Hacker News Books

If by positive impact you mean most enjoyable, then:

The Godfather, Mario Puzo (Film good, Novel excellent)
Anna Karenin, Leo Tolstoy (Best novelist ever IMO)
Rendezvous With Rama Series, Arthur Clarke (Great)
Replay, Ken Grimley? (Cool story)

Go read the Godfather - it's an excellent book. Mario Puzo does some good work. Another really interesting one is his book on the Borgias[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(Puzo_novel)

All the obligatory books and references have already been mentioned, so I'll refrain from repeating.

I'm a recent developer-turned-manager [close to two years now] and have always been a voracious reader.

Apart from specialist books of the profession, as an introvert I find that a healthy dose of fiction helps me in my day-to-day dealings with people at the workplace - especially those who report to me.

[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401...]
[https://open.buffer.com/reading-fiction/]

^^ As such, I'd recommend some well-written fiction. Try The Godfather - always thought it was the best "people management" book :-)

Fantasy [or novels with a touch of the fantastic] would also be good.

War books are also good. Try some interesting non-fiction - I'd recommend WW II books by Stephen Ambrose. All about teamwork and beats reading dry management books.

You should probably stay away from satire, lest your manager think you a d*ck ;)

Before you do any of this, you should probably find out if your manager is in the habit of reading.

And despite the best advice, what a reader gets from any book depends on what she brings to it...so don't be surprised if reading doesn't help your manager :D

> Casablanca is widely remembered as one of the greatest films of all time, coming in at #2 on the AFI’s top 100 list ...

  1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)
  2. CASABLANCA (1942)
  3. THE GODFATHER (1972)
  4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
  5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

I just don't enjoy CITIZEN KANE anymore. It's like a film school movie. I watched it maybe 10-15 times when I was younger and I just don't enjoy it anymore. Like so what? GONE WITH THE WIND is the pinnacle of Lost Cause propaganda. I enjoyed when I didn't understand it. (I'm sure glad I didn't watch Triumph of the Will when I didn't understand it.) I damn sure don't enjoy GONE WITH THE WIND now that I understand it.

But I can watch CASABLANCA, THE GODFATHER and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA over and over. And this was a good article telling me things I didn't appreciate and still I can go back and watch CASABLANCA again.

The Godfather -Mario Puzo

The Running Man -Richard Bachman (A Stephen King pen name)

Never Split The Difference -Chris Voss

"The Godfather" is a classic that features my 2nd favorite evil genius Don Corleone (Hannibal Lecter being the 1st). Great character development and a fine tale to boot.

"The Running Man" isn't Kings best, but there's something about it, well that book and "The Long Walk"--also by Bachman, that makes it an entertaining read.

"Never Split the Difference" is the best negotiating book I've ever read and, I have negotiated deals for a living at various times in my career.

Here's a suggestion. Read the story of David, all the way through, continuing into the early years of his son Solomon's reign. Pay special attention to Absalom's rebellion and the aftermath.

Then read "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo. Compare and contrast Solomon with Michael Corleone.

The Godfather movies are also outstanding, maybe better than the books. But they don't resonate the Bible story's theme of generational revenge quite so clearly.

I'm not convinced. The show is pretty good, the books less so, for reasons I wrote about in detail here: http://jseliger.com/2011/04/17/people-like-a-game-of-thrones... .

I suspect this is a case of The Godfather and other book-to-movie adaptations I can't recall off the top of my head: the adaptation transcends its source material.

Update: added a few lines about the books than just a name listing

From the ones I read in 2017, I would highly recommend (non-IT):

1. The hidden life of trees- Peter Wohlleben Why forest trees are different than the ones you plant, how the communicate, how they care for their friends when they are not well, how mother trees protect their young ones by not letting them grow too fast, the fungi network, etc. The book is very easy to read- there is no scientific terminology overload. Things are told very simply. Not restricted to students of the subject. Learned something interesting every couple of pages.
Another aspect is that the love shows. It is very clear that the author is in love with the subject. The author manages a wild forest in Germany and talks mainly about trees in terms of beeches, firs, oaks, etc. The author is politely insistent that we should protect the natural wild forests and let them be.

2. Why the allies won- Richard Overy Probably the best book I read on WW2. So many more factors went into winning the war than actual fight. Probably appealed to my analytical mind.

3. India After Gandhi- Ramachandra Guha As the author says history ends for many Indians with freedom. Very good chronicles. Started appreciating Nehru more.

4. Re-read Gone With The Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Godfather and a few P.G Wodehouse- all of which I like.

Currently, halfway through Stephen Fry's Mythos which seems good enough to recommend. I am pretty new to the Greek Mythology and he is a good story teller. Don't have much to compare it with, though.

Also, by choice, I read quite a few books in rural Marathi(an Indian regional language) and was surprised how good the story telling was. Also noticed that I had gone quite far from my mother tongue but was happy to see how easy it was to go back.

Please answer my similar question https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15960188

    No, he was not [great - ] he was typical 
    of a pop culture humorist

You're presenting "great" and "pop cultural humorist" as mutually exclusive terms.

It feels fundamentally incorrect to compare him to writers producing conspicuously deeper and denser stuff.

If you judge him by standards and goals to which he never aspired then I'd agree he comes up awfully short.

Reminds me of the old days when people derided the Beatles and other rock and roll acts because they didn't meet the standards of classical music. Or when people derided e.g. Shigeru Miyamoto because video games didn't measure up to the narrative achievements seen in the best movies.

It's true: The Godfather and Super Mario Brothers are both things that appear on your television screen. Just like Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy and Lolita and Finnegan's Wake are all books. Not sure they're trying to be the same thing, though.