3 ms·
Ask HN: What books have you given to other people as gifts?
This is a specific question that goes a bit beyond normal book recommendations.
What books did you enjoy so much that you felt a strong need to share it with others, to the point of “eliminating friction” by giving them a copy (almost always physical not digital)? I’d like to know your cherished favorites.
I’ve bought many copies of “Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre” by Keith Johnstone and “How Buildings Learn” by Stewart Brand. The former is a brilliant book about thinking and reacting creatively while the latter is quite possibly the best book about building software that is not about building software specifically.
- ohduran 7y agoMy favourite one is How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler. It was given to me by a friend of mine and I thought "but I already know how to read!" Turned out I didn't. There's so much going on when you look a book closely that you don't even notice it's there. Also, it helped me plan and prioritise how to read. It's a wonderful read, believe me. In case you want to check out more, I put together some notes of it here: https://alvaroduran.me/how-to-read-a-book https://alvaroduran.me/how-to-read-a-book Happy to hear your thoughts!
- dang 7y agoThis could make for an interesting thread. If you want to try it again, let us know at hn@ycombinator.com and we'll put it in the second-chance pool (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380). Normally we'd just email a repost invite but those don't work for Ask HNs.