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Any book recommendations? General knowledge, economy, history, etc. anything you find people should know but often dont.
I'm trying to expand my knowledge and I am out of books, so whatever goes.
My two cents are: Marcus Aurelius Meditations, source for guidance, self-improvement and Stoic philosophy. Janusz A. Zajdel Limes Inferior, sci-fi novel touching on IQ, automatisation and UBI. And Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince.

Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and it’s sequel Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals are, ahem, *quality* reads. I found Lila to be particularly engaging.

Fight Club came out at a key point in my life and made a lasting impact on me.

I enjoyed learning about Metalurgy in a course in college. It’s an interesting subject if you’re interested in the design of materials and how they fail.

Jean Cretien was the Prime Minister of Canada in my youth, and provides an interesting if completely unapologeticly one-sided memoir in his autobiography.

There's a huge long list I could provide, but I think I'll just provide a few highlights of my collection:

Peter Wilson's "The Thirty Years War"

David Parrott's "the Business of War"

Lauro Martines "Furies; War in Europe 1450-1700"

Von Clausewitz, "On War"

A bit on these books: So, Wilson's book is kinda regarded as one of the best sources for general history on the Thirty Years War. It's massive, and he spends a TOONNNNNNNN of pages at the beginning of the book just detailing the structure of the HRE's governing systems and illustrating just how complicated they were (which is important given that some of these complexities may have been some of the causes of the war). Parrott's Business of war is great, IMO, because he really breaks down the term "mercenary" and how, while it currently has a bit of a black mark from a personnel sense, it is still a system in place today (he partially argues that in some ways, we will always have a form of mercenary system as there will always be private provisioning of state military) he nicely goes over how States in early modern europe funded wars and kinda how we got where we are now. Martines' Furies is somewhat similar. . . he takes a broad scoped view of how wars were conducted. He doesn't so much go into the nitty gritty details (such as how many men were in a squad/platoon/etc), but covers things like the role of provisioning and how that led to looting/atrocities committed against civilians. He also goes a bit into the role religion played in actually making wars worse on the continent, etc.

Finally, Von Clausewitz. . . he's almost required reading for military minded folks (military officers, military historians, etc) as he shaped so much of western military organization and policy in the modern era. I've seen him described as a 19th century Sun Tzu in terms of military philosphy and the impact he had.

Then, on the fictional front:

John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" which is book 1 in the Old Man's War series. . .I'm midway through the 2nd book and I cannot say how much I have enjoyed his writing and style. It is very much (imo) a positively unique take on modern/military sci-fi

Philip K. Dick, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" . . This is the book that ultimately became the movie Blade Runner and sorta inspired the sequel Blade Runner: 2049. I will warn you, there are a LOT of differences between Androids and the first BR movie, but I personally do not think that either one is diminished for it and they each stand well on their own.

Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" is another excellent fiction book, although I will give fair warning that you may need to read a number of pages, stop and then reread the whole thing. When I read it in high school, it took me about 80 pages to get the hang of the slang and language that Burgess used/created in the book. But once I went back and reread everything, the book made perfect sense and shows a very creatively strong grasp of language as a whole.

greatbigtree: I didnt know that there is Fight Club book, definitely will check those.

Ensis Ferrae: huge fan of military history of all kinds, tho I personally prefer helenistic and middle age eras, still thank for recommendation.

I think it would be a good diea to stick to factual books. SF can be discussed in the Geek Media forum.

For war history I would recommend the following

Thucydides's The Peloponnesian War. It's more or less the first piece of military history ever written.

Bruce Catton's two ACW trilogies:

The Coming Fury, Terrible Swift Sword, and Never Call Retreat are a general history of the war.

Mr Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox are a history of the Army of the Potomac.

Both are excellent, readable, popular histories.

For any interested in early European history, I would reccomend
Europe between the Oceans (9000 BC-AD 1000) by Barry Cunliffe.

I have read lots of books on European history, but this one was by far the most comprehensive and insightful as it deals with a vast time period and wide variety of cultures quite thoroughly. Not only does it mention facts and events, it also often looks in the how and why, the causes and consequences of events. I also found it really pleasant to read, and it has pictures.
If you want to learn about stuff like what people ate back in the middle stone age, the how and why of the development and spread of agriculture, prehistoric trade networks, megalithic monuments, the beginnings of the steppe nomad peoples and their invasions (along with all kinds of other movements of people), interaction between different regions and cultures and a thousand other different topics all the way up to the early Middle Ages all in one book, than this book is perfect. It'll probably give you a whole new insight in history and the development of European civilisation.

