Edit: thank you for sharing your suggestions, everyone. I’ll try to check out the ones I haven’t read. Hopefully the responses in this thread were helpful for you too. <3
Growing up? Stranger in a Strange Land
MIchael’s way of viewing the world felt so natural to me, and yet so different from almost anyone else around.
Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky.
This was a short story, but I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream left me in a depressive state for a few days. Based purely on the feelings I got involved I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s not necessarily bad though. It’s just… Intense I guess.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Tells you everything you need to know about war. First book which made me cry. Everybody should read it.
Learning Perl, 2nd edition
There’s therapy for that.
The technological society by Jacques Ellul. This book introduces a new way of looking at the world.
Anna Karenina. There’s no better pshychological character study of upper class Russian culture (but at the same time, about people in general).
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Grew up seeing it on the bookshelf and thought it was a horror book. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in book form.
How to solve it by Polya.
The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog.
Enders game a it was the only novel I had finished in my life. Took me 3 years but disabilities like ADHD is horrible for me. I can read pretty well but any books like novels just can’t do it. Also with aphantasia it gets even worse.
Voltaire’s Bastards by John Ralston Saul. It showed me how the world really works. Also The Doubter’s Companion as a supplement to that.
Edit to add that after reading through all the comments, it’s pleasing what a well-read community we have here.
The Lord of The Rings. This book changed reading for me. I always enjoyed fantastical themes, but this one really got me. Then, I found out there was more. More background, more world building, more why.
I’ve never turned back. I re read it occasionally and I’ve read much of Tolkien’s other works. Next on the list is to begin working through The History of Middle Earth. I will be starting this in the fall. It may take me quite some time to get through.
How to seize the means of computation By cory Doctorow.
Great author love all of his books. Love his its free to read any of his books on craphound. But i ended up buying physical copys because i just needed to own them.
The book talks about how things were with betamax and VHS. And how modern day tech is crap and how to fix it!
Its diffently the most influential books ive read.
