What are Reddit's favorite books?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

The following content includes affiliate links for which I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you should you make a purchase.

The Art of War kind of addresses this: Ultimately the blame for tactical mistakes has to fall on your officers, they're in charge. Your leaders are responsible for strategy, but if the officers can't execute that they're of no use.

Have you read the Art of War? it's actually a wonderful book for creating peace, and its concepts do not need to be applied militarily.

To be quite frank, I've been to counseling and The Art of War has done a much better job of creating harmony than counseling has.

Honestly The Art of War should be required reading in schools (outside of China), it has so much wisdom packed into it that is so sorely lacking in our current education system.

"Therefore, to achieve a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence; to subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence." Sun Tzu, The Art of War

you would be surprised but I recently re-read The Art of War by Sun Tzu, it's almost scary at how easy it is to utilize that ancient text to modern day fighting, even non-violent fighting.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win

I'd recommend On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I read it many years ago and I still remember and apply the lessons I learned from it.

This will get buried but in King's 'On Writing' he emphasizes over and over that good writers must spend many hours per day either reading or writing. I love baseball and would never read a book in the stands, but he's a better writer than me and this photo is simply a snippet of the man practicing what he preaches.

His memoir On Writing is unbelievable. I find it hard to even finish a movie while inebriated and he was banging out pages while finishing cases of beer.

On Writing by Stephen King is easily the best book ever written. He doesn't tell you how to plot, or why a character should do so-and-so. He shows you why to keep writing and the patterns in legendary authors. It's a must-read. It's not a 'How-To,' it's a 'Why-To,' and it's bloody glorious.

Stephen king writes at least 1000 words a day every day, without fail, and cuts at least 25% out of any given work. He's a disciplined, dedicated machine.

Check out his book "On Writing"...It is also a book that had me hooked till the last page.

Stephen King writes about this in his book, "On Writing". You should never describe the way someone says something with an adverb. Describe it with an action, like with a character doing something as he or she is speaking. Show the reader, don't tell the reader. The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

On Writing Well, the classic guide to writing nonfiction by William Zinsser. It's definitely helped my writing, and has made me more conscious about clarity rather than trying to sound academic.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.

Quit my job after finishing it to chase the ghost of quality.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of the best books I ever read. I explained it once as a 'book about how being rational has no rational basis.' I've read it several times.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

This is the book that made me realize I have no real problems. It's beautiful but sad and one of the most captivating books I've ever read.

“An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

As a general point on finances I'd encourage all men on - Begin investing as soon as possible. Essential reading: The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Warren Buffet always raves about his favorite book, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Says it's one of the first stock-related books he ever read and remained his favorite and what he considers to be his most useful and influential book throughout his life.

Buy "The Intelligent Investor"

Any time the market makes you feel fearful or greedy, don't take any action.

If your wife is playing captain hindsight and nagging you about money you could have made, don't go out of your way to discuss your investments with her. She will amplify your fear/greed emotions and the problem will get worse.

Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations breaks down economic concepts to a point where markets begin to make sense. It talks about everything from monetary policy to supply and demand.

The Wealth of Nations does a great job of explaining how Spain's Mercantilist economy didn't translate into true wealth. It shows how powerful trading nations like the Dutch and British were able to transition to a Capitalist economy and bully the Spanish even though they held the vast majority of gold and silver mines.

Adam Smith. He wrote "The Wealth of Nations", which is basically the foundation of Capitalism. It was also highly influential on Socialism, and lead to basically every economic idea to come since.

Or to put it in another sense, it's what Pong is to Video Games. Or the Ford Model T is to cars.

I'd recommend the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It's all about how habits work and how they can be changed. I've been reading it to help shore up my new year's resolutions and it's got lots of great advice for how to reprogram bad habits.

If you're looking for a very detailed look into how habits function and how to change your habits, I highly recommend checking out The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

There's actually a book called The Power of Habit that explains the science behind habits. It's very, very interesting. Pretty much your brain has a trigger and a reward system. And the habit is the in between. So it teaches that if you can re-wire that, you can create new habits. Highly recommend it.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is my absolute favorite book. It talks about forming habits and how we can substitute the habits by creating new routines but getting the same reward.

