I read many non-fiction books, but recently noticed that only a few qualify as truly heavy, thought-provoking reads, that you literally can't finish in a manageable time because you keep telling yourself, "Wait a minute," then stop to Google something, run an experiment, or just think deeply. My current example (still unfinished) is "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer. It's mind-blowing - the entire memory universe around us that I never properly explored before.
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch is in same category. I have not finished reading it yet, at best i go 5 pages in one sitting. Jam packed with fascinating facts.
The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a long thought-provoking reflection on the nature of Quality - in the sense of excellence. I re-read it every few years, and still don't understand it fully.
Even more pertinent now in the age of low quality AI produced content.
Both of these are quick, easy reads. Don't read about the plots ahead of time.
Replay by Ken Grimwood: https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
Illusions by Richard Bach: https://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Adventures-Reluctant-Richar...
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Bonus: Anything by Kevin Kelly. He always seemed to be over-hyped by influencers, so I avoided his work for the longest time. That was a mistake.
I feel the same way. The last time I read Kevin Kelly's Out of Control, I had a similar experience — constantly searching for materials, adding supporting arguments, and feeling as if I had retained nothing after just one read.
The writings of Neil Postman. Specifically,
* "Amusing ourselves to death": visual media is fundamentally different from writing and that impacts society. As a medium it supports certain messages better than other, ex. emotion.
* "Technopoly": defines the difference between tool-using and technocratic societies and impacts it has on society.
* "The End of Education": what is the purpose of an education system.
The spiritual works from major figures in the major religions, anything which discusses experience in negative terms making no positive statements, so things on emptiness/shunyata, non-duality, dependent co-arising, apophatic theology, unknowing, etc
I thought, "That sounds like an interesting book." And then I read the precis on Wikipedia.
Humans. Everything has to be a fucking competition. Turned me right off reading it. This is one of the (many) things I hate about humans. Along with ideas that go in to the brain and get stuck there and have to be defended to the death without the brain ever having thought critically about them even once.
Why gatekeep? Why compete about things that don't need to be a competition? Why let yourself be brainwashed about a philosophy or a company or a person?
Humans. Yech. Barf. I hate humans. They make me sick.
The Red Book by Carl Jung.
Two classic books by Douglas R Hofstadter
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Metamagical Themas
If you want truly, truly heavy and thought-provoking you need to get away from brick-and-mortar bookstore, commercial, non-fiction, and get into work that's produced within and for academia.
For example, I've learned more from Anthony Giddens, Crawford Young, and Peter Berger in a handful of books than almost everything I've learned from pop books combined. The real stuff you want to read is in academia and fairly hidden from public view.