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Ask HN: What book should I buy for my 18th birthday?
I'm into non-fiction books. Any field will do as long as it's interesting. I'm definitely trying to get into something new.
- downrightmike 5y agoJurassic Park if you haven't yet.
- akeck 5y agoIf you're into Permaculture and Solarpunk, "Dirt to Soil" by Gabe Brown
- splittingTimes 5y agoSoudns good. What fiction can you recommend for Solarpunk?
- akeck 5y agoUnfortunately, I haven't gotten to reading Solarpunk fiction yet. I've heard Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" is recommended as a proto-Solarpunk novel. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk#Literature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk#Literature for more fiction suggestions.
- avgDev 5y agoI'm huge on investing. I believe building wealth is extremely important and 18 is a great time to start. Therefore, I would recommend "The simple path to wealth" and "The little book of common sense investing".
- kirso 5y agoOmg, please do me a favour and read this book: Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter And How To Make The Most Of Them Now I only read it when I was 30. It has a a typical self-help title but honestly it has all you need to succeed in the next decade. I wish I could have read it at your age.
- ultrasounder 5y agoWhy not buy three? 1. Should be Required reading for any rising senior at High School- Psychocybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. I got this for my 43 birthday and you will have a huge head start over others. 2. Flow- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi masterclass in writing exposition. Essentially how to find happiness in everything in life 3. The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime- cringy title but packed with practical nuggets on how to earn a living and create wealth outside of the scripted 9-5/30 years of employment. Very in your face but I am trying hard to apply what this book teaches. Good luck!
- therealmitchel 5y agoThe Last Lecture is a must read - esp at 18 y/o. Some great life lessons and an all around great story.
- rdtwo 5y agoRead “ The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists”. It’s ultimately a work of fiction but there are some mind fuck ideas and perspective shifts there that are worth toying around with as a young man and searching for your own balance between his ideas and your vision of yourself.
- muzani 5y agoThis is a fun experiment for a single 18 year old.
- rdtwo 5y agoYeah ultimately the caveat is that it’s not a book that provides a working formula but one presents the idea that generally most folks can find a working formula if they practice and push themselves. There are unfortunately a some harmful ideas that come from i think the authors desire to make a entertaining read as well as sell to the target audience that come with this book that are worth watching out for.
- mettamage 5y agoIn this regard, my favorite is to read about direct game [1], how to touch people when conversing (on the shoulders and arms etc.), learning how to dance bachata [2] and doing meditation. Trying to figure this out when traveling was even more awesome. I'm not 18 anymore for a long time, but before I got onto a bunch of long-term relationships (3 years or more), this was my final style. Relationships seem to be a very different beast. [1] Last time I checked "60 years of challenge" seemed to have a good philosophy on this style [2] Not salsa, bachata is more intimate and teaches you a thing or two
- drakonka 5y agoI spent a bit of time in the PU community after reading The Game. Many of these places were just toxic: focused on lying to women out of desperation to get sex. Everything from "white lies" about some exciting adventure you had to make you seem like a more interesting person to lying about your intentions, to putting women in very uncomfortable physical situations on purpose. Some were better. Most of the people who joined these communities had a similar pattern in the beginning: men who felt they can't communicate with women or who aren't conventionally attractive learn some canned openers based on stuff they read in The Game, memorize a bunch of "techniques", and basically fake it through "outer game". After a while, I noticed there were usually two paths they took: Path One was people who remained stuck in this "outer game" phase where they wear weird stuff to peacock and stand out (a la Mystery), regurgitate a bunch of lines, try to time their "negs" just right. Most of them burned out and/or grew resentful towards women from repeated rejection because the techniques are actually pretty cringe. Sometimes they became very vocal in these forums about how women just want to use them, or how shallow women are, or how much meaningless sex they're having (most of them weren't). Path Two was people who realized that instead of trying to fake being an interesting and attractive person, they might actually want to become an interesting and attractive person. They evolved to focusing on "inner game". They got a tiny foothold in just approaching women a lot and learned that rejection wasn't the end of the world, and then used that realization to grow as a person, have new legitimately interesting adventures, learn how to groom themselves, and generally just have something interesting that _actually happened_ and _didn't need to be exaggerated_ to have a conversation about. Instead of having to strategize how to bring a woman they're talking to down a notch to make themselves seem "higher value", they actually became "higher value" by improving themselves, and attracting more interesting people while they're at it. There was no incentive for them to lie to women about their experiences or intentions (by omission or otherwise). They could be honest about what they wanted out of life and know that there are plenty of people to meet who are genuinely up for that, too. I still have a couple of friends who were into that scene, ones who broke out onto Path Two and seem to be doing very well for themselves both in business and relationships. The other ones are long forgotten.