Thanks for the post! Reminds me of Charles Duhigg's work. If you're interested, his book The Power of Habit helped me stop biting my nails and become a more productive student. http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/

Good idea. Not enough people take advantage of personal statements or mantras. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is a self-improvement staple and stresses the importance of such a mantra. Keep focusing on you.

Think and Grow Rich.

It's in a class by itself. Several people I know say it's the one book that helped them make millions of dollars. It's true for me and can be for you, too. Just read the damn thing and do what it says.

It's true. Napoleon Hill wrote the world's best selling self-help book of all time, Think and Grow Rich, where his theory is that you become your thoughts

If you read the book The Millionaire Next Door, this was typical of their research. A lot of millionaire live in middle class neighborhoods, are cheap, and encourage their kids to go into teaching, law or medicine. Great book by the way.

I will forever be grateful that my high school Economics teacher had us read 'The Millionaire Next Door.' Forever ingrained in my mind the image of what someone looks like who not only is wealthy, but who plans on staying that way.

"The Millionaire Next Door" is the one I always recommend because it is useful in establishing the reality of Personal Finance and removing the myths.

The book "The Millionaire Next Door" did exactly this, observe millionaires and their habits. It's an awesome read, I definitely recommend it.

Clean Code is a really good one to read through. It's more of a guideline for how you should make your code look/read - parts are a bit advanced, but I really enjoyed it and I feel like I'm not much more advanced than you are.

A lot of people in the industry will have read and may reference concepts from Clean Code. It's an easy, enjoyable read and taught me so much right out of the gate.

Not directly relevant to the OP's question, but I highly recommend reading Clean Code by R. C. Martin. Even if you're a student and don't actually want to be a programmer eventually, you will want to give it a read. It's that good.

No problem. It's a really good exercise to write something small like this, then spend time refactoring it based on best practices. I always recommend reading Clean Code by Robert C. Martin. You can find pdfs of it online. Excellent read. Would definitely help you out.

I recommend reading a book called "Clean Code", it helped me a lot. It's impossible to work with people that have different coding practices, and this book introduces you to everything you need to know.

Clean Code is widely considered (at least in my circles) as a "must read" position for a pragmatic coder.

"Clean Code". Your future self will thank me later. Honestly I had learned such bad practices in college when it comes to structuring code, methods, classes, etc. People will always love to debate which style is "good" but you can't go wrong with starting from this book's tips and then branching into your own comfort zone someday.

If you're looking to learn to write cleaner code I'd recommend Clean Code by Robert Martin. One of my all time favorite coding books.

I don't know much about TM, but it just seems like a money making sham. Meditation should be free. I highly recommend starting with reading a book like Mindfulness in Plain English. It helped me a lot when I was just starting to meditate.

Oh and since you asked about meditation, my favourite introductory resource on meditation has been "Mindfulness in Plain English". It's concise, thorough, and you'll learn the techniques as you sit reading the book. Priceless aid.

Strunk & White's 'The Elements of Style' has been the go-to reference for grammar and sentence structure for decades.

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is my Bible. That would be, unequivocally, by best suggestion.

For anyone who wants to know how to be a better writer, no matter the application or field of writing, you should buy & memorize, "The Elements of Style."

The most useful handbook to proper writing fundamentals in the world.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. My personal bible. It's all about stoicism, how to lead your life, how to face everyday problems. 2000 years old but still relevant to this day.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Great and wise insight on life and common occurrences that remains surprisingly useful to this very day. This book has passages that apply to every person on earth and I guarantee it would help those who bothered to read it.

Sure. Predictably Irrational had a study where "self-identified" Asians do better on a test than when they don't think about it. Women do worse on math tests when they identify themselves as women.

In identifying ourselves we become prey to the societal stereotypes.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely is a great book that explains just how poor humans are at judging the intrinsic value of anything.

Try reading "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely - he covers this in detail using the results of experimental studies on money and gift giving.

Spoiler: Humans really hate giving money directly as a gift and it will ruin your relationships (even though this makes no logical sense)

Read Models by Mark Manson.

