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1984 - cover

1984

By George Orwell

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This book has 9 recommendations

Steve Jobs (Founder/Apple)

Steve Jobs called this book "one of his favorite" and recommended it to the hires. The book also inspired one the greatest TV ad (made by Jobs)

Richard Branson (Founder/Virgin Group)

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime.

Andra Zaharia (Freelance Content Marketer/The Content Habit)

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way.

Sol Orwell (Co-Founder/Examine.com)

Question: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path.

Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 (though Huxley's Brave New World is a better reflection of today's society).

Stephane Grand (Managing Partner/S.J. Grand Financial and Tax Advisory)

Everybody, whether they decide to spend their lives in a police state or not, needs to read 1984. It is a book about moral choices, being different, and being broken.

Santiago Basulto (Co-Founder/rmotr.com)

And non-business is even harder, but I’d probably choose 1984; its power and narrative are just amazing.

Igor Debatur (CEO/UploadCare)

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why?

Answer:

  • The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
  • Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
  • The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche
  • The Castle by Franz Kafka
  • 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Ella Botting (Founder/CyberWomen.co.uk)

This book marked a fundamental shift in my mental model and the way I process and consider things. This book taught to never take things at face value and to always challenge information that is presented to me, both of these skills make me a better researcher. It taught me to be empathetic and was a stark reminder that things aren’t always what they seem, on a personal and on a macro level. Considering it’s eerie similarities to the society we now live in, it also taught me to be cautious of systems of governance but not in an over-the-top conspiracy theory way. [...] This book enabled me to do a complete 360 in my mental model. Don’t take things for granted, question everything and set boundaries, especially when you’re starting a new job.

Roxana Bitoleanu (Founder/Taraba Virtuala)

[One of the books that had the biggest impact on Roxana Bitoleanu] 1984, the future we are living today envisioned way back.

Amazon description

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions.

Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Lionel Trilling said of Orwell’s masterpiece “1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present.” Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.

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See more books recommended by

Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Andra Zaharia, Sol Orwell, Stephane Grand, Santiago Basulto, Igor Debatur, Ella Botting, Roxana Bitoleanu

See more books written by

George Orwell

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