Here's my usual list of recommendations, the best books I've read in the past 5 years. Fiction: - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality If you know not

Here's my usual list of recommendations, the best books I've read in the past 5 years. Fiction: - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality If you know nothing about this book you might naturally hesitate to read "Harry Potter fanfiction" and assume that it's dumb/horrbile, but it's not. Just suspend your disbelief and read the first 5-10 chapters. Trust me, it's brilliant, hilarious, and life-changing. - Atlas Shrugged Controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for some reason, but it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I am aware of. Nonfiction: - Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham Also a collection of his essays that you can find on github. He is one of the most clever writers I am aware of, but I assume you know that, since you're on HN. - "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins This book explains in simple terms a very awesome and elegant theory on how mind works. Incredibly fascinating, I've learned a lot from it and it explains a lot of things, and will change the way you think about thinking process. - The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins Engaging and entertaining explanation of evolution, absolutely fantastic book. - The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. Despite the stigma, and people thinking that Machhiavellian = "evil", I've found this book extremely clever and wise. - Serious Creativity by Edward De Bono The best book on creativity and the process of generating ideas that I'm aware of. - Abundance This is a very inspiring and optimistic book about the future of technology. Entrepreneurhsip: - Start Small, Stay Small Guide to creating your first product/business for hackers. It lays out all the basics of entrepreneurship in a very concise and clear ways, my favorite introduction to startups. - Rework Very wise and intelligent advice about startups, intelligent and witty, must read. - Lean Startup Classic book on "lean startup methodology", very useful. - 4-Hour Workweek Despite the silly title I think it is a great book and is very much worth reading. Many people here dislike Tim Ferris, but whatever, I think this book is cool. Autobiographies: - Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman - Ghost In The Wires by Kevin Mitnick - Catch me if you can by Abagnale - iWoz by Steve Wozniak - Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson All these are fantastic and very intelligent autobiographies by the very awesome people. Now I'm reading "Gödel, Escher, Bach" and "Rationality: From AI to Zombies." "Rationality" is great and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. Can't say much about GEB, I've only started reading it, but everyone is saying that it is so great and the best book ever, so I think it's definitely worth checking out.