It's easily the best book I've ever read. It's a life philosophy book about living honestly and loving yourself. The cover says "attracting women through honesty" though so it's geared mostly towards that. It's very powerful though - no games, no bullshit, no ambiguity. Just honesty.

Best of luck to you.

i recommend a book called Models by Mark Manson as a more holistic approach to sexual strategies for men. It frames seduction as the result rather than the goal and it seems to be the book that Strauss may have written if he knew then what he knows now.

http://www.amazon.com/Models-Attract-Women-Through-Honesty-ebook/dp/B005EOTH24

Read Models by Mark Manson.

It's about being more successful with women by being more open/forward and accepting that rejection happens for a reason. Better to polarise women into those that don't like you, and those that do rather than have everyone neutral.

If you're going on boring, it's you, not them.

Go read Models by Mark Manson. It's not your dates job to entertain you, it's your job to find out interesting things, and learn about them as a person. Sounds like you want to take responsibility for this, you're headed in the right direction.

What really helped me a lot was reading Models by Mark Manson. It may seem like a pick-up artist handbook at first glance, but it's actually a guide to get more confident in yourself, which will result in having more success in the dating scene.

Check out Economics in One Lesson. Great short read that doesn't use loads of economic jargon that helps explain some of the common points of confusion about the market

Economics in One Lesson. It's a fantastic little book that counters a good number of misconceptions about economics.

Man, I really wish Economics in One Lesson was required for all entering freshman around the country. Such basic economic fallacies these kids make. There's even specific chapters on government-backed loans. He wrote that decades before most of us were born, yet when I reread it it feels like he's talking about 2011.

This comment rings true for me.

When I (very briefly) met Obama, I asked him what book he recommended the most. He said "Thinking, Fast and Slow."

It's a fantastic read. It talks a lot about how people think, and ties closely to the quote cited in OP.

> I'd probably say Daniel Kahneman Thinking, Fast and Slow, which isn't about stats per say but cognitive biases and how we misperceive the world.

That book is such a good read. I couldn't get enough of it when I was reading through it.

Thinking, Fast and Slow. Not a novel, but a great book on how we tend to think and the blind spots in our thinking. It's eye-opening and an easy plain-language distillation of decades of research on how we think.

My experience of my own undergrad degree, Psychology, was that it as mostly fluff with a handful of good or useful classes. Books like "Thinking, Fast and Slow," taught me more about psychology than half of my entire undergrad classes put together.

My Family Therapy Master's program was thankfully a completely different story.

"The War of Art" by Stephen Pressfield. It discusses the concept of "resistance" being that force that keeps you from working on your goals...and how to defeat resistance. It's angled toward people with big goals, whether they're artistic, or business, or personal, etc...

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Fantastic motivation to get to the business of the art. All art, or anything worth one's time and attention really, can apply, but I find it especially helpful as a working actor to get down to business every day and put in the hours needed to succeed.

"The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Probably the best anti-procrastination book out there, especially for creative-type entrepreneurs.

Definitely The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, especially for anyone involved in any creative endeavor, or one that requires self-motivation. A wonderful book about fighting general lethargy or laziness.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Teaches you how to think about ethics for yourself rather than eating up the latest memo from the dont-get-sued department.

I suggest having a look at Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, in which happiness is taken as the end of human life, but there's a nuanced understanding of what constitutes happiness that takes into account many different factors.

Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" assisted me getting back on my feet. The principles carry over to anyone's situation.

It's a plan worth investing in and he talks about how to do get out of debt, live within a budget and build for the future.

Budgeting is work and takes time, focus and patience. It is worth the sacrifice.

I bought Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover. My wife and I were more than $60k in stupid-people debt. We got ready, ate beans and rice, sold some stuff, did the debt snowball and in a couple of years we were debt free.

Ever heard of Dave Ramsey? The Total Money Makeover? Buy it. Read it. Internalize it. Live by it. And know that those of us who are clawing our way back from our financial mistakes will be envious of you until the day we die.

The Shock Doctrine was terrifying, but now I look at disasters in a totally different way than I used to. Somewhere out there, a fat man in a suit is probably drawing up the ground plans for a luxurious Haitian beach resort...