- tmaly 5y agoHow to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens. For 150 pages it is so well written. The method has the potential to change your life at 18.
- L0in 5y agoNot a book per se but read about the Philosophy of anarchism. More specifically the social and human aspects of it. And stay way from "Anarcho-capitalist" there are not anarchist even if they dream about it...
- ketanmaheshwari 5y agoBuy "Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari.
- more_corn 5y agoSeconded. This is the book I read in my thirties where I thought. “Damn, I wish I’d read this when I was 18”
- azalemeth 5y agoWhen I was 18, I read Gödel Escher Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carol, by Douglas R Hofstader. It's a book that won a pullitzer prize in the 1970s and is about maths and formal logic, but really gives you a flavour of how consciousness might come about.
- kleer001 5y agoAnother vote for G.E.B. I've come to realise that it's a bit long winded and winding, but it's pretty nice to go deep into. Like, just read it straight through.
- f0e4c2f7 5y agoI found Capital in the 21st Century to be very readable and an interesting perspective.
- thehappypm 5y agoMy favorite book is “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer.
- quietthrow 5y agoMan’s search for meaning - Viktor Frankl It will change your life, dare I say.
- lunatuna 5y agoI second this. Buy several copies and give them to your friends and strangers on the bus that see you reading it ;)
- djohnston 5y agoPsychology of Money is a light read that might give you some foundation for finances as you enter adulthood. China: A History by Keay is a pretty great overview of the last 5000 years of Chinese history. This was recommended to me on this very site!
- mtalantikite 5y agoAutobiography of Malcolm X. Read it when I was 18 and it was awakening. I've re-read it every few years since then.
- splittingTimes 5y agoAt that age I can only recommend to you to read fiction as well. Classic literature and philosophy will enrich your mind. Instead of tech/science books, let me throw something else at you: Jacque Fresco "The Best That Money Can't Buy" [1]. Robert Steele "Open-Source Everything Manifesto" [2]. Do not be mislead by the title. Open-source here is all-encompassing, software is only a tiny fraction of the spectrum. David Graeber "Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology" [3] === [1] https://www.amazon.de/Best-That-Money-Cant-Buy-ebook/dp/B0773TB3GX https://www.amazon.de/Best-That-Money-Cant-Buy-ebook/dp/B077... [2] https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Robert-David-Steele/dp/1583944435 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Robert-David-Steele/dp/1583944435 [3] https://www.amazon.de/-/en/David-Graeber-ebook/dp/B00MAPBIYA https://www.amazon.de/-/en/David-Graeber-ebook/dp/B00MAPBIYA
- mmerlin 5y agoDavid Allen - Getting things done Steven Pressfield - The War of Art + Turning Pro Tony Robbins - Awaken the giant within (maybe he's released a better book than that now, but it was impactful personally back in the 90s)
- momofuku 5y agoI'm pretty sure I'll get downvoted, but Ashlee Vance's book on Elon Musk. Hear me out. I'm not recommending it for Elon's story but more to understand how to build companies, understand complex problems, look for great talent and how to build better systems by looking at things from a slightly different perspective. I read it when I was 18 as well and I learnt that Tesla wasn't actually (not entirely) Elon's acheivement. It was actually JB Straubel's passion project. As an engineer, I deeply admire JB and the things he has acheived (by being at the helm of Tesla), and what he will acheive through Redwood Materials, his new recycled batteries project. If his resillence and stint at Tesla/Stanford etc are any indication, we can soon expect some revolutionary things from him (once again). It also showed me how SpaceX was born when Elon and his team crunched some numbers on a trip back from Russia, only to realize that it would be cheaper to build their own rockets rather than rent Russia's. That book is filled with stories about complex systems that humans broke down into simpler problems and hacked them together into monolith companies. Contrary to popular beliefs (mostly held by people who haven't read the book), its not entirely about Elon. My two cents.
- Const-me 5y agoLast non-fiction book I read was “A Plague Upon Our House” by dr. Scott Atlas. Good one, can recommend, but it might be too depressing for a birthday, it’s about COVID and modern politics. Another good non-fiction one is “Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed” by Leo Janos, about cold war and aviation technology. This one is fine for a birthday, assuming you generally like these topics.
