Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre http://www.amazon.com/Existentialism-Dostoevsky-Sartre-Revis...
A Kierkegaard Anthology http://www.amazon.com/Kierkegaard-Anthology-Soren/dp/0691019...
Party of One: The Loner's Manifesto by Anneli Rufus http://www.annelirufus.com/partyofone/
The Mindbody Prescription by John E. Sarno http://www.amazon.com/The-Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body...
Politics and philosophy:
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn (even though in the end, it's just a cute, in essence a softies introduction to anarchist communism)
On property - Proudhon (Meta, ye oldist anarchy) Das Kapital (If you read Marx, also read on Marx, can't stress this enough)
Beyond good and evil (but in his thought in general) - Nietzsche (Mainly for showing there are no absolutes, moral is what we make of it, and in that moral we can excel)
And so, so many others, philosophy really adds up, just keep on reading, there's fundamental books for sure, but every publication adds up in some respect.
Sports and nutrition:
Starting Strength (for making me bad ass strong in the last couple years)
'Paleo' diet (for showing an extreme solution for a more simple problem, that actually worked and made me not fat anymore)
Some random books that made a huge impression the last years:
The Alchemist, for showing how humble you can experience the wonders of life
Siddhartha, same really.
A short summer of anarchy (biography of Durrutti, rise of anarchism in 30s Spain, out of print)
Crime and Punishment and Karamazov (There's beauty in the darkest corners of the human spirit, and so much more)
The Prince
Butler (For using Nietzsche's deconstruction to argue against 'genetic' discrimination, controversial, but very good)
Metamorphosis - Kafka (I don't have a one liner to summarize this. Just read it, it's < 100 pages)
Funny enough, as far as Tech and Business goes, I skim books to get some details, but at the end of the day most value comes from hacking around. For both.
And in conjunction to that, this article "Someone is Coming to Eat You" (http://randsinrepose.com/archives/someone-is-coming-to-eat-y...)
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Il deserto dei tartari (The Tartar Steppe) by Dino Buzzati
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Be Here Now - Ram Das
Whole Earth Catalog - Stewart Brand
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Savage Continent - Keith Lowe
Forged - Bart D. Ehrman
Young Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore
Court of the Red Czar - Simon Sebag Montefiore
I haven't had a copy for many years and just ordered one from Amazon because you made me think about it fondly again. I first read it shortly after it was published in '71 and it's time to read it again. :-)
There is a trap in the thinking that it took me a long time to understand. The present is a consequence of past behavior that cannot be safely ignored. The future is a consequence of present behavior and cannot be safely ignored. Discarding that caution brought me a lot of trouble I would have been better off avoiding. This is obvious but excess enthusiasm for mindfulness of the present can easily lead one to places that one wouldn't want to be.
What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness
1984
Farenheit 541
Foundation (all saga)
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings (all saga)
The Prince
De Bello Gallico and Other Commentaries
The Design of Everyday Things
The Riverworld (an entire saga of 5 books)
On the Good Life
Treatises on Friendship and Old Age
Asimov On Numbers
Asimov on Chemistry
The Roman Republic
And hundreds more I cannot list.