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Thought it was gonna suck but turned out pretty damn good.

Get into Asher's Polity novels ... (and the Owner series ... and everything else ... ).

On edit: plus The Peripheral (Gibson) ... and Zero History (especially if you know London ... and benzos). Plus the rest of that "series"...

The fifteen decisive battles of the world from Marathon to Waterloo by Sir Edward Creasy - it's not the most amazing of works, but it's free and if you have an awareness of history it gives a snap shot of each moment.

Crown & Country by David Starkey - an easily graspable history of England through the monarchs that ruled it. Most of my frame of reference for working out what happened when in the UK is thanks to this book.

Dogs: Their Ancestors and Fossil Relatives. Not only is it a fascinating view of how dogs (and cats, bears, sea lions, etc.) evolved from the early Carnivora, but it really gives a deep understanding of how evolution works and the tremendous scale of time and distance at work even in the geologically "recent" past.

If you look into the right software, coding guides can be relatively useful. Only difficulty is getting your hands on them. They are relatively plentiful second-hand, but might be outdated (ex. Java 2 guide to learn Java 8). Buying them in bookstores is awfully expensive. Kindle ebooks from Amazon can also be cheap for beginner material, but their quality might be questionable. Humble Bundle frequently has coding language guides for dirt cheap, but they are not paperback.
If you want a good language to start with, perhaps consider Python. It's free, relatively easy to understand, and versions 2 and 3 don't seem to have too many differences. The one I started with was Python: Learn Python in One Day and Learn It Well

There is also a website for open-access journals. These are basically free (I think) research reports. I read these articles for psychology and computer science. https://doaj.org/

 SkavenLord wrote:
If you look into the right software, coding guides can be relatively useful. Only difficulty is getting your hands on them. They are relatively plentiful second-hand, but might be outdated (ex. Java 2 guide to learn Java 8). Buying them in bookstores is awfully expensive. Kindle ebooks from Amazon can also be cheap for beginner material, but their quality might be questionable. Humble Bundle frequently has coding language guides for dirt cheap, but they are not paperback.
If you want a good language to start with, perhaps consider Python. It's free, relatively easy to understand, and versions 2 and 3 don't seem to have too many differences. The one I started with was Python: Learn Python in One Day and Learn It Well

There is also a website for open-access journals. These are basically free (I think) research reports. I read these articles for psychology and computer science. https://doaj.org/

I also started learning Python! Great language. I already made my first Mount&Blade mods in it.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 SkavenLord wrote:
If you look into the right software, coding guides can be relatively useful. Only difficulty is getting your hands on them. They are relatively plentiful second-hand, but might be outdated (ex. Java 2 guide to learn Java 8). Buying them in bookstores is awfully expensive. Kindle ebooks from Amazon can also be cheap for beginner material, but their quality might be questionable. Humble Bundle frequently has coding language guides for dirt cheap, but they are not paperback.
If you want a good language to start with, perhaps consider Python. It's free, relatively easy to understand, and versions 2 and 3 don't seem to have too many differences. The one I started with was Python: Learn Python in One Day and Learn It Well

There is also a website for open-access journals. These are basically free (I think) research reports. I read these articles for psychology and computer science. https://doaj.org/

I also started learning Python! Great language. I already made my first Mount&Blade mods in it.

Seriously? That's awesome! If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage that?

The Rules of the Game

This is an in-depth history of the development of the Royal Navy commanders in the late Victorian era, leading up to the Battle of Jutland (1916.)

In Nevada

This is probably my number 1 favourite book of all time. Written by an ex-British, now American film critic, it is about the state of Nevada, covering paleantology, history, gambling, nuclear tests, sport, the environment, sociology, travel, and aliens, among other subjects.

Prisoners of Geography

Was browsing Waterstones for a HH novel, picked this up instead. I only started it yesterday afternoon but it's very interesting, about how geography, both physical and human, shapes geopolitics throughout history.

The first chapter for example, explores Russia, and how such a huge country with such a small relative population has so much influence despite being relatively undeveloped compared to other superpowers.