Have you read The Shock Doctrine? I read it just after it was published. Radically changed my view on pretty much everything. I wish she'd write another one with more recent events as examples.

I read Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine and it helps understand the "southern cone" policy of destabilization in that region since the 70s. The whole book is well written and fascinating. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine

Klein covers several more cases in her book, The Shock Doctrine. IIRC she talks about the Iraq War, the Asian Tsunami, and a few other recent cases as the culmination of about 50 years of the military-industrial complex learning to profit from disasters (some of which it caused or exacerbated). I highly recommend the book!

Read "Code Complete" then do what it says. Its 10 years experience rolled into 1 book.

Complexity management.

Everyone can make software development, but the key to sustainable support, quality and extensibility is the complexity management. I recommend you the book "Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software".

A bunch of good programming books, ESPECIALLY Code Complete. It's such a great book; I read a few chapters at least every month.

That said, Jeff Atwood has a complete list.

I really enjoyed Code Complete if you haven't read that already, it's not dry at all and I've made use of/incorporated the concepts I've read from it.

On speed: "You save time when you don’t need to have an awards ceremony every time a C statement does what it’s supposed to."

-- Code Complete, Steve McConnell

Check out "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. I recently started drawing as well and I can't believe what my hand comes up with now. It's really worth it. :)

You could also check out r/learnart. I hope this helps! :)

Get "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"

Absolutely, completely and utterly indispensable for the beginning artist, teaches you much more valuable lessons than "start by drawing a circle"

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5662621/

The left drawing is well within almost anyone's ability. The problem is that most of us are never taught to draw. Trust me, if you follow a book like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" for a month or two, the left picture is definitely achievable.

I learnt to draw in five days using a book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" because it was referenced in some TedTalk and on the first day I was copying mediaeval woodcuts in almost exact detail. It also made my friends say "Holy shit, why didn't you start doing this sooner?"

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

There's a shift that needs to happen, a shift in the way you see things.

This book explains it and lets you progressively experience it.

O'Reilly "Head First Java" (2nd Edition, Dec.2007) is the book that gave me my "Ah-ha" moment with OOP. Simple to follow, written humorously. I flicked between that and Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java" (2011). Best of luck.

The Head First series is great cause it makes dense subject matter very easy to read. I use Head First Java and Head First Design Patterns in a class and they're great. They are not a reference book, but rather a engineering/OO/pattern book.

Once you read Head First Java from cover to cover you're qualified for the position of Java Programmer at the programming company of your choice

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman is a great read, funny and you learn quite a bit about science, education, and a lot about the Manhattan project.

I really enjoyed Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

It's an autobiography by physicist Richard Feynman. Very fun read, by an incredibly interesting man.

I'm just about done reading his book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, and if even half of his stories have any grain of truth to them I can't imagine anyone else I'd hold up as an example of a genius. That guy had a truly unique mind, if I'd ever had the chance I would have taken any class he taught just for the experience.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - excellent collection of entertaining stories throughout his career. From giving his first lecture in front of a group of professors including Einstein to his role in the Manhattan Project.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman"

Is a book I have read over and over and I am not even into physics. It's just so much fun to read and you don't even know you are learning.

When I was in Grade 8, my Dad gave me his copy of The C Programming Language by K&R and said: "learn this now and you will thank me later."

"The C Programming Language", by Kernighan and Ritchie, is an excellent book, both as a tutorial and as a reference.

The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition. It's the most readable, informative book I've ever read for any programming language.

First, the book Effective Java 2nd Edition is great, and worth the read 10000%.

Second, my favorite OS Java project as far as code cleanliness goes is ElasticSearch. It's pretty complicated, but isn't that difficult to read:

https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/tree/master/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch

Effective Java, by Joshua Bloch. That and Clean Code, which someone has already mentioned, will put you far beyond your 700-line method colleagues whose if-else statements career from one end of the monitor to the other.

Computer Science: Algorithms

Introduction to Algorithms AKA CLRS by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest and Stein

It covers everything an undergrad to graduate level.

I'd recommend The Algorithm Design Manual instead of Introduction to Algorithms. CLRS is really theoretical, the Design Manual is full with real-world examples and exercises.

Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein (referred to as "CLRS") is a good choice for a first course in algorithms.

Try Introduction to Algorithms from Thomas Cormen, Charles Leiserson, Ronald Rivest, Clifford Stein. Famous CLRS. Learn it all and you will be a ninja.

In Peter Thiel's book, Zero to One, he mentions one of the ways to "monopolize" a market is to act like you don't have competition. I'd say that's good advice, considering how many monster companies do the same thing in their marketing.

In Zero to One, Peter Thiel recommends: "In no case should a CEO of an early-stage, venture-backed startup receive more than $150,000 per year in salary."

Peter Thiel has a good section in Zero to One on why startups are so much more efficient than large software companies, despite the latter having legal teams, infrastructure, experience and patents. I think it's a similar principle.

The main message in his book Zero to One is that it's better to create a new market and monopolize it than compete in an existing market.

I reccomend "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" by venture capitalist, PayPal co-founder, and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel along with Blake Masters http://zerotoonebook.com/

Please everybody go read How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie! It is a social skill bible if there ever was one.

Also, where have I seen these examples from? Perhaps in the book even? I know I've seen them somewhere

How To Win Friends and Influence People. It's not the end-all to self improvement, but it has some good insight on how to treat people in order to make them happy they met you. If you read it with a mindset of gaining the ability to satiate your own greed, you've got bigger problems. It just helps make meeting and talking with people easier.

In "How To Win Friends and Influence People," Dale Carnegie said something to the effect of, nobody would do anything if they didn't think it was the right thing to be doing at that time. I have tried ever since to fully comprehend another's thought process before discrediting their argument/point of view.

Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman.

There are also a ton of videos of him speaking to crowds on youtube. Even the ones that are less than 10 min long are informative. Some of the things in the book are complicated and hard to understand, but I think he does a solid job of explaining it despite the complexity.

Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom did more to shift my political beliefs than any other book I've read or teacher/professor I've had.

Remember to sleep with Capitalism and Freedom under your pillow so you absorb the light of economic truth by osmosis.

Re-reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It was the first book I ever read in its entirety and I was 16 at the time. I'm 27 now and for some reason I felt like re-reading it.

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" is one of the best books I've ever read. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to understand black culture and how it got to be what it is today.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Truly an amazing book. Wonderful prose and a fascinating look at growing up black in America in 40s. The chapters on him living in Harlem (as a criminal) before finding Islam are really cool, and his description of the Haadj is unreal.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A man totally misunderstood, some really incredible philosophy in there.

I'm not there yet, but I'm trying to follow the procedures given in The Lean Startup. I would seriously recommend that you read this book.

This follows the philosophy of Eric Ries, called The Lean Startup. The idea is "deploy first, code later", which is what is happening here. This is his minimum viable product (MVP), for making sure users want this before wasting time making something that people might not want.

Read the book called The Richest Man in Babylon. It was assigned in my econ class in high school and it honestly changed my views on personal finance. Basically it teaches how to live below your means, save cash, and pay off debt.

Check out this book. It has changed the way I look at savings/spending. The Richest Man in Babylon

The Richest Man in Babylon was written in 1926 and is still one of the best primers for people who have never had a proper introduction to personal finance.

This deserves far more upvotes than it has. I recently discovered the old book "The Richest Man in Babylon" and everytime I think about doing something stupid I remember something from that book. Highly recommended.

If you'll be working with C++11 then I'd recommend "C++ Primer" (not C++ Primer Plus!). That book explains most of the relevant C++11 features throughout the text, unlike some other books which simply have most of the text unchanged and a chapter added to the end about C++11.

It's very large however, so you might have to skim through some of it.

The Design of Everyday Things

It's a book for Product Designers from many decades ago that still holds its relevance today. It gives good insight on why things are designed the way they are, and how to make products that are useful instead of just work.

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

It's not about specific software related usability however it will give you a language in which to discuss usability and the types of mistakes people do and how to look as interface design from a user perspective.

In the book "The Design of Everyday Things" the author discusses how store designers use that feeling. Places like "Victoria's Secret" will put in marble flooring in their entrance way as hearing the sound of their own footfalls makes women feel empowered.

OP - you might enjoy the book 'The Design of Everyday Things' or other material about affordances.the study of how devices can communicate potential interactions gets fascinating. It'll also make designs ignoring principles blatantly obvious at times.

"The Design of Everyday Things" one of the best books on design philosphy I've ever read, it was a great help in video game level design and UI/UX design too. Basicly the principle of good design is that you should be able to KNOW how to use something just by looking at it.

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

It doesn't matter what field you work in, this book will really change the way you look at how you interact with the world.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is nice to read and gives you a good perspective of what goes on behind the execution of code, and explains its structures and concepts well.

To anyone not sure of what this stands for, it is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs and is a very good read for those looking to learn about comp sci. It does require commitment in that it is not a book you rush through, rather you take your time and make sure you understand it bit by bit.

Good watch. I'm reminded of my desire to chart all income and expenditures as outlined in Your Money or Your Life. Reading that book coupled with everyday frustration led me to ask the question in this Ted Talk a couple years ago. It's been quite a journey and I've loved it, even the hard parts.

I'm personally a big fan of the personal finance book Your Money or Your Life. Don't waste money, use it responsibly and efficiently, adjust your life to fit your income, or adjust your income to fit your life.

Your Money or Your Life talks about "collecting" experiences and it really struck a chord with me; I was always jealous of what other people said they did on Facebook, IRL, etc. Now, I'm more mindful when I consider things I want to do.

I absolutely love The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Title sounds clickbaity, but the content is life-changing.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

This book gave me the hope that I could have amazing relationships with everyone in my life, and that the tools to become happy are within anyone's reach.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Amazing book. Had to read it for a college class, and I'm very glad I did.

I agree but with the notable exception of When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. That was probably the saddest and most insightful book I've read in a long time. He's also very non-masturbatory when describing his experiences.

Everyone who hasn't read his book When Breath Becomes Air should do so. It's not just about cancer, it's about his life, studies and work too. It's refreshing to read a book written by a person who is so brilliant and good in every way, one of the best humanity has to offer.

"When Breath Becomes Air" is another one with a similar theme that I recommend. Written by a neurosurgeon about his battle with cancer and his experiences with death as both doctor and patient.

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi

no book has made me step back a re-evaluate my life like this; half autobiography, When Breath Becomes Air is a story of how Paul became an amazing neurosurgeon, all while loving the ideas and concepts of death as existentialism, and learning how different it is when faced with death himself.

The Pragmatic Programmer - one of the best books on software development I've ever read. The book is about the tools, techniques and mindset you can use to become a better programmer, none of which require being in front of a computer.

It's also relatively short, clocking in at about 300 pages, so it's not heavy. Easy on the wallet, too!

In my opinion, The Pragmatic Programmer should be mandatory reading for all software development professionals. The lessons learned from that book are simply invaluable. Algorithms aren't the only prerequisite to writing successful software...

I am currently reading The Pragmatic Programmer, which I'm sure many of you have heard of. For those that don't know, however, it's about essential practices, techniques, and methodologies in a production environment.

A great book, one that everyone who's not already a professional software engineer with years of experience should read.

The first volumes of The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth has an extensive overview of many of the algorithms that are part of a CS curriculum.

I always liked The Art of Computer Programming which, in an effort to establish the scale of problem difficulty and to discourage people from trying to do all the exercises, has the third exercise be (paraphrased) "Show that there are no positive integer solutions to a^n + b^n = c^n for n ≥3."

There is a book, Bird by Bird that is excellent for people like us. There is a chapter "The First Shitty Draft" that I highly recommend you read. It changed the way I approached my creativity.

Read the book by Anne Lammont (sp?) Bird by Bird. Literary fiction is generally less planned, ie te characters "tell" you what they would do after you get to know them. Genre fiction can be more planned a lot of times I think. But yes, it is most certainly possible and a great way to go about things.

Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird—less instructional than inspiration and a smartly written reminder that Shitty First Drafts are a thing even the most successful authors deal with (among other things).

Anatomy of Story by John Truby. Probably a writer's bible, useful across the board.

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

:-)

Just finishing up Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Great read. Less about craft and more about motivation, inspiration, and dealing with self-doubt. Funny as hell, too.

