Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by jagrsw on Saturday December 28, 2019 @04:43PM (#21901974)

The co-author of this book is (seems to be) Deepak Chopra who acquired quite a fame for his liberal use of quantum physics terminology (quantum woo-woo) and for producing thoughts and ideas which typically turn out be not very coherent under a closer scrutiny (https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra), i.e. for "sounding deep while saying nothing"

I wonder how his co-authorship affects contents of the book. I bought the book (b/c of this thread, not even looking at the authorship), and I will judge the book based on its contents, but suporting financially a de-facto cult leader of a not very rational movement doesn't sound like a good move from my perspective.

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Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by dave84 on Saturday December 28, 2019 @05:02PM (#21902100)

“Foreword by Deepak Chopra” is hardly co-authoring.

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Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by jagrsw on Saturday December 28, 2019 @05:09PM (#21902146)

The amazon book page is confusing, it lists him as a co-author. The book's cover says it's just a foreword, so I guess you're right.

Still, not to surrender in this thread completely, letting such type of person to write a foreword for a book is not a very good initial signal in itself - it casts doubt on the main author's judgement with regard to whom she considers an authority in matters of communication (or, in any matter other than producing confusing statements).

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Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by entropyneur on Saturday December 28, 2019 @05:27PM (#21902244)

I haven't looked too closely, but the author was already dead by the time this edition came out so it's quite possible he had no say in the matter.

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Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by Zanni on Sunday December 29, 2019 @11:36PM (#21910846)

That's standard practice for Amazon (the author of the introduction being listed as an author of the book). It's confusing and annoying.

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Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by mkolodny on Sunday December 29, 2019 @05:12AM (#21905135)

I can't stand books that "sound deep while saying nothing". This book definitely does not fall into that category. It's one of the books (if not the book) that has had the biggest impact on my life since reading it. It's like a more modern How to Win Friends and Influence People.

In a different version of the book than the one you mentioned, the forward is written by Mahatma Gandhi's grandson. That forward is also very worth reading.

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Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by vowelless on Saturday December 28, 2019 @05:48PM (#21902351)

Thanks for mentioning this. I don't go near anything that guy touches. Will be skipping this book.

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Re:Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? by lusmd on Saturday December 28, 2019 @06:32PM (#21902589)

He was added as a foreword author after the main author had already died, just FYI.

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