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What do you read that changes the way you think?

Posted: August 21, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: blog | Tags: , , | 24 Comments »

A friend asked me which of three startup business books she should read. Obama’s reading list since entering office has nothing surprising on it.

The most valuable books I read this year have been stories of things very different from what I spend most of my time thinking about.

One of my favorites was China Meiville’s The City & The City, which I loved for the ambition and artistry, and another was Simon Winchester’s The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, which I loved for the descriptions of creating an analog, scalable information system.

What have you read recently that was really great?

Edit: Thanks for the recommendations! There are also a bunch over on Google Plus.

  • http://twitter.com/ajweinstein Alejandro Weinstein

    “The information”, by James Gleick. Great book about, well, information (as in Information Theory). (http://amzn.to/pVfZ4K)

    “The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth”, by Paul Hoffman. Although mainly about Erdos, it has a lot of interesting stuff related to other mathematicians and mathematics in general. (http://amzn.to/o8X6Ck)

    “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Live”, by Leonard Mlodinow. (http://amzn.to/pmYgmy). After reading this, I finally understood the Monty Hall problem.

  • http://twitter.com/Justin_Bacon Justin Bacon

    “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett

  • http://twitter.com/statalgo Shane

    Most of what I read are within my focus area so these may be a little generic, but I really enjoyed: 

    - Tim Harford “Adapt” (http://timharford.com/books/adapt/)
    - Duncan Watts “Everything is Obvious” (http://www.randomhouse.com/book/187477/everything-is-obvious-by-duncan-j-watts)
    - James Gleick “The Information” (http://around.com/the-information)

  • http://enile8.org Blake

    It’s an older book but I just recently found out about, “Producing Open Source Software” http://producingoss.com/.
    A lot of good information about running your own project or participating in one.

  • Duncan

    I tend to like scifi. You get a good story as well as a good idea.

    One that’s definitely worth reading (and can be downloaded free) is Cory Doctorow’s Makers.

    http://craphound.com/makers/download/

  • http://twitter.com/AeroSuch Nick Such

    “Shop Class as Soulcraft” was a wake-up call that ‘knowledge work’ isn’t always what its cracked up to be. I found myself with a renewed enjoyment for mowing the lawn, tinkering with my bicycle, and just building stuff for the pure creative fun of it.

    Recently finished “Atlas Shrugged”. It was an eye-opening work of art, and something I’d recommend to every entrepreneur for its perspective on what not to do in balancing sustainable business with social responsibility.
    “Into the Wild” and “Wild at Heart” inspired me to unplug, leave my phone at home and just go exploring every once in a while.All were influential in making some big life decisions: http://nicksuch.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/what-matters-to-you-most-and-why/(The rest of my list: http://www.shelfari.com/nicksuch/shelf )

  • http://jessenoller.com jnoller

    “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg - http://amzn.to/mcHS9w

  • Anonymous

    Accelerando by Charles Stross, free online. Mind-bending and increasingly relevant.

    Carroll Quigley’s books (circa 1960s) free at http://www.carrollquigley.net.

    The Decision Book (available on UK Kindle, on the way to US).

  • http://twitter.com/petewarden Pete Warden

    Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which is hard to define but almost magical realism, and left me with a real sense of wonder.

    The Philosophical Breakfast Club by Laura J Snyder. I’ve blogged about it already, but it inspired me by demonstrating the power of a small community of friends to really change the world. It also features Charles Babbage’s life-long feud with the organ-grinders of Old London Town as a bonus.

  • Matt Gershoff

    Super Sad True Love Story – satire about society, that focuses quite a bit on the absurdity of tech/marketing.  Very very funny and a bit terrifying.

    • Francesca Krihely

      I second this recommendation. Shteyngart’s other novels–especially The Russian Debutante’s Handbook–are also wonderful, and pretty funny. 

  • Joel Zaslofsky

    Most of my reading these days is blog based.  Although I subscribe to about 40 in my RSS feeds a couple that have really resonated with me lately are Becoming Minimalist and Advanced Riskology.  I know most people find the powerful, mind shaping thoughts and ideas in books but I’ve found recently that some of the most inspiring, action created content is blog based.