Suzuki-roshi's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. I still think this is one of the easier books to get into Zen. But even if he has no inclination to get into Zen, the book does help a lot. Alternatively Lama Surya Das' Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be.

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Even if you're not looking to get into Buddhism or meditation, it's incredibly thought-provoking. I read it and I immediately started it over again and the second read is proving even more fruitful than the first.

Zen meditation. Best if you can find a teacher. Next best thing is a book called "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind." It's a short, straight forward read and very informative.

You should go out and buy the book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." It seriously turned my life around and changed my perspective on everything I own and everything I buy. It has saved me an absurd amount of money and the amount of stuff I ended up donating to goodwill was incredible. I don't miss anything I got rid of.

There is a decluttering process called the Konmari system that addresses how to let go of (the appropriate) books. The system is explained in detail in the book 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up', by Marie Kondo.

I would say my living space is now 85% decluttered, which includes my bookshelf from which i purged and donated over 100 books.

If you have problems throwing something away you don't need anymore, read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I can't recommend this book enough.

This is one of the key principles of Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." I make one last good-faith effort to use a product and rediscover the joy it brought me before thanking it for the enjoyment it brought me and sending it on its way to someone else (or in the bin if it can't be sanitized).

I'm currently reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, and the main idea of the book (and KonMari method) is to hold each item you own and ask yourself, "Does this spark joy?" If the answer is no, discard it. You could ask the person in question if their belongings spark joy; that might leave an impact.

"Getting to Yes" is one of the classic negotiation books that pretty much anyone who takes a negotiation class will read.

In undergrad, I took a couple of classes on negotiating. "Getting to Yes" is really good for negotiating with continuing business partners. It's not the best for when you're trying to just slit someone's throat and get the best deal (buying a car or something), but its quite good.

Tell him to read Cal Newports book "So Good They Can't Ignore You." It's about how to have a successful career by getting in demand skills, which means putting in the grunt work to learn said skills. He also talks about the fact it is normal not to love your job all the time and the pursue your passions is terrible advice.

Read JavaScript: The Good Parts by Crockford. He goes over structuring JavaScript in an OOP fashion. More generally it's a great book that will bring your understanding of JS from intermediate to the beginnings of expert.

JavaScript: The Good Parts is indeed a good book, and because it's not big it's especially nice for people that usually don't work with JS.

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell is pretty good - he manages to summarize the major contentions by notable European philosophers, both secular and theological, concisely and with wit. He also focuses on the social history behind the philosophers and their theories too, rather than purely the logical arguments.

“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.” ― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy

A History of Western Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell

It's interesting to have the ideas of the greatest minds in history explained to you in close to layman's terms by another of history's greatest minds. It is a rather large book, but it's definitely worth it.

Nietzsche is also surprisingly readable.

I think Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy is a good starting point. He gives a chronological summary of Western philosophy, devoting each chapter to a thinker. You could then buy philosophical texts based on the chapters that interested you most.

Only ten minutes but people like David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water" commencement speech.

You could also get Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy one tape. He's relatively easy to follow, though self-admittedly biased in his conspectus.

You should try to get your hands on a copy of The Mythical Man-Month, by Fred Brooks. It goes over this in great detail, fantastic read for software programmers and associated projects.

The Mythical Man-Month

It's still just as relevant as it was the first time I read it about 30 years ago.

If anyone wants a good biography that deals with this topic, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is one of the best books I've ever read.

I just finished reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. It goes from birth right up to his presidency. It is fairly long, right under 800 pages, but it received the Pulitzer Prize. Very good read

Our definitions of "alright" are probably different, then. He was still a badass.

If you like Theodore Roosevelt, you might consider reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. It's an absolutely phenomenal biography that reads like a novel. The man was truly a living legend.

Full Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zin.

I suggest you begin with his guided mindfulness meditations. He focuses on living with and managing pain and "bad stuff".

��

Check out Derek Banas on YouTube, he has a series on design patterns and he is, in my opinion, one of the best explainers for programming out there.

An amazing (fun) book is Head First Design Patterns. That's where I learned about them and it is the best book out there for Design Patterns (in my opinion).