What books influenced your moral compass?

Here are a few books that come to mind:

    Siddhartha – I highly recommend doing some background reading to get the most out of it. Everything in the book is a metaphor. For example, the question of whether to take the "Big Boat or Small Boat?" down the river is actually a deeper reflection on personal choices in the pursuit of nirvana or enlightenment.

    When You Hear Hoofbeats, Think of a Zebra

    Slaughterhouse-Five – Honestly, just read some Kurt Vonnegut. He’s probably the greatest American writer of all time.

Also, here's a great list: https://i.redd.it/cjuf9k91d6g71.jpg .I’m sure I’ve missed some of my favorites, but I just wanted to share because reading has given me so much perspective on the world. I’m really grateful it’s something I enjoy.

The Four Agreements. Totally changed my approach on professional and dating relations. I hear the concept is not unique but the brief, clear nature of the author spoke to me in my 20s.

The explaining theory is a little out of the box (ideas are seeds, your memory is soil, your attention is super powerful fertilizer) but if you aborb the basic concept, you will be forever changed.

- The Paul Street Boys (Ferenc Molnár)

- The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (Machado de Assis)

- Cousin Bazilio (Eça de Queirós)

- Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire)

All these as a teen. I don't think my moral compass had much plasticity after that.

- Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque

- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

- and also somehow The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

Walden, by Thoreau

The Myth of the Machine, by Lewis Mumford

Cloud Hidden, by Alan Watts

Computer Lib/Dream Machines, by Ted Nelson (Technology purpose and arrow)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer

Small is Beautiful, by E. F. Schumacher

This might be one of the weirdest answers, and it is not exactly what you asked for, but Naruto the Anime/Manga had a huuuuuge impact on my personality.

Even wrote a post about it: https://www.rasulkireev.com/naruto-influence

Ernest Bevin by Andrew Adonis is a biography of Bevin from his poor roots to being in charge of the TUC during labour. It's interesting to note that when Churchill had to decide between backing Beaverbrook or Bevin he chose Bevin, and why you see Bevin next to Churchill in the famous VE day photos. Bevin approach of working with business to achieve collective bargaining outcomes that worked for both sides, and demonstrates how hard fought this battle was. He wasn't perfect, but an interesting man

The Old Man and the sea - Hemmingway - so many things, with every reread I find something new.

The Heart of the Buddhas Teaching - Thich Nhat Hanh, useful prayers, concepts for understanding and dealing with life and a moral compass for going through it.

The Way of Zen - Alan Watts, opened my eyes to different forms of religious experience

Also a lot of psychology and philosophy books in undergrad were foundational to my thinking. The Moral Animal, the Moral Landscape, The Blank Slate, The Republic and Plato’s writings on Socrates, Tao te Ching, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, the Tanakh and parts of the Talmud, but many of these were more academic, still holistically they have shaped my thinking and moral compass.

The Chronies of Narnia by C.S. Lewis - I properly discovered it while reading to my kids

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other than the Bible, that would be Dune and Starship Troopers. I can't really put my finger on how specifically they influenced me, but I often find myself recalling scenes and quotes from those two books when discussing deeper topics with family and friends.

Robert S. Hartman: Freedom to live

https://archive.org/details/freedomtoliverob0000hart

How to win friends and influence people - Dale Canergie

It showed me different ways to interact with other humans. Influenced me by giving me tools, confidence, and making me want to step out of my confort zone.

I Am a Strange Loop, by Hofstadter. I thought his idea of consciousness as a gradient was really interesting. Hofstadter said this idea made him a vegan. It did the opposite for me, eating a person has more or less the same moral perils as eating a cow. It didn't change my mind about eating animals, but eating people seems more or less okay.

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

1984, by Orwell

Walden, by Thoreau

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse

But really, the one that had most direct impact in my life was Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. Not in my vision of the world but in my lifestyle.

The bible obviously

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

> the world doesn't belong to man, man belongs to the world.

and

The Little Book of Humanism

Can animals be moral? by Rowlands

https://www.amazon.com/Can-Animals-Moral-Mark-Rowlands/dp/01...

Also Analysis of the Self by Kohut

https://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Self-Psychoanalytic-Narcissi...

which is difficult going but helps draw a circle around the concept of "self-centeredness"

1984, George Orwell

Permanent Record, Edward Snowden

My Early Life, Winston S. Churchill

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Edit: To some extent probably also:

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes

Plato’s “Apology”.

probably Heart of Darkness

maybe also Yukio Mishima's tetralogy

In undergrad, reading these two books really changed my outlook. I went in skeptical and a little conspiratorial and these helped bring me closer to reality and even a little hopeful.

- The Cost of Rights (1999) by Stephen Holmes and Cass Sunstein

- A Theory of Justice (1971) by John Rawls

1984

* A Thousand Splendid Suns

* Foundation and Empire

* On Liberty

* Good to Great

Those books shaped how I interact with other people, which is:

* I will move forward. I am not waiting for you to make a decision. If you need time then it’s on your own time and can catch up at your liability, otherwise it’s absolute empathy and self-sacrifice in all things.

* As for other people I want to avoid people that state firm conclusions lacking evidence or measures. I consider that stupidity but it could just be bias or autism. Either way it’s a problem. If people do that and can’t help but talk about themselves then they are definitely either autistic or a sociopath. If those people are charming then they are definitely sociopaths.