Ok i guess if you are just looking for any sort of books here are a few:


The Joy of Cooking - Irma Rombauer: it's still just plain an excellent cookbook for everyone to have. There is a lot to read in it too, if you get the right edition. Cooking is the best.

Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell: basically covers everything that would become 1984 and Animal Farm only far better written. Also has fun little section on how much it sucks to get shot in the throat. Also i suppose there's some history and politics in there.

Grant's memoirs are pretty fun and readable for all that he was dying when he wrote them.

The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Ursula Le Guin: these are very good short stories, I think Le Guin was a far better short story writer than novelist, but that is me.

Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg: Good advice on writing, very readable and engaging and sympathetic.

Persuasion - Jane Austen: People like to rag on Austen, and some of it is deserved, but I love this book and will reccomend it to anyone. Also Northanger Abbey because it is funny as can be.

The Ants: It's a book about ants.

 SkavenLord wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 SkavenLord wrote:
If you look into the right software, coding guides can be relatively useful. Only difficulty is getting your hands on them. They are relatively plentiful second-hand, but might be outdated (ex. Java 2 guide to learn Java 8). Buying them in bookstores is awfully expensive. Kindle ebooks from Amazon can also be cheap for beginner material, but their quality might be questionable. Humble Bundle frequently has coding language guides for dirt cheap, but they are not paperback.
If you want a good language to start with, perhaps consider Python. It's free, relatively easy to understand, and versions 2 and 3 don't seem to have too many differences. The one I started with was Python: Learn Python in One Day and Learn It Well

There is also a website for open-access journals. These are basically free (I think) research reports. I read these articles for psychology and computer science. https://doaj.org/

I also started learning Python! Great language. I already made my first Mount&Blade mods in it.

Seriously? That's awesome! If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage that?

I read a book to learn how Python works (it was in Dutch, it was called "Programmeren met Python".) I liked it because it had lots of pictures but I still only got halfway through before I got bored (I am cursed with a very short attention span). Then I read a guide or two on the Taleworlds forums and then I just started experimenting. First I took existing modules and made small changes to them, and once I could do that I started making bigger changes with lots of trial and error (and the help of some guides on Python). The module system that Mount&Blade has makes it really easy to make and test your own stuff.
You can find lots of helpful documentation on the Taleworlds forums to get you started. Mount&Blade uses a really simple language, so you don't even really need to know much about programming or Python until you get to changing or adding complicated features. The game only uses Python for advanced features and the compiling of modules.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 SkavenLord wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 SkavenLord wrote:
If you look into the right software, coding guides can be relatively useful. Only difficulty is getting your hands on them. They are relatively plentiful second-hand, but might be outdated (ex. Java 2 guide to learn Java 8). Buying them in bookstores is awfully expensive. Kindle ebooks from Amazon can also be cheap for beginner material, but their quality might be questionable. Humble Bundle frequently has coding language guides for dirt cheap, but they are not paperback.
If you want a good language to start with, perhaps consider Python. It's free, relatively easy to understand, and versions 2 and 3 don't seem to have too many differences. The one I started with was Python: Learn Python in One Day and Learn It Well

There is also a website for open-access journals. These are basically free (I think) research reports. I read these articles for psychology and computer science. https://doaj.org/

I also started learning Python! Great language. I already made my first Mount&Blade mods in it.

Seriously? That's awesome! If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage that?

I read a book to learn how Python works (it was in Dutch, it was called "Programmeren met Python".) I liked it because it had lots of pictures but I still only got halfway through before I got bored (I am cursed with a very short attention span). Then I read a guide or two on the Taleworlds forums and then I just started experimenting. First I took existing modules and made small changes to them, and once I could do that I started making bigger changes with lots of trial and error (and the help of some guides on Python). The module system that Mount&Blade has makes it really easy to make and test your own stuff.
You can find lots of helpful documentation on the Taleworlds forums to get you started. Mount&Blade uses a really simple language, so you don't even really need to know much about programming or Python until you get to changing or adding complicated features. The game only uses Python for advanced features and the compiling of modules.

Really? I was expecting Pygame or some other third-party package to come up. I'll bet it's leagues easier than trying to decipher the C-suite. Will check out the forums at some point.
Thanks for the tip Cap!