Ask HN: What are the books that changed the perspective of your life?
Recommendations from 100 sampled comments out of 118 eligible comments. This page covers the sample, rather than the entire HN thread.
120 books
kabdib · Apr 9, 2015
"Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hopfstadter. I was in high school when it came out, and it really opened my eyes up to the field of computability.
grey-area · Apr 9, 2015
Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter - an exhilarating skip through the wonderland of western maths, art, music and philosophy.
echoless · Apr 9, 2015
I read this book a few years back and while I found it quite interesting as a story, I did not glean any major insights from it.
rayalez · Apr 9, 2015
it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I am aware of.
humanarity · Apr 9, 2015
when I saw you'd included Meditations and I'd left it out. Damn. Thank you for reminding me how great that was.
humanarity · Apr 9, 2015
Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) - incredibly clear ideas probably clear-up 80% of issues you have with everyday life
kabdib · Apr 9, 2015
"The C Programming Language", by Kernighan and Ritchie. Probably the single most influential book on programming that I've read.
blumkvist · Apr 9, 2015
I read Ender's game first when I was young and I loved it for the action, mixed with philosophy.
grandalf · Apr 9, 2015
Further into the book we find that Ender's ability is a function of his empathy
MichaelGG · Apr 9, 2015
The Selfish Gene (inc The Extended Phenotype). This is one I think is the most powerful