The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World - Tim Marshall
I was wondering if folks could also mention--in 1-sentence--what they learned from each book. Why was the book helpful in understanding the world?
I think this would make comments more interesting.
Stories of how and why some people survived Auschwitz and found meaning despite their context, from two very different perspectives (a child and a psychologist).
One of the earliest books that gave me a good leap in understanding is the Tao of Pooh. As a preteen, it was my first real taste of philosophy outside of Christianity, and it was something radically different.
As far as impact, probably Epictetus' Enchiridion. It's literally a manual on how to live a good life. It's uncommonly practical advice and started a love for his school of philosophy that still hasn't faded.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin First read during my high school years in the Amazing SF magazine; and was later published as a book. The work was criticized by the 'elite' of the SF community at the time. Have recently re-read and got the same impressions of how as both a species and as individuals we are fools that understand very little; that is, we are too stupid to know that we are stupid.
Calvin and Hobbs by Bill Waterson. Was my favorite non-mandatory read during my college years. Calvin Ball can teach us much about life, and his snow-men art is the dark that we always be in all of humans.
Marine Corps Reference Publication (MCRP) 3 Rifle Marksmanship. [this is the current version, but am not certain of the designation for this manual when I first read it during the late 1970s]. This summarized the philosophy of combat, the physics of interior and exterior ballistics, and describes the zen-like state of the marksman. It is not as sterile as the US Army marksmanship manual, is more complete treatise of combat shooting and weapons care, and is brutally honest in that the USMC is preparing you to efficiently kill other humans. Very sobering.
Here are a couple of other books that have been pretty influential for me:
Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government
"Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis
An entertaining read about just how fragile and naive western financial systems can be.
Stories of the Law and How It's Broken - The Secret Barrister
Gives a (mostly anecdotal) insight about how broken the English legal system is. I had to pause several times while reading because it conflicted so much with my world view.
Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson
Poor Economics by Banerjee and Duflo
The first deals with why nations stay poor, the second covers how the poor in the third world live and how to actually help them
Ways of Seeing
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Political_Ord...
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York By Robert Caro
And then I have not yet read it myself, although I have it on the shelf, but others recommended it for the exact same question as yours:
Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky
> A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first.
This is not a Sapiens-style retelling of the history of mankind. It's light reading - a quaint look at the history of the modern house, room-by-room, with many diversions into whatever topic that takes the author. But it ends up touching on a lot of interesting interconnections of how the western world developed.
It's a great read to escape the oppressive grind of 2020 while still learning tons of interesting things on every page.
Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
Historical:
The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
General:
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Letters from a Stoic - Seneca
The Bible
Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche
Psychological Types - Carl Jung
He hes a short review of his book on YouTube in 5 parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw3SwEXc3PU
It's a linguistics focused book that suggests people use metaphor to understand abstract constructs. It also helped me understand people, conversation, and intent in an especially eye opening way.
You just wouldn't believe it. Extremely good scholarship.
In the same vein, "Music, science and natural magic in 17th century England" (about the birth of the Royal Society)
Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse
edit: I should mention this is a book recommended by Yuval Noah Harari himself. I read it myself and it is a great companion to his fantastic books.
The Power Broker
History of Western Philosophy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World
Also around the age of 8 or 9 I read some Erich von Däniken book and got quite excited by what it contained. However, I eventually realised that it was complete nonsense and I got really affronted that people could write books that contained stuff that wasn't true. A useful lesson!
Edit: Another one is "Why People Believe Weird Things":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_People_Believe_Weird_Thing...
(Also Sapiens :)
Range - David Epstein
The 48 Rules of Power - Robert Greene
Fooled By Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big - Scott Adams
Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell
The World Is Flat - Thomas L. Friedman
The Penguin History of the World: Sixth Edition - J. M. Roberts and Odd Arne Westad
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Eudardo Galeano (1971)