Topic: Truly mind expanding books you have read

[lukebourassa]

Italo Calvino - Cosmicomics

Stephen Baxter - The Manifold Trilogy (Not particularly well written, but the depth of the sci-fi showed me what sci-fi could be.)

Michio Kaku - Parallel Worlds
(I know Kaku crosses over from science to speculation, but some of the information in this book blew my mind.)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - A Hundred Years of Solitude
(Even though it's translated from Spanish, the way this story is written showed me a whole new way to look at fiction.)

[kakaydin]

gerbig, can you give a few examples of books you've read that fall in this category?

[Karyn]

QFT.  I wish this guy would write more.

[rreppy]

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins lit up for me an entirely different way of looking at living things and how Life works. And I have a degree in Biology!
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus was a revelation to me. It explained why, as a man, I cannot ever fully understand women, and am never going to; none of us ever are, but that's okay. A real epiphany, as now I can just relax and enjoy them.
A Simple Path by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Clear. Inspiring. With advice that is actually doable. The Dalai Lama has dozens of his works translated into English, and I haven't read one yet that I did not enjoy or find insightful.
All this having been said, I still maintain, after 59 years of life and thousands upon thousands of books read, the best book I ever read has been the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have reread it many times, and it always delivers more. It is a deep pool of mythology and symbolism that is always a joy to swim in.

[Neutral Milk]

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus was a revelation to me. It explained why, as a man, I cannot ever fully understand women, and am never going to; none of us ever are, but that's okay. A real epiphany, as now I can just relax and enjoy them.

There's a lot of criticism of this book out there. That's going to be the case with any pop-psy book, but this one is one of the especially bad ones that takes a theory and runs with it despite there being little serious evidence to support it. It also takes the idea of gender stereotyping to a ridiculous extreme.

I wouldn't let it expand your mind too much..

[Skeptress]

Italo Calvino: If On a Winter's Night a Traveler

Carl Zimmer: Parasite Rex

Mary Roach: Stiff

[rreppy]

There's a lot of criticism of this book out there. That's going to be the case with any pop-psy book, but this one is one of the especially bad ones that takes a theory and runs with it despite there being little serious evidence to support it. It also takes the idea of gender stereotyping to a ridiculous extreme.

I wouldn't let it expand your mind too much..

Aw, man, you are putting a buzzkill on my serene equanimity. Since reading the book, whenever my wife or daughters accuse me of not understanding where they are coming from, I have been able to just smile and reply "Yep. That's right. Never going to be able to either, so don't make me try, as it is impossible". I don't want to give that up!

[Haricots]

Steven Pinker: The Blank Slate
Pinker takes on the widely assumed idea that our personality is formed mostly by our environment with heretical effects having a very small part if any.
Great book with many thought provoking and controversial subjects. A must read!

I'm not totally blown away by Gödel Esher Bach, but I would recommend The Mind's I for a good introduction into philosophy of the mind. Its a collaboration between Hofstadter and Dennett with shorter articles from different authors with comments and reflections after.
A good introduction into functionalism and its implications.
I like Dennett's works in general as well.

[andrewclunn]

The Wealth of Nations and The Origin of Species are still the most important books I have ever read.

[petrolpetal]

Naiomi Klein : Shock doctrine, and NO LOGO  were both pretty mind-altering for me.The world did not look the same after I had read them. I had felt all that stuf..vaguely...but she was able to pin it down and articulate it !!

[Hanes]

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins lit up for me an entirely different way of looking at living things and how Life works.

YES.  YES YES YES.  This is definitely one of the greatest nonfiction books ever written.

[Bongolia]

I really love books about cosmology. Some recent one's I've read and enjoyed are The God Problem (Howard Bloom), A Tear At The Edge Of Creation (Marcelo Gleiser), A Universe From Nothing (Lawrence Krauss). I've read Hawking, Sagan. I find Brian Greene a little dry, I need to have my imagination excited. I'd love to hear some suggestions of other cosmology books I might have missed.

[Armel P]

Gödel Escher Bach, is another really good one.

Agreed. Though I still haven't finished it.

[341gerbig]

Gödel Escher Bach, is another really good one.

Agreed. Though I still haven't finished it.

about to order it =)

[Neutral Milk]

Gödel Escher Bach, is another really good one.

Agreed. Though I still haven't finished it.

about to order it =)

That book took me about 6 months to read. Totally worth it.