  • Steve Steiner

    Jonathan Haidt’s “The Happiness Hypothesis”.  I’m a bit more than half way through it and it is fantastic.  
    http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028012
    It feels like the sequel to Antonio Domasio’s “The Feeling of What happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness”.  Which is another great book.

  • http://twitter.com/gnarmis Gursimran Singh

    One of the best hard sci-fi books: Schild’s Ladder by Greg Egan (http://amzn.to/neK7z4). For anyone with an interest in physics, math, computer science, and far-future sci-fi, it’s absolutely intriguing. Also, Permutation City (http://amzn.to/pFmyOy).

    And I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon (http://amzn.to/n6ee12). You could call it contemporary, historical, sci-fi, spy, war fiction, with some high-tech finance and business intrigue thrown in too. Amazing read for people intrigued by cryptography and early computer science history; Alan Turing plays a role alongside one of the main characters!

    A. Weinstein’s suggestions here are awesome, by the way.

  • http://twitter.com/chrisaldrich Chris Aldrich

    Like you, I’m a major fan of anything Simon Winchester writes. His often non-linear storytelling style, way with words, and ability to delve into interesting topics is second to none.
    Other world view changing reads I’ve come across in the past decade include Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel” as well as Matt Ridley’s “The Rational Optimist”. In particular, Ridley’s book takes a drastically different view of our past to project a more interesting and optimistic view of what our future holds.

  • Cogdog

    I loved Winchester’s “Map that changed the world” (from past of being geology student) so eager to read this one you mentioned.

    In the first third of a long circum Canada/US road trip the ones in your comments are registering (I have a copy of Cloud Atlas in my book box). Recent reads have been road inspired- Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire was my bible in the past (re-read it), and am still getting reverberations from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I just had fun with a copy of Douglas Coupland’s “Microserfs” a romp through the 90s tech culture that paralled (in time only not experience) my own path.

    Read on!

  • Francesca Krihely

    My favorites:

    The White Tiger by Aravid Adiga
    The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
    The Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adrono and Max Horkheimer (this is Frankfurt School philosophy and definitely different from what most people read everyday and it changed my life!)

    I have a huge list of books I’ve read with references next to each (it’s
    obnoxious, but it helps and is really valuable when making
    recommendations)

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Aq37D4Zam9oBdEl1RDBZMkhtVkhzZlh6bFBkVmVsbGc&output=html

  • http://twitter.com/laurenaschmidt Lauren A. Schmidt

    I love THE CITY & THE CITY — have been lending it to lots of people.  Interestingly, I’ve been meaning for a while to check out a different book on the OED (THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN) — also by Simon Winchester.  Maybe I’ll take a look at both of them.

    I liked THE SPEED OF DARK (Elizabeth Moon) and AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS (Oliver Sacks) for interesting insights into different ways the brain can work. 

  • http://twitter.com/siah Siah

    In the plex (Steven Levy)

  • http://www.hilarymason.com Hilary Mason

    Wow, thanks everyone! My reading list is stocked for a while. ;-)

  • http://profiles.google.com/balrog13 William Hopkins

    Anathem by Neal Stephenson. It’s a long one, but well worth it and you’ll never notice while you’re reading it.

  • David Nevins

    Seeing Like a State. By James C. Scott, co-chair of Anth and Poly-Sci at Yale. Takes readers on the perilous misadventures of states as they have used mapping in the service of extraction of both human and environmental resources. Brutally enlightening, but inspired me to invent a holographic feed so that regular folks can turn this model on its head and do their own data mining. Still in development. 

  • William Ruppert

    Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath 
    Definitely changed the way I think.

  • http://www.facebook.com/billmcn Bill McNeill

    G.H. Hardy’s A Mathematician’s Apology is a succinct and compelling treatise on the aesthetics of mathematics. If your work in math, science, or computer programming is ultimately motivated by the pursuit of beauty, this can be a life-changer.

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