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Lots of books changed my life. But Atlas Shrugged was THE book that ENTIRELY changed my life. I re-read it every year on January 1st (for 14 years now) as a gift to myself and to re-orient my moral compass. I find something new every time.
Many of the books already listed here. One that I did not see mentioned was The Anarchist Handbook - Michael Malice A collection of essays that gives you a good taste of different breeds of anarchism from different time periods.
1) 1984 by Orwell was a pivot point back in school 2) The Power of Now by Tolle gave me a path to set towards 3) Democracy by Hoppe made me understand why government by force sucks balls 4) Siddharta by Hesse is just beautifully written Honourable mentions: 21 Lessons by Gigi, Doors of perception by Huxley and Die Welt von Gestern by Stefan Zweig
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all of them.. they don't always change your life for the good though. Infact, they just offer perspective. It's up to you to use your own brain to critically think about the point that's being made. Every single book changes your world view. Therfore every single book changes your life. Probably. image
‘Changed’ interpreted as shaped or formed *“Bible Old Testament”* *“Bible New Testament”* *“On Liberty” - John Stuart Mill* “Euthyphro” - Plato “Meditations of First Philosophy” - Rene Descartes “Critique of Pure Reason” - Immanuel Kant *“Fear and Trembling” - Kierkegaard* “Repetition” - Kierkegaard *“Economics textbooks”* “Ethics” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer Probably others Significance in *this* #bookstr #books #grownostr
↩ replying to DanConwayDev
So following Kant and Descartes I was left with the limits of what can be known and understood by reason and experience from the senses. What I got out of Kierkegaard was what you do with yourself in that state. Without verifiable deductive proof and with imperfect senses, uncertainty permeates everything. And that’s just it. That’s the state you live in. You exist, you can’t know much more, and there is no fool proof way out to anything else. For a young, very too much, rational person as I was at the time, the obliteration of logic as “the path” to truth was disruptive. Kierkegaards embrace of the aesthetic, and the “leap of faith”, based on nothing more than will and the generation of passion to live according to a choice despite there being no proof for it and the absurdity you will confront in it was important in maturing myself beyond the purely logical limited existence I would have tried to live otherwise.
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I'm sure they all change me in some respect, but two recent books come to mind that have changed my perspective on life somewhat * How to Know a Person - David Brooks (becoming better at understanding people and relationships) * Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman (time is the most scarce resource)
Philosophy: Lao Tzu - Dao de Ching Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics Leonard Peikoff - Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (I was first influenced by Rand's fiction which is good to get a sense of her spirit, especially Anthem which is concise, but for a non-fiction treatment I think Peikoff best) Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene (but ignore his baseless protests to reject the moral implications of his scientific work and his pleas to retain Christian morality) Language: Marshall Rosenberg - Nonviolent Communication Investing: Ben Graham - The Intelligent Investor Jim Rogers - Hot Commodities Money & Banking: G. Edward Griffin - The Creature from Jekyll Island (among many others, but this was first)
Other than BTC/libertarian books: 1. The Betrothed (Manzoni), any time you read it is different 2. Der Zauberberg (Mann), read it while in a hospital bed, perfect place for that book 3. Divine Comedy (Dante), tough to read even for Italians, but you can find in it anything about human nature
Nassim Taleb‘s Incerto Series. Especially „Antifragile“. It eventually got me looking into #Bitcoin again. Which I find ironic because he is pretty anti bitcoin nowadays 🤷‍♂️ But it got me thinking: „if the whole financial system is on the brink’s of collapse, could #Bitcoin be the one thing that gets stronger if all else fails?“ And the journey into the rabbit hole began. Slowly at first, of course. Then I didn’t fing my way back out :)
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Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas - changed my mental model for marriage The Power of Bad by John Tierney & Roy Baumeister - I quit poker despite being profitable after realizing I was turning into an ass Manifesto by Mike Busch - gave me the framework to buy an airplane Mere Christianity by CS Lewis - fundamental in my coming to Christ View quoted note →
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Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas The Power of Bad by John Tierney & Roy Baumeister Manifesto by Mike Busch Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
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Biopiracy - vandana shiva Killers of the flower moon - david grann. Passage to India - e m forester A long way gone - ishmael beah Pedagogy of the oppressed- paulo freire Last chance to see - mark cawardine douglas adams Three body problem - cixie liu A wrinkle in time - lengle madeleine Band aid for a broken leg - daimiam brown Medium is the message - marshall mcluhan Small is beautiful - e f schumacher Brave new world - aldous huxley Em and the big hoom - jerry pinto Flowers for algernon - daniel keyes Fountainhead Walden Calvin and hobbes Hitchhikers guide The god of small things - arundhati roy
↩ replying to xtogro
Here are some absolute masterpieces that have left a lasting impression on me: - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry - Stoner by John Williams - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - Confessions by Jaume Cabré - A Treatise on Shelling Beans by Wiesław Myśliwski - The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Development as Freedom Freedom from the Known Nonviolent Communication Siddharta Man's Search for Meaning Atlas Shrugged The Untethered Soul Consciousness Medicine Anna Karenina The Drowned and the Saved Madness and Civilization Conversations with David Foster Wallace Principles Let My People Go Surfing