Walden

Walden, by Henry David Therou. Written by a man who got tired of modern life and decided to live in a hut in the woods. Written in the 1850s. Full of lovely lines such as “I hear they’re building a telegraph line from Maine to Texas. Have they stopped to ask, does Texas have anything to say to Maine?”

I was hoping to see Thoreau here. I'd also recommend his book Walking, maybe even to be read before Walden. It identifies and preempts a lot of what the 'mindfulness' industry deals with and reorients it all around an idea of wilderness. But I'd also be careful reading Walden. I don't think it's a literal instruction manual as some have taken it.

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand 1984, by Orwell Walden, by Thoreau Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse But really, the one that had most direct impact in my life was Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. Not in my vision of the world but in my lifestyle.

Walden, by Thoreau The Myth of the Machine, by Lewis Mumford Cloud Hidden, by Alan Watts Computer Lib/Dream Machines, by Ted Nelson (Technology purpose and arrow) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer Small is Beautiful, by E. F. Schumacher

there are two: Pirsig's "Zen..." and Thoreau's "Walden...." the quality which is defined is not the quality, and the sun is but a morning star. iykyk. no posturing intended, just answering the d*n question.

Walden, in which the author, Henry David Thoreau, builds a cabin in the woods and lives there for two years, two months, and two days. He gives up many of modern life’s luxuries and makes some incredibly profound observations on how much unnecessary bloat we have in modern life. It was published in 1854 yet remains relevant. Henry David Thoreau was part of the Transcendentalist movement, so the book reflects a lot of that philosophy. I am revisiting it after first reading it a decade ago and am finding it really fascinating now that I’m older and have spent a bit of time in the workforce and in society.

Walden - Thoreau Meditations - Aurelius Simply existing can be exhilarating.

I can't give just one, but here are a few that had a strong influence on me: "12 Rules for Life" by Jordan Peterson, "Why Switzerland?" Jonathan Steinberg, "Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John C. Bogle, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Butron Malkiel, "Liberalismus" by Ludwig von Mises, "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, "A Treatise of Human Nature" by David Hume, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, "The Law" by Frédéric Bastiat, "Autobiography" by Benjamin Franklin, "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine, "Gespräche mit Goethe" by Johann Peter Eckermann, "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, "The Old Regime and the Revolution" Alexis de Tocqueville, "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "A Treatise on Political Economy" by Jean-Baptiste Say, "The Man Versus the State" by Herbert Spencer, "The Revolt of the Masses" by José Ortega y Gasset, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" by Joseph Alois Schumpeter, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" by Karl Popper, "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman, "On Power" Bertrand de Jouvenel, "1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the Quill" by Andrzej Bobkowski, "My Correct Views on Everything" by…

+1 for Walden. You don't have to go live in a cabin in the woods to get a ton of benefit from that book. One of the books that helped me see the world with new eyes.

Atlas Shrugged is one of those books that is often life-changing. Whether that is positive or not depends wildly upon the reader and their situation. Other books I'd put in that category are Fight Club and Walden

"Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. Truly did change the way I think about the world, the fundamentals of what is required for a free life, and how humankind so often tethers itself to a life of misery. Consider, for example, this quote: "The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair spring to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg into it." Or perhaps this: "I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf [...] Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down…

I was similarly impacted by both books -- Four Hour Work Week led me to Vagabonding which is much better. If you haven't already, you should read the inspiration for Vagabonding: Walden by Thoreau.

Walden, not because I want to go and live in the woods, but because it helped me question many of the "truths" I had come to believe.

Walden by Thoreau Not mind blowing in that there was any startling revelations in it, rather that reading and absorbing it changed my outlook on many things.

The only reason anyone needs to never read anything by Dan Brown is Dan Brown's writing. I'm terrible at random-access, on-demand list building like this, but I strongly agree about a few of the other things mentioned here: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis Walden by Thoreau A few of the better and more philosophical bits out of the bible (especially in a good modern translation), including Ecclesiastes and 1 Corinthians 13 To this list, I would also add Ralph Waldo Emerson's classic essays, including Self-Reliance and Experience

- Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance was a real eye-opener to me. - Last year, I read both Das Kapital by Karl Marx and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes. - Walden by Henry David Thoreau Note that these are classic works (Zen is the newest, from 1974), but they haven't lost their relevance yet. Zen is a journey in your mind, disguised as a journey by motorcycle by a father and his son. Das Kapital and GToEIM offer deeper insight in why our economy works the way it does, and I especially liked the contrast between the two books. Walden is difficult to classify. It changed the way I look at things, but I can't say exactly how. Sometimes I encounter a situation and a quote or scene from the book pops up in my head. Highly recommended!

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/148 Meditations by Marcus Aurelius http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2680 He wasn't the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but he was Emperor of Rome. ;) Walden http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205 Most of the big problems in life have already been pondered eons ago.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau. It's public domain, so you can get it free. I challenge anyone here to read the first page and not immediately want to read the whole thing.

I don't have any favorites, but the books I've read the most are "Notes from the Underground" and Walden. The last time I read Walden I didn't enjoy it much, so maybe I shouldn't mention it... The first should be read by everyone though http://www.gutenberg.org/files/600/600.txt

Ulysses by James Joyce Code Complete by Steve McConnell Walden by Henry David Thoreau Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan Murphy by Samuel Beckett Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

1984 The Silmarillion The Hero With A Thousand Faces Dune Walden (about half the chapters anyway)