Ask HN: Can we make a list of obscure/unknown non-fiction books?

6 pointsmezod2y ago7 comments

I'm tired of seeing the same recommendations everywhere. What book can you recommend that you think no one else will know about that you enjoyed? Any topic is welcome!

I'll start: Thinking Fast and Slow - hahaha joking, I got you there ehhh!!!

what about hmm: Critical Path by Buckminster Fuller ?

6 pointsmezod2y ago7 comments

I'm tired of seeing the same recommendations everywhere. What book can you recommend that you think no one else will know about that you enjoyed? Any topic is welcome!

I'll start: Thinking Fast and Slow - hahaha joking, I got you there ehhh!!!

what about hmm: Critical Path by Buckminster Fuller ?

7 comments

7 comments · 5 top-level

sys_prog2y ago· 1 in thread

Kybalion, Reality transurfing, The illusion of money, The minimalist entrepreneur, Power vs Force, Psycho cybernetics, No self no problem

mezodOP2y ago

thanks for actually responding to the question!

pwinkeler2y ago· 1 in thread

By definition such a list is impossible

sargstuff2y ago

Give dirth of publications, don't think there's enough time for even all of the Noone's[0] to review even a fraction of what's available.

In today's day & age more difficult for unpublished prints and/or pre-electronic distribution pre-prints to "be unknown" / "be obscure".

Claude Shannon references to unpublished works : https://findingaids.loc.gov/exist_collections/ead3pdf/mss/20...

[0] : Noone coat of arms : https://coadb.com/surnames/noone-arms.html

ilaksh2y ago

This would actually just be a list of less well known but still popular books.

Probably 90+% of books published are "obscure" in the sense that they didn't become best sellers and won't be recognized by the average person or likely mentioned in a list like you requested. Most books just don't become popular enough to be well known. Which I think is a tough benchmark.

wannabebarista2y ago

"Lost Continents" by L. Sprague de Camp (1954). Looks at Atlantis and other lost continents as rhetorical devices in ancient history and philosophy, 20th century pseudoscience/pseudohistory, and science fiction

Desafinado2y ago

Anything by Merwin Crawford Young, early Zen Buddhist texts, Anthony Giddens, Peter Berger, the Tao te Ching, Max Weber, Norbert Elias, Nisargadatta Maharaj

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