- wchandler 5y agoRead the Christian Bible. Even if you are not religious its worthwhile to read it from cover to cover.
- oversocialized 5y agoI like the Jefferson Bible. Has Jesus teachings pieced together without all the supernatural.
- omosubi 5y agoAgreed - like it or not it's the foundation of our civilization and not having read it is more of a hindrance than anything
- kgin 5y agoCan you say more about this pick?
- snjy7 5y agoI'm hindu but don't find any harm in learning about other religions.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- camjw 5y agoThe Player of Games by Iain M Banks.
- TheMerovingian 5y agoMy recommendation: A Brief History of Progress by Ronald Wright. My Wife's recommendation: Your Money or Your Life.
- contingencies 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Civilisation_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Civilisation_in_Ch... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP/IP_Illustrated#Volume_1:_The_Protocols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP/IP_Illustrated#Volume_1:_T... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Not_Being_Governed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Not_Being_Governed
- cpach 5y agoThe Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is great. Or something by Jared Diamond, e.g. The Third Chimpanzee.
- conformist 5y agoWittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is always worth having a look at. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I greatly enjoyed it at around that age. Ed Thorp's autobiography "A man for all markets" is fun, in particular if you're interested in maths, gambling or finance.
- aronpye 5y agoNot a book recommendation, but Star Trek TNG has had a huge influence on my life and was (and still is) one of my biggest inspirations to get into engineering. It’s also filled with philosophy as well as things like leadership advice, etc. Maybe one day I’ll get round to compiling a TNG greatest hits, like Measure of a Man, The Inner Light (the entire episodes pretty much), as well as scenes like Data demonstrating “calling in” rather than “calling out” bad behavior (https://youtu.be/vMKtKNZw4Bo https://youtu.be/vMKtKNZw4Bo), and just general Philosopher King speeches from Picard (https://youtu.be/Jph2qWXJ-Tk https://youtu.be/Jph2qWXJ-Tk)
- CharleFKane 5y agoThe answer I really want to give, but which isn't very helpful, is: go to a bookstore or to Amazon, find something that looks interesting to you, and buy it. Don't worry about buying the right book at the right time, or if you'll like it in 50 years, or whatever. You'll have plenty of chances to get this right in the future. The possibly more helpful, but self-promoting answer: I did a post twelve years ago on my personal blog about ten (plus five) books that were major influences on me. Many of those (11 out of the 15) are non-fiction, and you might get an idea or two from that list. https://www.sportsfirings.com/?p=1401 https://www.sportsfirings.com/?p=1401
- ArtWomb 5y ago"I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth" -Rilke https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke#Letters_to_a_Young_Poet_(1934) https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke#Letters_to_...
- tjalfi 5y agoPrisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World - Tim Marshall
- jka 5y agoIt is -- and it isn't -- fiction, but "The Crow Road" by Iain Banks has been useful to me to reflect on what inter-generational relationships and communities mean and how they develop over time. Enjoy your literary journey.
- anm89 5y agoCheck out "The Timeless Way of Building" if you want non fiction or anything by Vonnegut. I'd personally start with Cat's Cradle.
- cultofmetatron 5y agoI'd highly recommend "rich dad poor dad." At 18, you're probably too broke to use the information in it but it will lay down a strategy for building wealth as soon as you start getting income. IF I had it 15 years ago, I'd be a millionaire today. There's a lot of decisions I would have done differently had I read it at the time.
- muzani 5y agoI had it at 18. Still not a millionaire. Also learning that a lot of it is false. I've been all over the ESBI quadrant. You have to adjust it to your situation. Right now, the employed quadrant pays unrealistically high. This wasn't always the case, but Rich Dad Poor Dad over the years made it such that architect and doctors quit their jobs to become stock traders and bakery owners. So there's a lot more demand for people who are willing to sit in an office. It's definitely an Employee's market, at least in 2021, and you'll wear yourself thin trying to hire. Sam Altman also said a few years back that more people wanted to be investors than start startups, so as a beginner investor, you're very likely to end up with bad deals. I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but read it and apply concepts of economics to it. It gives you a piece of the puzzle but it's incomplete.
