is fun too.

[Marsilius]

A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter Miller: I heard the radio play for this when I was a little kid listening to NPR in the car with my Dad. It helped kick off an enduring love of SF.

Yes, yes, yes. That was also my intro to science fiction (other than Matthew Looney), given to me by the same friend that gave me The Cyberiad.

[sharmon202]

I've never read Atlas Shrugged, so don't have a strong opinion about it, but this makes me laugh anyway. http://www.angryflower.com/348.html

It is really quite incorrect, person who did this must not have read the book. When the people left, they did everything themselves. The book is very thoughtful about how things are and should be. I worry sometimes that people will not want to be rich if 50% or more is taxed. Why bother?

[TSherbs]

Siddhartha, Hesse

[bluesea]

Siddhartha, Hesse

That was influential, for sure.

[Curtisvan]

- A few of the ~200 business books that I read since I kick myself out of corporate America and start a company. I can name the titles, but I don't want to bore you all.

If you had to pick just a couple "business" books, what should I read? I'm particularly interested in time management, people management and sales.

7 Habits For Highly Effective People

[Lady Onogaro]

Farthing, Ha'Penny, and Crown by Jo Walton made a big impression on me and seem quite relevant today.

[ethernautrix]

Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
Blood and Guts in High School, Kathy Acker
For sure, Jack Kerouac's books and biographies
London Fields, Martin Amis (mostly for his turns of phrases and other literary eye-openers for me)
Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky


Not in that order. Certainly not a complete list.

[RNHC]

The Fountainhead. I realized that I would never have (or capable of having) a pure burning drive like Howard Roark. I was depressed and oddly relieved at the same time.

[penwash]

A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter Miller: I heard the radio play for this when I was a little kid listening to NPR in the car with my Dad. It helped kick off an enduring love of SF.

Yes, yes, yes. That was also my intro to science fiction (other than Matthew Looney), given to me by the same friend that gave me The Cyberiad.

"Consider Phlebas" by Iain Banks was the one book that I still remember that kicks my fondness of Science Fiction.
As a teenager, I was fascinated by the thickness of the book and borrowed it from the library (owned by or associated with the British Embassy), still don't remember nor comprehend the whole story, but it really stretched my imagination and whet my appetite for complex space operas.

[sharmon202]

The Fountainhead. I realized that I would never have (or capable of having) a pure burning drive like Howard Roark. I was depressed and oddly relieved at the same time.

Ya know, I felt similarly, though I also felt that I would blow up my creation if it was bastardized and turned into a politically correct montage

[sharmon202]

- A few of the ~200 business books that I read since I kick myself out of corporate America and start a company. I can name the titles, but I don't want to bore you all.

If you had to pick just a couple "business" books, what should I read? I'm particularly interested in time management, people management and sales.

7 Habits For Highly Effective People

From my reading, most business books are anecdotal, what this one person did in this one situation. No help to someone in general. J. Welch was great but how does that help me really?

[manoeuver]

When I was a younger man my pick would have been Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums.

I could have written this same sentence.

I recommend the works of Nassim Taleb- read them in order: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan and Antifragile. These books changed how I gather and consume information, make decisions and see the world.

This is my current favorite translation of the Dao. It's amazing- it includes explanations and criticism from the last 2000 years.

A recent book well worth a read: The Dao of Capital. If you like the Dao, the Austrian School of Economics and pine trees, this book is great.