The Death of Ivan Ilyich

A few of this year's highlights for me and my notes on the books, where available. Fiction - Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky - https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/2ab29d16-0cb1-4ef8-8cde... (https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/2ab29d16-0cb1-4ef8-8cde-8c9d90db0daf) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/65214629-29ac-45a6-b474... (https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/65214629-29ac-45a6-b474-b9fad1285564) Bleak House by Charles Dickens The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy - https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/bd090cb4-bc9a-41cb-9833... (https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/bd090cb4-bc9a-41cb-9833-f60834ccd28c) Nonfiction - The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine (my luckiest find of the year) Stalin: The Court of The Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore - https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/13ebec0d-0859-4858-864a... (https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/13ebec0d-0859-4858-864a-8c28bacfed8f) Vienna by Richard Cockett - https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/c0e1d1fb-dea7-456b-a95e... (https://papertrail.biblish.com/books/c0e1d1fb-dea7-456b-a95e-fcccdd63814a)…

"A Confession" [1] and "The Kingdom of God is Within You" [2] by Leo Tolstoy. I believe Mahatma Gandhi considered the latter as a core influence for his nonviolent resistance philosophy. Also, "The Death of Ivan Ilych" [3] by Tolstoy. I felt like a ping-pong ball in the hands of the author: whichever way he wanted me to think at a certain point in the plot, I did. Masterful insight into the life and death of an ordinary, diligent man. And, above and beyond that, it depicts the rarely avoidable self-centeredness of humans. Oh, and lately, the prominent Finnish deep ecologist Pentti Linkola [4] has been a huge influence on me. In the Nordic countries, he is sometimes called "ecofascist", but this is an obvious cherry-picked overstatement of his views to my mind. I think only one of his books has been translated into English, though: "Can Life Prevail?" [5]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confession 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_Is_Within_Y... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_Is_Within_You) 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Ivan_Ilyich 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentti_Linkola and a fan page at http://www.penttilinkola.com/…

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy is a tremendous book.

Tons of good stuff already here. I love lists like this. Two short b-sides: - The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway - The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Some books that I recently read and enjoyed: Non-fiction a) Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari) b) Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon (Kim Zetter) c) Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution (Steven Levy) d) Masters of Doom (David Kushner) Fiction: e) The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy) f) Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)

Not in any particular order, but I'd highly recommend these interesting books: How to run a Thriving Business - Ralph Warner (the founder of Nolo book) The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy (I read this based on a recommendation by a fellow HNer) Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - Dan Ariely. The Winner-Take-All Society - Robert H. Frank, et all. Gun, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond.