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The most important books you've ever read
Improvolone
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've read a handful of amazing books that are very important in the field they exist in. I want more. MOOOORE I SAY! I'm interested in books on damned near anything, but I do have some things I'm particularly interested in right now.
Game design (rules, not code)
Art
Performance theory
Science, be it history of, theoretical, whatever.
Management
Non-profit business
Here is what I've read and why its so important.
Theatre
Truth in Comedy - An introductory guide to improvisation as art leading up to long form performances. It's pretty basic, but it covers some very important ground work that should always be known.
Funniest One In The Room - A biography on Del Close, one of the three pillars of improv, that does the best job I've seen of not only breaking down the man but also really touches on the importance he thought his work had. As close to inspirational I've seen if this is your field.
Impro - Keith Johnstone, a second pillar of improv, wrote this book on improvisation years ago and approaches it from a more theatrical side than Del Close did; includes mask work.
The Moving Body - Jacque le Coq's book detailing his work in movement theatre, pulling from clowning history and pushing it forward towards use as a modern technique. He had a background in sports so his approach to the kinesthetics is very personal.
Business/Management
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie's book on management and human interaction. It's been one of the most important books for 50ish years for a reason.
What phenomenal life changing books should I read next? I've thought about Origin of Species and The Universe in a Nut Shell but thought I'd make this thread first. I seem to be mostly interested in non-fiction. I've an itch to start tackling Random House's 100 most important novels of the 20th century, but not enough to actually start yet.
Game design (rules, not code)
Art
Performance theory
Science, be it history of, theoretical, whatever.
Management
Non-profit business
Here is what I've read and why its so important.
Theatre
Truth in Comedy - An introductory guide to improvisation as art leading up to long form performances. It's pretty basic, but it covers some very important ground work that should always be known.
Funniest One In The Room - A biography on Del Close, one of the three pillars of improv, that does the best job I've seen of not only breaking down the man but also really touches on the importance he thought his work had. As close to inspirational I've seen if this is your field.
Impro - Keith Johnstone, a second pillar of improv, wrote this book on improvisation years ago and approaches it from a more theatrical side than Del Close did; includes mask work.
The Moving Body - Jacque le Coq's book detailing his work in movement theatre, pulling from clowning history and pushing it forward towards use as a modern technique. He had a background in sports so his approach to the kinesthetics is very personal.
Business/Management
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie's book on management and human interaction. It's been one of the most important books for 50ish years for a reason.
What phenomenal life changing books should I read next? I've thought about Origin of Species and The Universe in a Nut Shell but thought I'd make this thread first. I seem to be mostly interested in non-fiction. I've an itch to start tackling Random House's 100 most important novels of the 20th century, but not enough to actually start yet.
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QED - Richard Feynman
Steps to an Ecology of Mind - Gregory Bateson
I can't think of any true "life changing" books that I've read, either non fiction or fiction, each is wonderful and valuable in it's own way, and what you get from a book is really dependent on your own disposition too.
I will say though that I recently read an extremely well written and researched biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer called "An American Prometheus". Absolutely turned my understanding of and opinion of the dawn of nuclear technology and the eventual cold war on its head. I highly recommend it if you're at all interested in atomic science and the nasty politics and paranoia of the 1950's red scare.
I also read a really wonderful essay by David Foster Wallace on television, that though a bit dated, had some intriguing and well though out opinions, again radically changing my opinion and understanding of television as a cultural phenomenon. It was called "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", and you can find it in a collection of his other essays called "A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again."
The Dragons of Eden - Carl Sagan (Science/Evolution/Nueroscience)
Art and Illusion, H.R. Gombrich
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards
Art Through the Ages, Gardner (if you've ever taken any intro art history class and you don't own this book, your professor is just full of wrong. There is no comparable art history resource.)
Science:
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. I may have gotten the title slightly wrong. Funny funny.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn. Really lovely.
Finance:
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Richard Kyanka
Psychology:
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
If I look around at my scattered books I can probably find more on art/science/design. If you're interested in biographies of great artists, I don't know of anything that does a better job than Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy, all about Michelangelo. Hope that keeps you entertained for a bit.
