Quora answer: What have been the most influential books which increase awareness and/or understanding of how the world operates?

Strictly speaking most of the texts cited so far say how something in the world works, or how the world works within some domain, but if we want to see how the world itself operates, i.e. what makes a world and how we dwell in a world then the works of Heidegger are the best source. And in fact that is why he has had such far-reaching influence in modern philosophy, because he is focused on this one question: How does the world work? and that includes how do we enter into that world as it is operating, and what role to we play in the operation of the world. So I suggest Heidegger if you want some inkling of how the world operates including our operation within it. Being and Time is a good place to start for that.