- kratom_sandwich 5y agoFull disclosure: I haven't read the book, but reading the "Criticism"-Section on Wikipedia I would be very cautious. While investing and building wealth is certainly an important issue, there's just so much mischief going on with investing-related "advice". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Dad_Poor_Dad#Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Dad_Poor_Dad#Criticism
- edye 5y agoThinking Mathematically by Mason, Burton, and Stacey. It helps with solving math problems and in the process teaches heuristics to improve self-awareness and observational skills.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y agoRead good fiction. Jack Kerouac - On The Road Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five Charles Bukowski - Post Office
- lxxpxlxxxx 5y agoDas Kapital And The Wealth of Nations
- jpster 5y agoNon-violent Communication https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71730.Nonviolent_Communication https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71730.Nonviolent_Communi... The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36072.The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36072.The_7_Habits_of_Hi... Principles by Ray Dalio https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34536488-principles https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34536488-principles
- tkgally 5y agoLooking back on what I read when I was around your age, I think I benefitted less from reading entire books straight through than I did from browsing through magazines and books as my interests led me. I spent a lot of time in libraries, wandering the stacks and reading rooms and stopping to read whatever caught my eye. Bound volumes of old general-interest magazines—The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Strand Magazine—were particularly absorbing, though I also dipped into a lot of books. That library-browsing experience is now available through the Internet Archive. Some semirandom magazine examples are at [1, 2, 3]; some books are at [4, 5, 6]. There are millions more. If HN had existed when I was eighteen, I would have enjoyed—and benefitted from—reading the articles and discussions here, too, perhaps almost as much as I do now at the age of sixty-four. [1] https://archive.org/details/notesqueries12unse_0 https://archive.org/details/notesqueries12unse_0 [2] https://archive.org/details/blackwoodsedinb191unkngoog https://archive.org/details/blackwoodsedinb191unkngoog [3] https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-magazine_1903-03_106_634/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-magazine_1903-03_106... [4] https://archive.org/details/authenticaccount01stau https://archive.org/details/authenticaccount01stau [5] https://archive.org/details/russiannihilisme00buel https://archive.org/details/russiannihilisme00buel [6] https://archive.org/details/cottonkingdomtra00inolms https://archive.org/details/cottonkingdomtra00inolms
- more_corn 5y agoEverything in this thread is good. You’ve got a list that will last you years. Get thee to a library!
- snjy7 5y agoYeah! I never expected this good of a response.
- marttt 5y ago"A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy [1]. An autobiographical story of Tolstoy's "search for meaning" when he was, I believe, around the same age. A masterpiece in around 80 pages. From a more practical angle, I wish I had had "Early Retirement Extreme" by Jacob Lund Fisker [2] in my shelf at that age. Don't get fooled by the title, this is by no means a "highway to financial independence" book; rather, it's a really deep book about, well, sensible living strategies, considering the world we're in. The author holds a PhD in theoretical physics, and by living with around $7,000 a year as a scientist and postdoc, he retired in around 5 years in his early 30s. It's a book on thoughtful frugality, if you will. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confession https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confession 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Lund_Fisker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Lund_Fisker
- blippage 5y ago"The Little Book That Beats The Market", by Joel Greenblatt. Why? Because hopefully it will get you interested in saving and investing.
- yla92 5y agoI have a list books on my mind but if I have to choose one, I would say "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn" by Richard Hamming. https://www.amazon.com/Art-Doing-Science-Engineering-Learning/dp/1732265178 https://www.amazon.com/Art-Doing-Science-Engineering-Learnin...
- mobilio 5y agoWithout doubts - "Animal Farm" and "1984" from Orwell.
- jjice 5y agoI'll double down on this one. Easy, quick read. Pick it up at the local library and you can finish it in the day, or you can find an audio book on YouTube. Keep in mind that Orwell wrote this during WWII, before much of what he describes took place in full effect in the soviet union. If anyone knows a capitalist equivalent, I'd be very interested.
- _448 5y agoThis is a very interesting book: "Quantum Economics: The New Science of Money" It covers economics, finance, history and quantum physics in an engaging way. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40051046-quantum-economics https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40051046-quantum-econ...
- sbacic 5y agoI expect I'll get a lot of flak for this one, but I'd like to suggest the "4 hour work week" by Tim Ferriss. I've read it at about the same age and it had a profound effect on me. Another book I'd suggest is the Enchiridion of Epictetus. If you ever intend to have kids, "Summerhill" by A.S.Neill is a good choice.
- audiometry 5y agoI would have benefitted from reading “Ego is the Enemy” and any title on mindfulness from Jon Kabat Zinn. But at that age I was probably too hot headed and insane and immature to actually read them. Sigh. So instead I learned everything the hard way.