The Art of Expressing the Human Body, by Bruce Lee
Great fitness training book, as well as general health book. Bruce Lee was the master on keeping his body in the peak of physical condition, and the book really gives you a deep look into his training program as well as his meal plans and general health tips.
Current Games I Own: http://sirchrissypoo.tadalist.com/lists/1763135/public
Things I'm Interested In: http://sirchrissypoo.tadalist.com/lists/1763272/public
Yeah, regardless of what I think of it now, I can't argue that the Bible has probably had more influence on my early life than any other book.
Non-Zero was good when I read it, but it comes across kind of played out now given the raft of pop game theory books.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Jared Diamond is a chore and a half to read.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie
Getting Things Done by David Allen
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
Say it with Charts! The Executive's Guide to Visual Communication
Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million+ by John Lucht
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
All of these books had a major impact on my career.
It's a book about how consciousness can arise in levels via self-reference, delving into how self-reference exists in mathematical systems (Godel's incompleteness theorem), Artwork (MC Escher's work), and music (Bach). It eventually evolves into a discussion about artificial intelligence and how to apply it to computers (which is interesting to read in modern days, as the novel was published 20 years ago, and much of what he talks about remains applicable in that "just out of reach" sense).
And the book is pretty hilarious at times. Bill Bryson is an excellent author. I highly recommend this one as well.
The Power of Myth, Joseph Cambell w/ Bill Moyers
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence, Robert M. Pirsig
Dale Carnegie FTW.
On Perspective and Destiny:
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
All three are must reads before you die. You won't regret any of them and you'll walk away a wiser person for it.
On Philosophy and Control:
The Art of War - Sun Tsu
The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi
Both offer amazing insight in how to manage, and not manage, your life.
Art and Design:
The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman
Really the only book you ever need to read if you plan on creating things.
Features stunning examples of how stuff pretending to be scientific can actually be anything but science, yet gains credence in the popular eye nonetheless. It's entertaining, easy to digest, thought-provoking, and at the same time, fucking chilling to the bone. Some of the stuff that people, who pretend to be 'experts', can get away with is mindblowing.
I found this one to be pretty interesting for science (sorta) related things. It basically rambles through 13 modern "mysteries" of life. Fun stuff, and cheap too!
If you're going to get it, get a big, hardcover, colour version so you can actually enjoy the author's illustrations alongside the story.
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, by Isaac Newton.
The foundation of classical mechanics, and inarguably the most important work in science ever.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
The Evolution of Useful Things, Henry Petroski. Ever wonder why a paperclip looks like it does? How about a fork? Petroski has a knack for making mundane, everyday things interesting by showing their history.
Patriotism, Yukio Mishima. It's not what you think.
I had the audiobook on my ipod. I had to stop listening to it in the car because the cadence was putting me to sleep.
So fucking interesting though.
Oh baby, you know what I like.
This book, right here, I get for everyone.
It's one of the most influential books in my life.
I knew you couldn't be far behind when I mentioned DHW! I also buy this and occasionally Patriotism, depending on the audience.
Nth this.
Also:
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Starting Strength
Network Warrior
Practice of System and Network Administration
Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques
Word.
This!
Also, the first book of his that I read was Cosmos and it changed my life.
Animal farm
1984
Fahrenheit 451
These books go into the importance of influential books themselves and how they allow us to think and learn for ourselves. If you ignore the lessons of these books then all the good stuff people have mentioned in every other book listed will eventually become 'badthink' and no longer influential.
Free Moonbase Commander remake @ http://code.google.com/p/tether
True, but its likely because the OP is looking for books on the following subjects:
Game design (rules, not code)
Art
Performance theory
Management
Non-profit business
So I have never read a book about those topics I would consider really influential. For science I have read a few (including "a brief history of time") but most of those have already been mentioned and didn't influence me nearly as much as the ones I posted above. Really, influential books are more about the reader then the book itself. I mean, you could argue "mein kampf" as one of the most influential books of the century however I doubt anyone would consider influential now, or influential in a good way.
Free Moonbase Commander remake @ http://code.google.com/p/tether
ok thanks.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Or maybe the Dhammapada.
Philosophy:
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche
Hayy Ibn Yaqzan by Ibn Tufayl
Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant
Candide by Voltaire
The Republic by Plato
or, the most important book on damn near every subject
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon