[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
I got asked recently, and I think it's an excellent question.
What's the "best" book you've ever read? By "best", in means
whatever you mean.
Author : simonebrunozzi
Score : 244 points
Date : 2024-10-06 11:42 UTC (1 days ago)
| aristofun wrote:
| Unless youve just read a handful of books in your life it is
| impossible to give a good answer to the question.
|
| Books are not oranges.
| brudgers wrote:
| I got to thinking -- a handful of books is approximately one
| book.
|
| And who ranks their oranges?
| tocs3 wrote:
| Depends on the books of course but the old pulp paperbacks
| were such you could hold 5 to 10 maybe. Today a tablet could
| hold 1000s (? how many I don't know ?)
| Izkata wrote:
| I'd guess most people that eat oranges regularly will have a
| favorite brand.
| tocs3 wrote:
| "Books are not oranges."
|
| As an aside, what do you mean by this? I would have an even
| harder time giving and answer to the best orange I've eaten.
|
| The Hobbit. My brother read it to me when I was just starting
| to read. When he was done I asked him to read it again. he said
| no and I learned to read in earnest. I was often shooed out of
| the adult section of the library. I have read lots of books by
| now.
| aristofun wrote:
| > what do you mean by this
|
| That books are not a commodity.
| ruraljuror wrote:
| I feel like it would be hard to choose the best of a
| commodity, so this is even more perplexing to me.
| Terretta wrote:
| Easier because directly comparable, harder because one
| can't tell the difference?
| sam29681749 wrote:
| The point _may_ be that oranges can be evaluated based on a
| few simple variables (eg., richness of flavor, juiciness,
| etc.), where there's no common set of variables that can be
| used to evaluate all the different types of books (ie, what
| makes a good history book differs to what makes a good
| philosophy book, etc.) and if they can't be compared, a
| 'best' can't be established.
|
| That said, as the author alluded to, 'best' in this context
| is vague and can mean what we want it to, eg., person a may
| consider best to mean the book that has had the widest
| influence, where person b may consider it to mean the book
| that they personally found the most insightful, etc.
| canadianfella wrote:
| Right. That's why it's helpful to get recommendations.
| wruza wrote:
| The best orange has a structure of a peak ripe grapefruit.
| Peel doesn't stick, micro-columns separate easily and burst
| with juice. If grapefruits were orange-flavored, I'd eat them
| all day.
| talldrinkofwhat wrote:
| Still waiting for January and my morning ritual of juicing
| a small grapefruit into an 8oz ice-filled mason jar.
|
| It's a damn shame we haven't figured out how to coerce
| citrus like we do tomatoes.
| tsukikage wrote:
| Ever tried pomelo?
| bo1024 wrote:
| It's also impossible to give a bad answer, what are you worried
| about? Go for it.
| oidar wrote:
| >Unless youve just read a handful of books in your life it is
| impossible to give a good answer to the question.
|
| And yet, there are many answers to that question in this
| thread.
| aristofun wrote:
| and none of them directly and reliably answers the asked
| question :)
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| Au contraire !
|
| I was a _ridiculously_ voracious reader (if I saw it, I
| wouldn't put it down until I'd read it) and my answer was
| always "hard to say, no favorite."
|
| But then one day you read that book that stands out from
| everything else (to you, for various personal reasons that
| might not translate the same for the next person) and suddenly,
| just like that, you have a favorite book.
|
| I wish you will discover this feeling one day!
| BizarroLand wrote:
| Some books are oranges. Some are apples. Some are kumquats and
| carrots and key-lime pie.
|
| Some are soups made by your grandmother while you sat in a
| high-chair and your parents laughed and talked with your uncles
| in the living room.
|
| Some are the smell of coffee and bacon and eggs and a little
| more smoke than usual in the air in the morning when your dad
| cooked breakfast.
|
| It's okay to have a special and favorite book, just like it is
| okay to have a special and favorite food.
| mikewarot wrote:
| The Boy's Second book of Electronics by Alfred Morgan(1957)
| introduced me to electronics in the 1970s, and lead to a
| technical mindset and lifestyle.
|
| The Engineers Notebook by Forest Mims really taught me the basics
| of electronics.
|
| What do you care what other people think by Richard Feynman(1988)
| introduced me to the idea that nobody is really as much of an
| expert as you might think.
|
| 1632 By Eric Flint, and the subsequent series, got me thinking
| about the nature of civilization and all the things that go into
| making it.
|
| There are a lot of books in this world, and they all helped
| author who I am.
| 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
| "the way things work", the book with all the woolly mammoths in
| it. Learned a lot from it
| Jerrrrrrry wrote:
| That is the literal pillar; physically and figuratively the
| foundation, of my knowledge corpus; aptly the bottom book in
| my corner-turned-library.
|
| I spent hours as a kid, slowly parsing, contextualizing,
| researching every iota and minutiae of that book.
|
| I had an encyclopedia just to help supplement that book.
| gfna wrote:
| Didnt recogize the english title before i read this comment
| and it immediately clicked. The copy i have is from the
| late 80s and even then it was a bit dated, but it didnt
| matter. Awesome book. Now 35 years later my kids and I
| sometimes spend hours looking through the same book. Even
| more dated now, but that probably makes it even more
| amazing for them and now they know how a tape recorder
| works \o/
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| theres an updated edition as well
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Grew up with the original "The Way Things Work" [1] (found
| out later it was an English translation of the German book,
| "Wie Funktioniert Das").
|
| [1] https://archive.org/details/waythingswork0000unse_p9x7/
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| I recently got a NEW copy as an adult. So happy to have it on
| my shelf!
| VoodooJuJu wrote:
| The best book I've partially read is the New Testament. The best
| book I've actually read is Taleb's Antifragile.
| booleandilemma wrote:
| So many people talk about this one and they never give spoiler
| alerts.
| SeanAnderson wrote:
| Nonfiction: Thinking, Fast & Slow
|
| Fiction: Project Hail Mary
| qingcharles wrote:
| Project Hail Mary is amazing, but personally I think it is just
| one step below The Martian. Both incredible books, though. I've
| read the Martian three times.
| andrei_says_ wrote:
| I am That - talks with Nisargadatta Maharaj. Best for me.
| dilippkumar wrote:
| The absolute best for me: The Malazan book of the fallen.
|
| Book 1 is really hard to get into and doesn't reward as much. But
| if you stick with it, as early as the end of Book 2, you'll know
| what you're in for.
| slothtrop wrote:
| I was skeptical but after a rough start I enjoyed book 1 by the
| end. Not generally into fantasy and dropped Way of Kings, Wheel
| of Time and others.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| There are always better books than the ones I read, and there
| will never be the best. I've tried selecting a few that I can
| remember at all times, the most interesting book to me, and I've
| listed them on my website at https://brajeshwar.com/#books
|
| If I had to return and re-read, I'd re-read "Leonardo da Vinci."
| the__alchemist wrote:
| Non-fiction: Pale Blue Dot. Fiction: The Diamond Age.
| jjcm wrote:
| We're pretty much living parts of The Diamond Age right now. I
| feel like we're within a decade of A Young Lady's Illustrated
| Primer being a real book, especially with Claude and ChatGPT's
| multimodal aspects.
| djkivi wrote:
| Godel Escher Bach is the best book I've read. Very interesting
| topics and the sheer creativity of the writing is amazing.
| bobosha wrote:
| i have the book and tried to read it many times, but never
| grokked it tbh. ;-)
| spicyusername wrote:
| Hofstadter is such a brilliant writer. All of his books are
| really on another level.
| edanm wrote:
| I prefer his autobiography (https://xkcd.com/917/).
|
| Seriously though, this question is unanswerable, but your
| answer is probably one of the few books I'd get behind as an
| answer to this.
| araes wrote:
| In the end, we are self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in
| mirages that are little miracles of self-reference.
|
| -- Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop, p. 363
| red-iron-pine wrote:
| NGL, GEB was a slog. There is a free MIT course that covers it,
| and I'm glad I made use of that.
|
| "I Am a Strange Loop" by the same guy covers the same concepts,
| albeit without the whimsey or color.
| aanet wrote:
| What is the MIT course that covers this book? Many thanks!
| latexr wrote:
| https://opencw.aprende.org/high-school/humanities-and-
| social...
| jll29 wrote:
| I second that.
|
| Its translations are also the best translations known to
| mankind (I read the German one, the French is said to be as
| good or better).
| wsintra2022 wrote:
| Been reading it for about a year on and off, I did read I am a
| strange loop before and really enjoyed the ideas and also the
| emotional side of it.
| abecedarius wrote:
| I read it in high school and I probably would've picked it at
| the time. Fun note though: ~3 years later when I was learning
| Lisp it hit me that my understanding of GEB had been very
| shallow.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| Henry George's Progress & Poverty conducted what can only be
| described as a coup on my worldview, and I am not alone in that
| experience.
|
| It is an _incredible_ argument that will just utterly transform
| how you understand a walk down the street.
|
| If you've been seeing references to the Land Value Tax (LVT) here
| on HN, this is the book that originated the concept. Like most
| conceptual breakthroughs, it didn't emerge solely from George
| with no related ideas in the vicinity, but this is definitely
| "the book" behind it.
| illwrks wrote:
| In a similar vein, when I first got an e-reader I downloaded
| the old English version of Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations.
| It was eye opening. While I've forgotten a large amount of the
| detail the overall themes are embedded in my mind.
| djsavvy wrote:
| How is Wealth of Nations surprising for a modern reader? My
| (perhaps incorrect) intuition is that these sorts of old
| foundational books tend not to be too surprising because
| their ideas have permeated society already, which is why I'm
| curious to hear your take.
| andrepd wrote:
| An economic thinker that can garner praise from democratic
| socialists like Einstein to neoliberal ghouls like Milton
| Friedman _has_ to have something going for it.
|
| It's transformed my worldview as well, if nothing else by
| underlining that free markets and capitalism are _not_ the same
| thing at all.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ -- Gabriel Garcia-Marquez.
| tmtvl wrote:
| ' _Basho, dichter zonder dak_ ' with the subtitle ' _Haiku en
| poetische reisverhalen_ ' by professor Willy Vande Walle, a
| Belgian Japanologist. It's a translation of Basho's travel
| diaries with a lot of contextual information, kind of like Martin
| Gardner's ' _The Annotated Alice_ ', if you've read that one.
| It's an amazing intellectual tour de force by one of the foremost
| experts in his field, and it helps that the original works are of
| very high quality of well.
|
| Unfortunately I don't know if there's an English equivalent, and
| considering how awful of a language Dutch is to learn it may be
| easier to learn Japanese, read the originals, and look up all the
| references yourself.
| aporetics wrote:
| Thanks, I'm marking this to look into
| vilunov wrote:
| > how awful of a language Dutch is to learn
|
| Curious, why do you think so? As a Russian I found Dutch to be
| much easier to learn than Japanese, and English knowledge
| helps. The largest problem by far is Dutch speakers falling
| back to English almost always.
| igouy wrote:
| > I think it's an excellent question.
|
| Because?
| _benj wrote:
| There are too many...
|
| But I'll pick The Psychology of Money. There are few books that
| have so drastically changed my view of reality and affected my
| behavior.
|
| (Bonus because I couldn't help myself: Getting things done, Man's
| search for meaning, Surrounded by idiots)
| Jerrrrrrry wrote:
| Anything from Sagan: Varieties of Scientific Experience: A
| Personal View of the Search for God could convert the Pope to
| agnosticism.
|
| Stephen Ray Gould: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from
| Plato to Darwin: will both challenge every preconceived notion
| you've had, link seemingly impossibly unrelated phenomenon
| together using similar models and patterns, and leave with a much
| more intuitive understanding about complexity, randomness, and
| chaotic systems.
|
| A Briefer History of Time: For those who truly would like to
| exalt their personal God of the Gaps to the small unit.
| zukzuk wrote:
| Sagan's Demon Haunted World was probably the reason I ended up
| going into the sciences!
| tocs3 wrote:
| After seeing Carl Sagan's Cosmos I got and read the coffee
| table book "Cosmos" I really liked it at the time(about 10-12
| yo). It was pretty influential but I do not know if I could sit
| through the book again.
| xutopia wrote:
| This author is by far my favorite. Everything he wrote was
| amazing and made me think so deeply about things.
|
| I recommend Dragons of Eden especially because it sheds light
| on how fabric of our culture is woven by old thoughts that are
| recycled in interesting ways. The Demon Haunted World does a
| good job at explaining how we have to escape magical thinking
| and be more rational about how we approach life.
| ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
| The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. When you are young, it is a
| remarkable book to read.
| alsaffar wrote:
| This book is one I re-read religiously, but the first time was
| as a young adult and I agree with you, remarkable. It seems to
| have a correcting effect on my psyche when I stray too far into
| anxiety and burnout.
| SirAllCaps wrote:
| Fiction: Independent People by Halldor Laxness or Children of
| Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
|
| Non-Fiction: The Feynman lectures on Physics.
| sfpotter wrote:
| John McPhee's "The Curve of Binding Energy".
| mindcrime wrote:
| The truth is, if you ask me this 100 times, you'll probably get
| 100 different answers, because it's impossible to really pick
| just one (well two, separating by fiction/non-fiction). But for
| today I'll go with:
|
| Fiction: Neuromancer
|
| Non-fiction: The Selfish Gene
| justchad wrote:
| Came to say The Selfish Gene for nonfiction. Changed the way I
| thought about things.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Haven't read The Selfish Gene, but reading the summary it
| looks like it touches on some very similar themes as Stephen
| Pinker's How The Mind Works, which I thought was also a great
| book. Gave me a good intuitive understanding of how the human
| neural system evolved, and I found so much of the book to be
| prescient and timely in our current "AI era".
| loveparade wrote:
| What people forget to mention is when they have read a
| book. I read the Selfish Gene when I was a teen and it left
| a lasting impression. It was published in 1989. How the
| Mind works was published in 2011.
|
| Reading the Selfish Gene today as an adult, when you've
| probably read a dozen similar books already, is not going
| to have the same effect. It's going to be pretty boring.
| That's why asking for book recommendations is flawed to
| begin with.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| What similar books are there to The Selfish Gene? I read
| it not too long ago and found it astonishing.
|
| People are generally enthralled by Sapiens which is just
| a very mediocre extension + shallow interpretation of
| Dawkins' thesis.
| etiam wrote:
| Probably too similar, but do follow up with "The Extended
| Phenotype" if you haven't already.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| I have been meaning to come back to this since reading
| Selfish Gene, but haven't gotten to it! I suppose I
| should :)
| NortySpock wrote:
| "The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and
| Culture" by Darrel Ray follows in the footsteps of The
| Selfish Gene to certain logical conclusions about
| clusters of related memes/concepts (specifically: how
| religion(s) formed and evolved as clusters of overlapping
| concepts)
| canadianfella wrote:
| The Selfish Gene was published in 1976, not 1989. I read
| it as a teen in the 90s and it is probably my favourite
| book of all time.
|
| Also,
|
| Bill Bryson's "Short History of Nearly Everything".
|
| Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" (and all of his
| other books)
|
| Richard Dawkins' "The Ancestor's Tale" and "The Blind
| Watchmaker" are also amazing.
|
| Fiction:
|
| Adrian Czajkowski's "Children of Time" and Orson Scott
| Card's "Ender's Game" are both anong my favourites.
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| That's why it's an interesting question worth asking
| andbthinking about.
|
| It's fine that it's hard to answer, or the answer changes. The
| goal is not to actually determine the correct answer but to
| explore the possible answers and the reasoning that produces
| them, and the differences that different people produce.
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| How do people read Neuromancer its just technobabble
| slothtrop wrote:
| As a stylish thriller mostly
| mindcrime wrote:
| A lot of the appeal is aesthetic / stylistic. Yes it's "hard
| to read" compared to more "traditional" works, but it has its
| own unique appeal... an appeal that resonates with some
| people and not-so-much with others.
| imglorp wrote:
| Another part is that Gibson was the first to put together
| cyberpunk as a genre and an aesthetic and a little
| dystopian futurism. It was truly the first that spawned a
| number of now familiar ideas like AIs battling firewall and
| attack and VR as a UX method.
| diggan wrote:
| > Fiction: Neuromancer
|
| I've tried twice to read this, but it looses me about 10% in
| for some reason. Is it worth continuing past that? Does it get
| "better"? Or does that just signal that the whole book isn't
| for me?
| adamhp wrote:
| I was in your boat. I revisited later and powered through and
| it does indeed get better. The narrative forms into something
| more cohesive and you start being less exhausted by all the
| lingo because you've learned it. You settle in. You have to
| sort of try to immerse yourself. I'd recommend trying to read
| in larger chunks of time and really absorb the aesthetic of
| the world.
| ataylor284_ wrote:
| This is exactly how I feel about Dune. The invented words
| and world-building are overwhelming at first, but once you
| absorb them it makes the narrative richer.
| bityard wrote:
| > exhausted by all the lingo
|
| I think that was my problem with Burning Chrome. Every
| sentence contained a new word or three that the reader is
| supposed to guess by context or conversation. Combined with
| something that read like stream-of-consciousness narration.
| I literally had no idea what was even happening after 30 or
| 45 minutes of reading.
|
| But then I had the same problem with Shakespeare, so maybe
| I'm just dimmer than most folk.
| killthebuddha wrote:
| I love Neuromancer specifically for the first third or so, so
| maybe the latter?
|
| IMO the first part of the book is peak cyberpunk vibes. In
| particular I read it almost like I would read poetry, late at
| night when I can't sleep, sometimes jumping back and forth
| between pages.
| jccalhoun wrote:
| I think when you read it matters. I read it after cyberpunk
| was already established and so I honestly don't remember much
| about it.
| mindcrime wrote:
| Neuromancer definitely has a unique prose style that Gibson
| came up with. And a lot of people do find it to be something
| of a turn-off. Me, I enjoyed it on the first read 30+ years
| ago and still enjoy it on re-reads. But it's hard to say
| whether or not somebody else will find it enjoyable. All I
| can say is that I/ve enjoyed Neuromancer enough to read it 4
| or 5 times and will probably read it again at some point.
| burntalmonds wrote:
| It's been a long time since I read it, but it definitely gets
| better.
| criddell wrote:
| I was like you. Plowed through it a couple of times but most
| of the book didn't make sense.
|
| Then I read a big plot summary I found online and read it
| again and I really enjoyed it.
| xutopia wrote:
| The Selfish Gene gave me lots to think about during my escape
| from the influence of religion in my life. That book gave me a
| solid idea that a lot of mystery could be explained by very
| simple concepts over a long period of time.
| aquir wrote:
| The Neuromancer has the greatest opening sentence of all times
| imho: "The sky above the port was the color of television,
| tuned to a dead channel."
| solarmist wrote:
| Sadly (for me) this now needs an annotated version for
| younger reader to fully understand.
|
| I'm starting to feel old on a more and more frequent cadence.
| analogwzrd wrote:
| This is a great line, though it might not have aged well.
| Younger generations might just think "Oh, the sky was black"
| criddell wrote:
| My kids would think the sky is blue because our TV shows a
| solid blue screen when there's no signal. For people with
| TVs like mine, I suppose the line still works.
| zem wrote:
| as a genxer I was not sure if he meant blue or grey and
| snowing.
| j0hnyl wrote:
| Neuromancer is by far my favorite novel. On first reading, it
| felt to me like someone was finally describing the world in a
| way that I saw it, but couldn't articulate myself. I come back
| to it every couple of years and it never fails to entertain me.
| a_square_peg wrote:
| I think this is as meaningful as the question "what's the best
| food you've ever eaten?", which is to say, it's not a very
| meaningful question.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Sure, but for the rest of us it might suggest a food we had not
| yet tried.
| a_square_peg wrote:
| Fair enough. I feel like I've been seeing a lot of questions
| on Reddit along this line that comes off as very low effort
| to generate engagements so that's really the reason behind my
| comment but I see how my response also comes off as snarky.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I know what you're saying. It must work though -- it
| engagad both of us for different reasons, rose to front
| page of HN. (Perhaps you would rather it did not though.)
| a_square_peg wrote:
| You're absolutely right on both accounts - it did work to
| engage us and that I would rather that such posts don't
| get upvoted.
|
| Thanks for your understanding. :)
| mcphage wrote:
| It is a low effort method to generate engagement, but it
| does generate really good engagement.
|
| Likewise, your other example of "what's the best food
| you've ever eaten" is a lazy question... but I bet the
| answers would be really interesting.
| sam29681749 wrote:
| Steak and eggs made by my grandfather.
| prewett wrote:
| Funny thing is, despite being an avid reader, I can't really
| say what my "best" book is. But I can easily describe the best
| meal I've ever had: we were on a tour in Chengdu, and they took
| us to a restaurant without any introduction. The meal was good
| but nothing special, until halfway through, when that nagging
| feeling that the flavor wasn't quite right made me realize that
| this is the Buddhist fake meat I'd heard about. And I only
| realized because I'd lived in China and eaten lots of meals so
| I knew what things were supposed to taste like. I have to say,
| the fish soup was incredible, the fish even flaked properly. To
| be so good that it took me halfway through a formal meal (which
| involves multiple courses) to recognize it speaks to how well
| it was done.
| upmind wrote:
| My favourite fiction is Ready Player One. Great story and very
| nerdy!
| aomix wrote:
| For nonfiction I think about Homicide: A Year on the Killing
| Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City
| Neighborhood by David Simon (and Ed Burns for The Corner) a lot.
| They are very funny and very sad and really changed how I see the
| world. So I cheated, two books.
| bo1024 wrote:
| Nonfiction: "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable"
| by Taleb has had the biggest influence on me.
|
| Fiction: I dunno but maybe "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson.
| ataylor284_ wrote:
| Two of my favorites, too, although I'd go with Anti-Fragile
| from Taleb.
|
| I think Anathem is Stephenson's best. The Diamond Age is also
| really good. For every one of his books, I just wish he could
| write an ending that matches the quality of the rest.
| MPSimmons wrote:
| Another vote here for Anathem. That was a world I just wanted
| to curl up in and learn more about.
| agiacalone wrote:
| One of the previous posts mentioned that it changes for them
| frequently, and I'm pretty much the same way. But for right now:
|
| Fiction: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
|
| Non-Fiction: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
| Mageek wrote:
| To be clear, both are fiction, it's just that one is fantasy
| and the other is set in modern reality.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| Hmmm I don't believe so? Zen is at least portrayed in its
| conclusion as a true, autobiographical story (with obviously
| dollops of philosophical musings).
| latexr wrote:
| It is a fictionalised autobiography.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle
| _...
| diggan wrote:
| > The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
|
| Probably one of the few books (the series that is) I could read
| on repeat and still laugh out loud from.
|
| I agree it's one of the best books out there.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| "The book of joy" by the Dalai Lama and Desmund Tutu (they were
| lifelong friends)
| bloopernova wrote:
| Non-fiction: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James
| Hornfischer. US Navy destroyers, escort carriers and destroyer
| escorts face off against Japanese cruisers and battleships. The
| Japanese had many times the firepower of the US, yet incredibly
| brave US sailors and airmen attacked anyway. Incredible story of
| courage under terrible conditions and odds.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Stand_of_the_Tin_Can_...
| and https://www.amazon.com/Last-Stand-Tin-Sailors-
| Extraordinary/...
|
| Fiction:
|
| Project Hail Mary is very enjoyable, don't read spoilers and
| you'll enjoy it even more. https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-
| Mary-Andy-Weir/dp/059313...
|
| The Discworld City Watch series of books, starting with "Guards!
| Guards!" The characters are hilarious, there's so much humour yet
| still enough space for meaningful prose. Terry Pratchett was
| taken from us too soon. https://www.amazon.com/Guards-Discworld-
| Terry-Pratchett/dp/0...
|
| Edited to add: non-fiction "Most Secret War" by Dr R V Jones.
| Funny, easily digestible short chapters, wonderful account of the
| author's work in WW2. _" (the author's) appointment to the
| Intelligence Section of Britain's Air Ministry in 1939 led to
| some of the most astonishing scientific and technological
| breakthroughs of the Second World War."_
| https://www.amazon.com/Most-Secret-Penguin-World-Collection/...
| loufe wrote:
| I absolutely second Project Hail Mary. It's been the only sci-
| fi book in years to have me glued to the pages.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| 'Project Hail Mary' was a great read. Especially 'Rocky' (no
| spoilers).
| m3kw9 wrote:
| To each their own. Mine likely 3 body problems: dark forest book
| booleandilemma wrote:
| This was my favorite one in the trilogy. I also liked the first
| one. Third was weakest for me (but still enjoyable).
| aunwick wrote:
| Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut. Like others could change any
| day you ask. Social commentary is probably at the top followed by
| well researched recent historical works.
| thrill wrote:
| Dungeon Crawler Carl (series)
|
| Sinusoidal Circuit Analysis
| jjcm wrote:
| NEWWWWWWW Achievement!
| thrill wrote:
| I should have picked "The Ultimate Book Of Ultimate Foot Care
| For Ultimate Results" for my non-fiction choice.
| bravura wrote:
| Introducing Lacan: A Graphic Guide, by Darian Leader and
| illustrated by Judy Groves.
|
| Freudian theory really was just a way to psychoanalyze Freud and
| his complexes.
|
| Lacan jettisoned the weirdly specific Freudian stuff and had a
| more general template, with a focus on the relationship between
| language and the subconcious.
| dgs_sgd wrote:
| The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Fantasy fiction.
| carapace wrote:
| The best book I've ever read is perhaps "cheating" because it's
| "The Next Whole Earth Catalog" and, as the name says, it's a
| catalog of (mostly) books.
|
| (You can see it for yourself in all it's glory here:
| https://www.wholeearth.info/p/the-next-whole-earth-catalog-f... )
|
| Other than that I'd have to say the Tao Te Ching.
|
| (The best fiction book I've read is almost certainly "The Book of
| the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe. It's in the league of Tolkien and
| Dune.)
| Severian wrote:
| Indeed
| ultimafan wrote:
| For fiction, came here to say the same about Gene Wolfe, the
| whole solar cycle series by him might honestly be the (for now
| at least) absolute pinnacle of both the sci-fi and fantasy
| genres. Great world design, great characters, great writing
| (and variety of voice, the way he pulls off different
| characters writing is just brilliant, it really feels like a
| series written by several completely different authors.) The
| kind of books you read and reread and taken something new out
| of them every time. I'd honestly give just about anything to be
| able to go back into them completely blind again.
| jebarker wrote:
| For me, it's The Grapes of Wrath. Simultaneously raised my bar
| for what I consider good writing and made me much more empathetic
| to the plight of those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder
| through no fault of their own. As relevant today as when it was
| written.
| mrweasel wrote:
| That is such a good books, the ending is a little weird though.
| I also loved Tortilla Flats, also by John Steinbeck. In the
| non-fiction genre, Roadside Picnic is also really good.
|
| How you think about or are influenced by books are also
| dependent on your current mode and situation. I also enjoying
| and have great memories from reading "The Soul of a new
| Machine", the stress that I felt from that book reflected my
| own work situation of at the time, so it some how stuck with me
| more that I believe it would have done at another point in
| time.
|
| On the weirder side of things: As I grown older I felt like I
| lost the feeling of magic during Christmas time. So every year
| I read a stupid Christmas themed romance novel. The previous
| two have been "Snowed In for Christmas" and "The Christmas
| Bookshop". I recommend both.
| WillAdams wrote:
| It is interesting to note the mentionings of it and the socio-
| political fallout in the letters which mention it from the end
| of his _The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_ (and if
| someone were to take up using Mallory to write a sequel to
| that, I would pay good money for it).
| will-burner wrote:
| Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
|
| It's kind of cliche for a white male nerd of a certain age, but
| it has stuck with me. How imaginative the book is, the huge mix
| of characters and stories in the book, and the style of writing
| are incredible. The pace of interesting ideas is very fast and
| engrossing, and the language used to describe things is complex
| but not overly so.
| njtransit wrote:
| It's on my to-read list, but starting is daunting. A Supposedly
| Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (the essay collection) was
| amazing. I think about it often.
| sam29681749 wrote:
| I read this and didn't find it all that interesting, although
| it was quite funny in parts. I'm curious to know what you
| found amazing about it?
| RhysU wrote:
| The idea that entertainment could be all engrossing and
| some forms of entertainment addictively destructive to our
| well-being? That we could have cameras in video conferences
| but would want them effectively off? It was
| delightfully/scarily prescient in some ways.
| julianeon wrote:
| Actually I wish people would lead with this more: because
| it's a book about entertainment and how some forms of
| entertainment addictively destructive to our well-being,
| and that's why it's relevant today.
|
| I see a lot about David Foster Wallace and "it meant a
| lot to me personally at once time" but very little about
| its objective merits (which are real to be clear).
| will-burner wrote:
| I feel like there were many instances where something would
| be described, either a a character's internal feelings or
| an observation about the world and I would think, "damn
| that just perfectly put into words something that I've
| thought or experienced" or I'd be like "wow that's so true
| and insightful." And I would be thinking this all the time
| while reading.
|
| On top of that I liked all the drug stuff and the kind of
| dystopian world created in the book.
| njtransit wrote:
| There were a number of essays that influenced my world view
| and a story that left a strong lasting impression.
|
| The essay on why we consume mass media was insightful at
| the time and particularly prescient given the rise of
| influencers, streaming, and short form video.
|
| The essay "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional
| Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice,
| Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human
| Completeness" influenced me greatly. It made me realize how
| much pure artistry and mastery there is in the world. And
| most of it goes entirely unappreciated.
|
| Incarnations of Burned Children made was an amazing piece
| of literature in a harrowing and terrifying way. To this
| day, years later, I experience extreme _l'appel du vide_
| when carrying hot water around my children.
| RhysU wrote:
| Read a physical copy. Use two bookmarks, one for the
| footnotes. Read until the toothbrush photo before thinking
| about putting it down.
| aporetics wrote:
| This is good advice.
| will-burner wrote:
| Yeah, my strategy is to when I start reading move my
| bookmark from where I am in the book to where I am in the
| footnotes so that while I'm reading I use the bookmark to
| quickly find the correct place in the footnotes.
| phoh wrote:
| i tried that. didnt work for me. im actually reading it now
| as an ebook. this means i can jump seamlessly back and
| forth between notes. i dont love this because i am
| definitely a dead tree type reader, but in this instance
| the ebook is the only solution. the physical copy sits on
| my bedside in case.
|
| its a wonderful read but sometimes dfw just seems
| unecessarily hostile to the reader.
| dempedempe wrote:
| At least read the first chapter. I've never read anything
| like it (and I've read a lot). It was an experience more than
| anything. It became abundantly clear to me that I was reading
| something could only have been written by a true genius. No
| other author has a command of the modern English language
| like DFW did. The way he combines humor, wit, and wordplay
| was magic. It really showed me the power of writing.
| twoodfin wrote:
| Taking "best" to mean, "About to be banished to a small, rocky
| island in the North Atlantic, can pack one book": _Ulysses_ , and
| it's not particularly close.
|
| The book is fractally intricate and intellectually puzzling in
| the best sense--something new and special to notice every time
| you pick it up.
|
| But it also wears like old leather, and I find myself returning
| to favorite chapters simply to sink indulgently into the
| characters, dialog, and setting.
|
| Anybody who says no one has actually read _Ulysses_ is
| unknowingly half-right: You can certainly get to a point where
| you'll never _finish_ reading it.
| tzs wrote:
| Good answer. Most people who answer the one X to take when
| banished pick don't take into account that in their banishment
| they might not be provided with anything intellectually
| challenging, and just pick their current favorite X which is
| often something that 6 months from now will rarely be revisited
| because they have a new favorite.
|
| They are really usually answering "what one X would you take
| with you on a vacation?".
|
| A good X for banishment might even be an X that has never been
| a favorite of yours. For example if I had one musical work and
| one book I'd seriously consider Wagner's Der Ring des
| Nibelungen and a German to English dictionary. Neither of those
| is anywhere near a favorite of mine--I do own a copy of Der
| Ring des Nibelungen but only occasionally listen and then only
| to the famous parts, and I don't think I've ever even looked in
| a German to English dictionary.
|
| That's 15 hours of opera in a language I have close to zero
| understanding of. But much of the music is quite good, and
| trying to figure out enough German from the lyrics and the
| dictionary to follow the story could keep me occupied a long
| time.
| jjcm wrote:
| This seems to be a very polarizing book. I for one thought it
| was among the worst I've read, but know plenty who have said
| it's one of their favorites. It's certainly not a traditional
| novel.
| slothtrop wrote:
| I bounced off of it expecting to enjoy it because I read lots
| of Pynchon.
| downut wrote:
| That's interesting. I never had a problem ploughing through
| Pynchon, and as I mentioned I bounced off Ulysses in my
| early 20s. I am right now in the last pages of my 1st
| reread of Gravity's Rainbow. I have to say I prefer Joyce
| now. And I think I liked my recent read of Against the Day
| over GR, an unexpected development.
|
| Gotta say though, GR is still awesome. Fearless.
| slothtrop wrote:
| I rank GR and V highest, with AtD and Mason & Dixon close
| seconds. I like the layering of themes in GR and the
| whole fever-dream deliver of it. I will probably revisit
| Joyce.
| twoodfin wrote:
| Did you make it past the opening Stephen-centered chapters?
| I bounced off "Proteus" for years, but as soon as I managed
| to struggle on to "Calypso" and the mind & habits of Mr.
| Leopold Bloom I was off to the races.
| slothtrop wrote:
| It's been long enough that I don't recall. I will have to
| re-try sometime soon. Currently burning through a few
| other books.
| LinuxAmbulance wrote:
| Ulysses feels more like Joyce showing off his command of the
| written word and extensive vocabulary - of which both are
| greater than any other writer I've read - than it feels like
| a novel meant to tell the reader a good story.
|
| In that sense, the novel wasn't particularly entertaining. If
| he could choose between a well known word for something and a
| very obscure word for something, it was always the latter.
| The same goes for sentence structure.
|
| As a way to show off literary skill though, there's nothing
| else that comes close.
| twoodfin wrote:
| Here's a choice bit of stream-of-consciousness from the
| "Lotus Eaters" episode, as Mr. Bloom is contemplating the
| wares at a tea shop on a balmy June morning:
|
| _... So warm. His right hand once more more slowly went
| over again: choice blend, made of the finest Ceylon brands.
| The far east. Lovely spot it must be: the garden of the
| world, big lazy leaves to float about on, cactuses, flowery
| meads, snaky lianas they call them. Wonder is it like that.
| Those Cinghalese lobbing around in the sun, in dolce far
| niente. Not doing a hand's turn all day. Sleep six months
| out of twelve. Too hot to quarrel. Influence of the
| climate. Lethargy. Flowers of idleness. The air feeds most.
| Azotes. Hothouse in Botanic gardens. Sensitive plants.
| Waterlilies. Petals too tired to. Sleeping sickness in the
| air. Walk on roseleaves. Imagine trying to eat tripe and
| cowheel. Where was the chap I saw in that picture
| somewhere? Ah, in the dead sea, floating on his back,
| reading a book with a parasol open. Couldn't sink if you
| tried: so thick with salt. Because the weight of the water,
| no, the weight of the body in the water is equal to the
| weight of the. Or is it the volume is equal to the weight?
| It's a law something like that. Vance in High school
| cracking his fingerjoints, teaching. The college
| curriculum. Cracking curriculum. What is weight really when
| you say the weight? Thirtytwo feet per second, per second.
| Law of falling bodies: per second, per second. They all
| fall to the ground. The earth. It's the force of gravity of
| the earth is the weight ..._
|
| The vocabulary is colorful but hardly obscure, the sentence
| structure is broken but readily comprehensible.
|
| Personally, I find it utterly transporting.
| downut wrote:
| I was scrolling down the comments thinking, huh, what if I just
| kind of threw it out there that Ulysses is my favorite book, by
| far. What would happen? Bunch of young'uns dumping on me?
|
| Well bring it on. It is in fact, not particularly close that
| Ulysses is my favorite book.
|
| It hadn't occurred to me though to just reread chapters as they
| appeal, I'm heading out to reread the calvacade one. Then there
| is that pub with the dog... And the newsrooom... what a great
| day, thanks!
|
| I started Ulysses when I was in my early twenties, stalled, and
| then picked it up again and finished it straight off 35 years
| later. Same copy! Pissed off I didn't push it through way back
| when.
| vid wrote:
| Fiction - [Trouble on] Triton by Samuel Delaney. It just has so
| many relevant big ideas told in a very subdued way via a not very
| likeable but appropriate character.
| wiihack wrote:
| _Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and
| Progress_ by Steven Pinker
| spicyusername wrote:
| The better angels of our nature is also a good one from Pinker
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I've moved enough times to have thinned my book collection down
| quite a bit. Books that I can't quit, the original "The Boy
| Mechanic" books, "The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus", "Jingo
| Django" (I have quite of few of Sid Fleischman's books,
| actually), a set of "The Book of a Thousands Nights and a Night"
| (the Arabian Nights) ... to name a few.
| id00 wrote:
| Fiction: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (especially The Consul's Tale)
|
| Non-Fiction: Peopleware (opened my eyes when I was a young
| newcomer to the industry)
| unsnap_biceps wrote:
| House of Leaves
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves
|
| You must use a physical book, it's full of typographical and
| color changes to impress context different then just the words.
| Every time I re-read it, I look though a different lens and get
| something different from it.
| Izkata wrote:
| You do have to buy the right edition to get the full effect. It
| was also published without color.
| spicyusername wrote:
| I was very influenced by Kurt Vonnegut when I was a teenager.
| Coming of age is a perfect time to learn that the fact that life
| is absurd doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't laugh, just the
| opposite. Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse Five are some of my
| favorite books of his.
|
| As an adult, I've been very influenced by the late Daniel Dennett
| and his naturalist philosophy. Books like From Bacteria to Bach
| and Back or Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
| edanm wrote:
| Great choices!
|
| I've read Vonnegut sporadically and decided this year to read
| through all his books. Sirens of Titan is an old favorite I've
| read multiple times, but I reread it about two weeks ago, and
| Slaughterhouse Five a few months ago.
| mcphage wrote:
| For another take on Vonnegut, my favorite of his were Bluebeard
| and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.
| dawnerd wrote:
| Same, I didn't like reading much at all but Kurt Vonnegut
| really connected with me.
| mentos wrote:
| Player Piano has felt more relevant in this new AI age
| tootie wrote:
| Vonnegut was such a genius. His books mostly light reading.
| Funny and fully of goofy sci-fi tropes. All building up to
| revelatory philosophical lessons about human nature. "We are
| what we pretend to be" hit me like a ton of bricks. Right up
| there with "We are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let
| anybody tell you any different."
| 5555624 wrote:
| The Count of Monte Cristo -- I've read it a few times and I know
| I'll read it again. While there are a few books I've read more
| than once, I can't think of any I know I will read again.
| edanm wrote:
| Wonderful, wonderful book. One of my favorites.
|
| It's old, but the beginning especially is just a non-stop
| adventure. It always drags a bit for me after the first third,
| but picks up again and continues to be great throughout.
| v-erne wrote:
| >> It's old, but the beginning especially is just a non-stop
| adventure. It always drags a bit for me after the first
| third, but picks up again and continues to be great
| throughout.
|
| Yeah, as much as I love Count Monte Christo as a story, being
| it a movie
| (https://youtu.be/qesn8pV9yu8?si=ssccZfQGf9F1fCk3), series
| (https://youtu.be/bF1Z7irZLdY?si=oDF0OnB-1NWVfwZq) or anime (
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gankutsuou:_The_Count_of_Monte.
| ..), the book gets so slow after first third that I have
| never actually read it through till the end.
|
| Its a pity that we can have new cuts of movies (Zack Snyders
| Justice League vs original one) but we will never get George
| R. R. Martin version of Count of Monte Cristo.
| phtrivier wrote:
| Tangentially: the 2024 version [1] of the movie has been a
| huge success in France (quite deserved in my opinion), and
| is about the open in the US.
|
| The imagery of the movie has a definitive "Batman" vibe -
| sort of "full circle", even though, apparently CoMC was not
| _really_ an inspiration for the Dark Knight, as the legend
| went. [2]
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo
| _(202...
|
| [2] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/254769/was-
| batman-...
| arnehormann wrote:
| Try "Best served cold" by Joe Abercrombie. Followed by The
| Heroes. And to avoid minor spoilers, read the First Law
| trilogy first. All good books are great, The heroes is
| probably the best!
| l_j_w wrote:
| I occasionally use this service called serial literature that
| sends an email on the cadence you want for their selection of
| stories. I chose Count of Monte Cristo twice a week. After the
| first couple emails I ended up reading then clicking the "send
| next installment" link multiple times. I finished the book in a
| week. It was such a great read.
| gadders wrote:
| I recently read the unabridged version, and really enjoyed it.
| The pacing is a bit patchy, but has (what we would think)
| surprisingly modern things mentioned - cannabis, lesbianism.
|
| If anyone wants a recommendation for another good book from
| around the same date, I recommend Kidnapped by Robert Louis
| Stevenson. It has it's adventure aspects, but is also just a
| great tale of male friendship between two different characters.
| perihelions wrote:
| There's nothing anachronistic about hashish in 19th-century
| France; it was a widely-known narcotic long before that. If
| you read Wikipedia's "history" entry, Dumas and Paris are
| explicitly name-checked (among a lengthy list of writers),
|
| - _" In the 19th century, hashish was embraced in some
| European literary circles. Most famously, the Club des
| Hashischins was a Parisian club dedicated to the consumption
| of hashish and other drugs; its members included writers
| Theophile Gautier, Dr. Moreau de Tours, Victor Hugo,
| Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire and Honore de
| Balzac.[19]"_
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish#History
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_des_Hashischins
| jjcm wrote:
| This is one of my favorites. It's one of the few where the hero
| manages to become the villain in the end, and does so
| convincingly.
| gadders wrote:
| Do you think? He does show some mercy towards some people
| that have wronged him.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| That's certainly one way to interpret it.
| r00fus wrote:
| Just remembering my first reading thinking: hey they had
| complex financial instruments back in the 1800s. Also - market
| manipulation by use of faster comms.
|
| But really a nice story.
| perihelions wrote:
| - _" Also - market manipulation by use of faster comms."_
|
| Optical telegraphs! They were a recent invention in Dumas'
| era,
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph
|
| (How did Dumas colorfully describe those things? I think this
| is the paragraph: _" Yes, a telegraph. I had often seen one
| placed at the end of a road on a hillock, and in the light of
| the sun its black arms, bending in every direction, always
| reminded me of the claws of an immense beetle, and I assure
| you it was never without emotion that I gazed on it, for I
| could not help thinking how wonderful it was that these
| various signs should be made to cleave the air with such
| precision as to convey to the distance of three hundred
| leagues the ideas and wishes of a man sitting at a table at
| one end of the line to another man similarly placed at the
| opposite extremity, and all this effected by a simple act of
| volition on the part of the sender of the message. I began to
| think of genii, sylphs, gnomes, in short, of all the
| ministers of the occult sciences, until I laughed aloud at
| the freaks of my own imagination."_)
|
| https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184
| WillAdams wrote:
| To expand on one's enjoyment of this, be sure to look up the
| historical biography of Dumas pere's father, _The Black Count_.
|
| For even more fun, if one enjoys fantasy, Steven Brust's _The
| Baron of Magister Valley_ is TCoMC w/ all the names changed and
| the serial numbers filed off in a fantasy setting (and _The
| Phoenix Guards_ is _The Three Musketeers_, _Five Hundred Years
| After_ is _Five Years After_, and _The Viscount of Adrilahnkha_
| is _The Man in the Iron Mask_).
| sshine wrote:
| Best book: Snow Crash
|
| Best short stories: Borges
| MailleQuiMaille wrote:
| Ok, I want to be your friend.
| aorth wrote:
| A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
| 8minsfromsol wrote:
| Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.
|
| If ever I'm struggling with something I pick it up and open to a
| random leaf and just read until I feel better.
| valval wrote:
| Growing up 'The Brothers Lionheart'.
|
| As an adult, 'The Idiot'.
| aireo wrote:
| Several immediately come to mind.
|
| Short stories: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (Ken Liu);
| Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation (Ted Chiang); The
| Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
|
| Novels: The Monk (Matthew Gregory Lewis); Frankenstein (Mary
| Shelley)
| bloak wrote:
| Which edition of Frankenstein would you recommend, 1818 or
| 1831? (Gutenberg.org has both.)
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I read Frankenstein a few years back. it is an interesting
| book, years ahead of his time. But while the monster is quite a
| sympathetic character (apart fron the odd homicide)
| Frankenstein is such a _drip_.
| noashavit wrote:
| Fiction : the history of love Non fiction: start with why
| gmuslera wrote:
| For fiction it would be Dan Simmons's Hyperion for me, it would
| be a great short stories anthology, but is far more than that.
|
| Regarding Non-Fiction, my current bet would be Antifragile by
| Taleb.
| jq-r wrote:
| Fiction: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
|
| Non-fiction: Pilates Anatomy by Rael Isacowitz - it changed me
| and changed my body.
| mcphage wrote:
| Did you ready Eco's Foucault's Pendulum?
| jq-r wrote:
| I've managed to get about 1/3 in but found it boring and
| messy. That was years ago so I might give it another shot.
| Thanks for reminding me about that book.
| MattPalmer1086 wrote:
| Although I'm not generally into fantasy, I found "The Chronicles
| of Thomas Covenant" by Stephen Donaldson to be fantastic.
|
| I tried to start it twice and gave up (there are some disturbing
| elements) but once I got into it I was hooked. Loved that the
| hero wasnt into being a hero and was deeply flawed.
|
| For non fiction, "Godel, Escher and Bach" is right up there,
| along with The Selfish Gene.
| BizarroLand wrote:
| I have bought and read the entire decalogue of the Thomas
| covenant series. The first 2 trilogies were prime fantasy. The
| final quadrilogy probably deserves a re-read but it wasn't
| quite at the same level on the first read for me as the others.
|
| It's the only book that I can remember that has sent me
| scrambling for a dictionary as the sentences contained words
| whose meaning could not be discerned by inference.
|
| "The surquedry of the Elohim was their downfall", for instance.
| bloopernova wrote:
| I've been reading history books lately, and my ebook feature
| "look up selected word in dictionary or Wikipedia" is such a
| useful little thing. I wish I'd had something similar in the
| 80s (the convenience, I know I could get a dictionary)
|
| A built-in pronunciation guide would also have been very
| appealing to this 80s bookworm.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Thomas Covenant is only acceptable to readers who will accept a
| protagonist who rapes an innocent girl quite early in the work.
| MattPalmer1086 wrote:
| Yes, that is the disturbing element that made me stop reading
| twice. I pushed past that eventually and came to appreciate
| the story as a whole. This does not mean I or the characters
| in the story condone it or forgive it.
|
| Update: his other magnificent sci fi series, "The Gap" also
| deals with extreme abuse. His works are not comfortable, but
| they are great stories.
| Miranda94 wrote:
| The best book I've ever read is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
| It offers timeless insights on self-discipline, perspective, and
| inner peace, making it a powerful guide for navigating life.
| nataliste wrote:
| And still succumbing to disastrous nepotism despite all of it.
| extasia wrote:
| @dang This person is a bot, read other comments of theirs
| please.
| nataliste wrote:
| The Consolation of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus
| Boethius.
|
| It is a profound synthesis of classical philosophy and personal
| reflection on the human condition. Boethius, writing in prison
| while awaiting execution, blends Stoic, Neoplatonic, and
| Christian ideas to address timeless questions of fate, fortune,
| happiness, and virtue. It transcends religious dogma and focuses
| on rational inquiry into how one can find inner peace and
| intellectual clarity amidst an almost total inversion of fortune.
|
| Unlike Marcus Aurelius, writing at the peak of his power,
| Boethius wrote his at the bottom, and did so with more skin in
| the game. Marcus gave us Commodus and the Decline, Boethius gave
| us Aristotle and the Rebirth.
| ruraljuror wrote:
| Curious if you have read A Confederacy of Dunces? It is how I
| learned of Boethius, although I can't say I remember much of
| either.
| jihadjihad wrote:
| I'm curious as well, the GP comment immediately made me think
| of Ignatius, haha.
| gadders wrote:
| It set my pyloric valve off.
| shaftoe444 wrote:
| I think it showed the proper reverence for theology and
| geometry.
| mckn1ght wrote:
| That is one of my favorite books. Read it in one day,
| couldn't put it down.
| Dove wrote:
| Thank you for the recommendation - I'll take a look!
| rpdillon wrote:
| Thanks for the suggestion, I'm interested!
|
| Found it on Standard Ebooks, in case that helps someone else:
|
| https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/boethius/the-consolation-o...
| aanet wrote:
| Thanks for this brief endorsement. I'll add it to my list of
| books to read... Currently, running a rather high tsundoku...
|
| My own fav is also called _Consolation of Philosophy_ but it 's
| by Alain de Botton, one of my fav contemporary writers. His
| prose is fine, and the writing's a treat. His book is of course
| a modern treatment of Boethius. Recommended!
| tosser0001 wrote:
| 1. There's a fun reference to this book in the movie "24 Hour
| Party People"
|
| 2. Chaucer's translation is referenced in the OED as the first
| use of the word "twitter" in the English language
| Daviey wrote:
| The most impactful book I've come across? "How to Win Friends and
| Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. Yes, it's old, and the title
| sounds like clickbait from a LinkedIn influencer. Or worse, it
| reeks of self-help nonsense. But bear with me.
|
| In my early 20s, I noticed a peer who seemed to have cracked the
| social code. Their ability to navigate complex interpersonal
| dynamics and sway opinions was remarkably consistent. He always
| seemed to get what he wanted, and people seemed to love him for
| it.
|
| Intrigued, I asked about their secret. The initial response?
| Denial and a hint of offense. Classic information hiding.
|
| An hour later, they circled back with an unexpected
| recommendation: this book.. But he asked me not to tell people
| around us that he recommended it.
|
| Carnegie's work is essentially a manual for optimizing human
| interaction. It's really just written as a set of antidotes from
| his experience, with some commentary.
|
| Key areas include: 1. Techniques for effectively
| dealing with people (social engineering techniques) 2.
| Methods for building a positive reputation ("making people like
| you") 3. Strategies for persuasion ("win people to your
| way of thinking") 4. Leadership approaches that don't
| trigger resentment
|
| The book's core thesis revolves around understanding human
| psychology. It emphasizes the importance of showing genuine
| interest, developing empathy, and refining communication patterns
| for maximum impact.
|
| While the examples are dated (first published in 1936), many find
| that the core principles remain surprisingly relevant. The ideas
| scale across various contexts, from one-on-one interactions to
| large organizational structures.
|
| Word of caution: Some may view these techniques as manipulative.
| Using it ethically is important, but really, it just provides
| some good examples on how not to be an ass.
| Dove wrote:
| This is one of my favorite books as well. While I read it
| several years ago, I still ponder and apply its advice on a
| near daily basis. The section on Lincoln and criticism should
| be required reading before getting married.
|
| I have been surprised that it has a reputation for being
| manipulative, and I suspect people are reacting to what they
| _imagine_ the book says rather than what it _actually_ says. A
| recurring theme is that manipulative people may use these
| techniques, but to inferior results - the secret sauce is to
| actually care about people and want what is best for them. I
| have found that the ideas it promotes make me more civilized,
| empathetic, and considerate.
| whartung wrote:
| Well, I don't reread books. But I've read this one science
| fiction book five times. That book is "The Long Run" by Daniel
| Keys Moran.
|
| As for non-fiction I just bring out the classics that taught me
| Lisp and Lispy things: Simply Scheme, SICP, On Lisp.
| Izkata wrote:
| I'm not sure I'd call it "best", but it's definitely one of the
| more interesting ones that I've just never heard of anywhere
| else. I found it in an antique store like two decades ago: _An
| Alien Light_
|
| It's mostly from the perspective of primitive humans being
| studied by aliens while the aliens teach them various topics like
| math and science. The aliens are studying these lost tribes
| because out in space they're at war with humans and cannot figure
| out how the humans are able to fight each other and still be
| winning the war with the aliens.
| jrs235 wrote:
| The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation
| Lean Product Development (Commissioned affiliate link:
| http://amzn.to/2DK6kVP)
|
| It's technical, mathy, economics, and business all wrapped
| together.
| Sabinus wrote:
| Sorry, series instead of books.
|
| Best Sci-fi: The Commonwealth Saga
|
| Best Fantasy: The Wheel of Time
| wannabebarista wrote:
| A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
|
| While this book has its problems, it is a wide-ranging, engaging,
| and readable history of ideas from antiquity to about the turn of
| the 20th century. I'm finding it difficult to put any other book
| ahead of this one.
| kylecazar wrote:
| 100 Years of Solitude is my favorite. I majored in Spanish
| literature in college, that was my first exposure to Gabriel
| Garcia Marquez (I read it in the original Spanish, but I'm told
| the English translation is faithful and very good).
| EvanKelly wrote:
| I've struggled through 2 or 3 Marquez books in Spanish (I'm far
| from fluent), and have read all of them in English. Gregory
| Rabassa was an excellent translator and ,from my unexpert point
| of view, captured the essence of Marquez' work.
|
| Translated literature is interesting and I've recently read a
| few differing views on the "best" translations of Homer.
|
| I've resigned myself that I simply must trust the masses in
| some places and I won't be learning Russian to read Tolstoy
| authentically.
| qingcharles wrote:
| I rant about this too much, but I urge anyone who is thinking
| of reading a non-English book to check reviews of the
| translations first. Translations vary wildly and the quality
| of the translation makes or breaks your enjoyment and
| understanding of the text.
| lotsoweiners wrote:
| I would probably have to say The Pillars of the Earth by Ken
| Follett. I'm a sucker for fat historical fiction books and this
| one delivered everything I want from that type of book.
| rgun wrote:
| I was blown away by Pillars of the Earth.
|
| I had never read a historical fiction before it. It is so well
| crafted, showing different characters and their perspectives,
| all in the backdrop of medieval England.
| _whiteCaps_ wrote:
| I just finished the Kingsbridge series last night! Excellent
| books.
| booleandilemma wrote:
| I loved this book. I read it as a kid and I didn't understand
| all of it but it was the first book I encountered of that scale
| and scope and it showed me what books could be like.
| eppsilon wrote:
| Great book. Some other historical fiction recommendations:
|
| - The "Welsh Princes" series by Sharon Kay Penman (same era,
| different perspective)
|
| - Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Black Death)
|
| - The "Grail Quest" series by Richard Cornwell (Hundred Years
| War)
|
| - The "Last Kingdom" series, also by Cornwell (Viking invasion,
| Alfred the Great)
| widowlark wrote:
| Shogun by James Clavell as well!
| snarf21 wrote:
| This is an amazing book and I've read it 10+ times despite it
| being ~1000 pages. I tried a lot of the "sequels" but they just
| didn't deliver the same way and felt too samey and not a great
| continuation.
| scrumper wrote:
| It's certainly rich, and the trilogy is satisfying to read, but
| I had to stop with his giant epics because he's just so
| relentlessly cruel to his characters. Every remotely
| sympathetic female character is going to spend at least a
| decade being repeatedly raped. Every ordinary man is going to
| have his family murdered and be enslaved. Yes the stakes might
| be elevated that way and for sure his chosen time period wasn't
| exactly kindly to those at the bottom of the social pile, but
| after a while it just felt gratuitous and more reflective of
| some pathology in Ken Follet's mind than any desire to tell a
| good story.
| dave333 wrote:
| Best novel: Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
|
| Best Scifi: The World of Null-A A. E. van Vogt
|
| Best Childrens: Swallowdale Arthur Ransome
| brg wrote:
| Non-fiction: The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes.
|
| Fiction: The Gods Themselves Asimov.
|
| These are the book I always recommend to friends and colleagues.
| There are runners up based on taste, such as Zero to One,The
| Making of the Atomic Bomb, and Anathema.
| bkgh wrote:
| Don Quixote
| Goldpiggy wrote:
| Trillion dollar coach
| histories wrote:
| Impossible to pick one... best I can do is five-ish, all fiction:
|
| The Odyssey; David Copperfield; Moby-Dick; Anna Karenina; Borges'
| short stories, in particular Ficciones & The Aleph
| bavarianbob wrote:
| Do you have any comments on how to best absorb Ficciones? I
| read it recently and struggled through the whole book, needless
| to say, I don't comprehend why many hold that book on such a
| high pedestal.
| edanm wrote:
| Impossible to pick just one.
|
| I'll give a few that haven't appeared yet: Fiction: Harry Potter
| and the Methods of Rationality (Eliezer Yudkowsky) Non-fiction:
| Rationality - from AI to Zombies (Eliezer Yudkowsky)
|
| Probably no books have _impacted_ me quite as much as these two,
| barring early-childhood books that have impacted me from a young
| age.
|
| Fiction: Worm (by Parahumans)
|
| Best "superhero" fiction ever created. Just one of my favorite
| books in general.
|
| Fiction: The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson. Best fantasy
| books ever, IMO.
|
| I can go on for a long time, but I felt like these haven't been
| mentioned and absolutely deserve a place on this thread.
| Dove wrote:
| _Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality_ is splendid. Some
| of the most vigorous writing I 've ever encountered. I agree,
| it is highly recommended.
| killthebuddha wrote:
| BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
|
| Edit: On a more serious note, this book actually changed the
| way I think in a very concrete (and positive) way. The book
| spurred me to start consciously reflecting on "what about X,
| specifically, is surprising" and/or "what about X,
| specifically, is confusing". It's impossible to quantify, but
| the habit has definitely, definitely, boosted my ability to
| disentangle complex situations and make better decisions.
| araes wrote:
| Skulls for the Throne of Skulls! We march upon the Abyss!
|
| Seriously though. "Codex Chaos" is pretty super sweet, if
| sweet is skyscraper size demons of the darkness of mankind.
| Excellent light reading.
| Jcowell wrote:
| +1 on Worm. I've read it twice and was captivated both times
| opesorry wrote:
| Worm is outstanding. It's responsible for getting me into
| reading which has shaped my life since
| NateEag wrote:
| For those of us who really hated HPMOR and didn't finish it,
| this review explains the issues in it better than I can:
|
| https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/
| empiricus wrote:
| Well, lets just say this guy does not understand what is
| happening in the book. "When Hermione DIES Hariezer does
| nothing, and a few weeks later Voldemort brings her back." -
| in the book Harry steals Hermione's body from under the nose
| of all wizards, and keeps it hidden and frozen for a future
| revival, etc. Also many of the things that "do not make
| sense" are actually from the canon, and EY is making fun of
| their absurdity.
| edanm wrote:
| Well that was an entertaining read. Needless to say I
| disagree with most of it (and think he's factually wrong on a
| number of things).
|
| But it's entertainment - totally fine to disagree! :)
| kemko wrote:
| HPMoR and Worm? Try Mother of Learning.
| edanm wrote:
| I've heard of it many times but never gotten around to
| reading it. Apparently an audiobook version exists, so I'll
| bump it up my list and read it soon.
|
| Thanks!
| eatrocs wrote:
| crap what was that website that had such crazy ramblings - 2600
| like technobabble spy hacker games... it wasn't what Shin
| Megami Tensei was based on... oh well, failed memory shapes
| reality
| _gabe_ wrote:
| I'm reading the mistborn books right now. I was up until 2 in
| the morning finishing the first book in the trilogy the other
| night. These books are fantastic!
| edanm wrote:
| I'm pretty much required by law to tell you that his other
| books are _also_ fantastic, and that if you like Mistborn,
| you should (after completing the trilogy) try The Stormlight
| Archive.
|
| Kidding aside, Sanderson is by far my favorite author, and
| his fantasy books are honestly some of the greatest books
| I've ever read. And I read a _lot_. I highly recommend
| finishing the Mistborn trilogy, and then reading some more :)
| dartharva wrote:
| > Fiction: The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson. Best
| fantasy books ever, IMO.
|
| I highly recommend listening to the GraphicAudio adaptation of
| this series. It's what got me into audiobooks.
| edanm wrote:
| Honestly, I've really disliked these kind of full cast
| recordings every time I've tried them. No idea why.
|
| I'm a fairly voracious audiobook consumer, though.
| trumbitta2 wrote:
| Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
|
| It saved my life, two times. First time inspiring me, second time
| literally.
| rgun wrote:
| What happened the second time?
| trumbitta2 wrote:
| I was riding my bike with some friends and one of them
| launched a challenge. This was 30 years ago and I was 17. We
| were climbing up a hill. Who was going to reach the old
| church at the top of the hill first?
|
| Fast forward to me being ahead, miscalculating a turn before
| the church, and heading full-speed straight for the edge of a
| cliff. I couldn't brake because I'd lose control. I couldn't
| jump off the bike because I'd start rolling. I remembered
| Jonathan and how he learned acrobatic flight. I didn't have
| wings to barely bend but I slightly, slightly, lightly than a
| feather, turned the stem, and got out of trouble right at the
| last inch in the fastest turn ever performed on a bicycle.
| clort wrote:
| My parents had the soundtrack LP from the film when I was
| growing up back in the 70s, I loved that (and I still have a
| CD). The book remains one of the very few I've read more than
| once.
| ianmcgowan wrote:
| Illusions by Richard Bach is also mind-blowing, or at least was
| for me during puberty..
| mobilio wrote:
| Best book of books - 1984
|
| Fiction - Ender's Game
|
| Horror - Voices from Chernobyl. I'm currently read it. I need a
| pause on every 2-3 pages to refresh my mind.
|
| Biography - "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small
| Town". This is only Grisham book that wasn't fiction and based on
| true event.
| Dove wrote:
| There can be only one answer to that - the _Bible_. Twenty years
| ago, I was convinced the content alone justified the claims of a
| divine origin, which opinion has only grown stronger in the years
| since. Even if you don 't believe in it, it is worth reading as
| literature - an extraordinarily epic story, and a lot of stuff to
| say about humanity and divinity along the way. Everything else,
| comparatively, seems to me like it was written by children.
|
| But that's a useless answer, as the purpose of such a question is
| to generate recommendations, and that's unlikely to be a new one
| to anybody.
|
| One of the books that's impacted me the most in the last few
| years is Homer's _Illiad_. I used to wonder why we read _The
| Odyssey_ in high school and never talked about _The Illiad_ , but
| I don't wonder now! I think all the violence in _Illiad_ would
| warrant more than a PG-13 rating. ;) But it is a great story
| about men and gods and struggle and war, with a lot to say about
| what mankind is and what it can be, and a lot of heroes to want
| to grow up to be someday. The introduction to my copy includes
| the quote, "It is a good thing that war is so terrible,
| otherwise we would grow to love it too much." That quote will
| make no sense to most people; if it resonates with you, this book
| is your kind of book.
|
| I am currently reading through Heidegger's _The Question
| Concerning Technology_ , as I am looking for wisdom on how to
| navigate the highly technological time I find myself in. I
| haven't finished it, but I find the insights profound, and I see
| the ideas everywhere. I think it may prove to be the best thing
| I've ever read on the topic of what it means to interact with
| technology and remain human.
|
| Shakespeare is legendary for a reason. I haven't read one of his
| plays yet that that I didn't deeply enjoy. They never hit right
| in high school, but as an adult I find them profound. I giggled
| my way through _A Comedy of Errors_ recently and it still makes
| me smile.
|
| A Christian recommendation - I've very much enjoyed Jeremy
| Taylor's 1650 _Holy Living and Dying_. Probably the best book on
| Christian life I 've read, and I've read quite a few - and it's a
| book that rarely makes people's short lists. It's long and I
| haven't finished it, but as much as I've read so far continues to
| impact me.
|
| Edit: I almost forgot! I read _The Princess and the Goblin_
| several years ago. It is a fairy tale intended for children, and
| is yet one of the best books I have ever read on the subject of
| _girlhood_ , and I have spent a lifetime searching for them. If
| you have (or are, or find yourself in an occasion to love) a
| girl, I can't recommend it highly enough.
| aporetics wrote:
| Stick with QCT, I've been coming back to that essay for 20
| years. Given your other recs, you might want to go back to a
| few of the Dialogues: the Apology, the Laches, maybe the
| Phaedrus. And if you're serious about the divine origin stuff,
| after reading the Apology, read the third chapter of Walden.
| Dove wrote:
| Thank you for that, I will.
| unboxedtype wrote:
| Glad someone mentioned that. I couldn't say it better.
| qingcharles wrote:
| I'm atheist-agnostic, but I've read the Bible several times and
| the Qu'ran twice. I think it is important to have at least a
| passing knowledge of these books, and TBH, as long as you
| cherry-pick, there is a lot of good life advice in there.
|
| I'm fascinated by both books for their history and authorship,
| though. Who wrote them? Why did they write them? How did they
| write them? What parts of their content is backed by historical
| record? etc.
| throwaway7772 wrote:
| Numbers and Leviticus are the worst slog of a book I've come
| across. Don't think people are very honest with themselves when
| they read through it and think, yes God made this so beautiful.
| MailleQuiMaille wrote:
| Depends at what age you'd ask me that.
|
| Harry Potter 4 was the first book I binged when I was a kid. Lord
| of the Flies was the first book that made me feel weird emotions,
| and I liked it. Snow crash is the book that made me think "Fuck,
| how can one write a book like that ?" and therefore started what
| I hope to be a lifelong hobby. I still think of Flatland from
| times to times, as I'm jealous and amazed of the brain of its
| author.
| qingcharles wrote:
| I sat down once and read all 8[0] Harry Potter books, and while
| the author is a terrible person, the books are absolutely
| fantastic IMO.
|
| [0] I'm including the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed
| Child
| LinuxAmbulance wrote:
| Snow Crash made me work on being a writer. Just an incredible
| book, and I am only saddened that he will never again write
| another book like it.
| tb_technical wrote:
| "The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th grade.
| Changed my life."
|
| Not because I remember anything about it, or believe anything it
| espouses, or even like it all that much, but because it's a
| useful filter for obnoxious people in meatspace.
|
| If someone I don't know too well asks me what my favorite book
| is, I say Atlas Shrugged. If they react inappropriately, I'll be
| cordial and treat them with respect, but I don't want to be
| friends. If they're _way_ too supportive - the same rule applies.
|
| If they're critical in a way I can appreciate, then I know they
| can either tolerate ideas they hate or have the social accumen to
| not go too hard in the paint early on in a relationahip. Really,
| I'm just looking for people who won't jump down my throat on a
| faux pas.
|
| Later on in the relationship I'll tell them my actual favorite
| book, "A Canticle for Leibowitz", or "Neuromancer", or "The Dying
| Earth" (my opinion changes based on my mood).
| LZ_Khan wrote:
| Ooh I love this take.
| cactacea wrote:
| > "The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th
| grade. Changed my life."
|
| "huh, ok"
|
| > Really, I'm just looking for people who won't jump down my
| throat on a faux pas.
|
| I think you're dismissing the people such as myself that would
| note you as an idiot without comment and move on wanting
| nothing to do with you.
|
| Edit: tests and trick questions with people you just met is an
| ineffective way to navigate the world. My 2c
| bitcoin_anon wrote:
| You just failed the test.
| cactacea wrote:
| Good. I don't want anything to do with people that "test"
| others like this. You cannot do so without making
| assumptions about intent.
| pc86 wrote:
| I'm of two minds on this. On one hand, yes you probably
| don't want to go through life "testing" people in this
| way as I'm sure there are some unintended consequences of
| doing so and you probably end up with kind of a boring
| circle of people around you. On the other hand, I would
| never want to be friends with someone who thinks someone
| is an idiot because they liked a particular book. "You
| liked this thing I don't like and therefore I want
| nothing to do with you" is extremely childish. So it
| would seem to have _exactly_ the intended effect in this
| case.
| EFreethought wrote:
| I am guessing you have never met someone who actually did
| like "Atlas Shrugged".
|
| The fact is, some people deserve harsh judgement.
| Including people who lie to someone and think they are
| morally superior for doing so.
| kbelder wrote:
| I liked Atlas Shrugged.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Why? What redeeming qualities does it have that make you
| prefer it to less mediocre books?
| 0xBDB wrote:
| Not the person you were responding to, but if you ignore
| the hundred-page speech (which isn't that difficult to
| do) it's a fairly serviceable pulp sci-fi romance novel.
| It's far from Shakespeare and far from my favorite thing
| I've ever read, but it'll do in a pinch.
|
| I don't care for the philosophy/politics, but I've read a
| lot of good sci-fi that I didn't care for the philosophy
| behind. I like Starship Troopers, which isn't as fascist
| as some people think but is certainly right-wing. I like
| Orson Scott Card, regardless of what I think of his
| opinions on gay people. I like the Culture novels, which
| are lowkey anarcho-communist. I like China Mieville, and
| he's an unsubtle hardcore Marxist.
|
| Those are all much better than Rand, but not totally out
| of the ballpark (I think the Fountainhead is actually
| much better written than Atlas Shrugged).
|
| I agree with the original thread comment: people who
| can't separate literary and political merit are usually
| pretty tiresome in lots of other ways.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| A serviceable pulp novel is in line with my definition of
| mediocre literature, personally.
| kbelder wrote:
| I don't prefer it to less mediocre books.
| cactacea wrote:
| Saying it is your favorite book is one thing. Saying it
| "changed your life" is another and yes, I'd think anyone
| who's life was changed by that particular book is indeed
| an idiot. I just don't see myself wanting to continue to
| engage with that person after a comment like that. Maybe
| I'm just impatient _shrug_
| mgkimsal wrote:
| Cactacea Shrugged
|
| Before I made a judgement about someone making that
| claim, I'd need to know in what way it 'changed their
| life'.
| tb_technical wrote:
| And this is where I usually come clean about the
| exercise.
| malthaus wrote:
| a better strategy would be a follow-up question on how it
| changed their life
|
| i'm with the parent commenter here as i find your
| response very much telling on how you evaluate things and
| frankly, more idiotic than someone's life being changed,
| even by the "intended" interpretation of the book
|
| e.g. would you say that everyone who liked / was
| influenced by reading "mein kampf" is a nazi?
| aloisdg wrote:
| yes pretty much or at least a wanna be one.
|
| Who start reading "mein kampf" beside scholar anyway?
| synecdoche wrote:
| There may be as many reasons to read it as there are
| people on the planet. People who want to control other
| people's thoughts give me the chills.
| portaouflop wrote:
| you can read it - I have read portions of it - but it's
| still a pretty bad book by a lot of metrics. It's just
| famous like maos red bible is famous - but both are
| horrible literature
|
| Edit: so if you read and like it there is something wrong
| with you
| WalterBright wrote:
| I read books that have contrary opinions to mine so I can
| understand their ideological underpinnings and mistakes.
|
| People who only read things they agree with means they're
| blind to the problems with it, and fold like wet
| cardboard when they try to argue it.
| cactacea wrote:
| Depending on context I could see myself asking a followup
| question. In this specific instance, no that's enough for
| me personally. As I can see from the other replies the OP
| made my assessment was in line with my personal values.
| portaouflop wrote:
| Mein Kampf is so retarded and boring reading you have to
| be a nazi / facist fanboy to like it
| jdonaldson wrote:
| One must imagine Atlas shrugging.
| contagiousflow wrote:
| If the test is an insincere answer to a question that may
| tell me a lot about your worldview, then I'm fine failing
| it. I would rather know genuine people.
| r00fus wrote:
| If we're doing litmus tests, your handle is almost
| certainly going to get you ignored by a lot of people.
| znpy wrote:
| I wanted to post something similar.
|
| It's crazy how many people essentially jumped at their
| throat with obnoxious comments and even outright ridiculing
| the poster (see the "checkers/chess" comment as an
| example).
|
| Quite literally the author explained the whole reasoning
| and they still "failed the test".
|
| I haven't even read atlas shrugged but I guess at this
| point I'm curious to read it and possibly adopt a similar
| strategy: it's clearly working way better than intended.
| travisjungroth wrote:
| I don't _want_ to pass this test. Someone who uses one of
| our first interactions to test how tolerant I am of
| Objectivism removing themselves from my life is an ideal
| outcome.
| cactacea wrote:
| Lol yes, so much this
| kbelder wrote:
| It wasn't a test about Objectivism. It was about
| ideological intolerance and zealotry in general. Note
| that you could fail it by whether you're pro or con
| Objectivism.
| tb_technical wrote:
| Don't let me dissuade you, but it's not a very good read.
| There's a reason I forgot almost all of it.
|
| But if you like her long-winded style, have fun! It's a
| long one.
| vundercind wrote:
| If you're gonna do just one, I hear Anthem is the closest
| to being a decent novel. But I've only personally managed
| The Fountainhead (oh my god, don't) and part of Atlas
| Shrugged (after the priming of Fountainhead, I could not
| get far), plus way too many of the essays and enough of
| her book on epistemology to know I didn't need to keep
| reading ("ok so the fiction is terrible as literature and
| is entirely unconvincing, but maybe the non-fic is
| better?" I reasoned. Nah.)
| mondobe wrote:
| And _you_ just lost The Game.
| gadders wrote:
| I think you are proving his point.
| cactacea wrote:
| You're free to have your own perspective of course. I would
| suggest you re-read my post
| ecocentrik wrote:
| I have to agree. Basing any of your life decisions on quick
| hacks with bad assumptions seems like a fast way to a
| mediocre outcome.
| uoaei wrote:
| Welcome to the techie obsession with heuristics.
| anonymoushn wrote:
| > Edit: tests and trick questions with people you just met is
| an ineffective way to navigate the world. My 2c
|
| Then it sounds like you won't ask someone their favorite book
| and write them off entirely if they say it's a raunchy
| romance novel about industrialists?
| toast0 wrote:
| I liked the parts about the railway signaling, and suffered
| through all the multi-page anti-regulatory rants in the
| middle of lovemaking. Looking for recommendations for
| entertaining tales of signal networks. :P
| DurtEetr wrote:
| Going Postal by Terry Pratchett has my favorite
| entertaining read about signaling networks.
|
| In addition to the invention of a working mail system,
| you'll read descriptions of semaphore towers working in a
| way that is similar to the Telegraph, except with light
| rather than pulsed waves over wire. It's also hilariously
| funny and deeply philosophical at times.
|
| I recommend it wholeheartedly.
| toast0 wrote:
| Thanks! From the blurb, this looks perfect, and I've been
| meaning to read some Terry Pratchett. I really enjoyed
| being a substitute postal worker in Yoku's Island
| Express.
| vizzier wrote:
| Every book is unique, but they all share his unique
| philosophy and wit. Highly recommend any of his works.
| The more you read of discworld the more of a world it
| will build, but none are so highly coupled that they
| can't be read independently.
| tb_technical wrote:
| Pratchett wrote some amazing books. And if you're into
| animation (especially older animation), you can find the
| old discworld animated movies on YouTube.
|
| The first discworld book I read was Thief of Time, and
| I've been hooked ever since
| cactacea wrote:
| I love how all the replies are focusing on how this is
| supposedly their favorite book and not the bit about "it
| changed my life"
| yogurtboy wrote:
| Totally agree. While the logic of the comment wasn't bad,
| that's just a weird maniuplative style of social engineering.
| JohnAaronNelson wrote:
| Thinking one step ahead instead of two
| booleandilemma wrote:
| Well done OP, this cactacea guy does not seem like someone
| you'd want to be friends with :)
| triceratops wrote:
| cactacea said they would neither jump down OP's throat, nor
| show an excessive amount of interest. That puts them firmly
| into friendship material territory for OP. Not sure how
| it's a helpful test.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| > I think you're dismissing the people such as myself that
| would note you as an idiot without comment and move on
| wanting nothing to do with you.
|
| Not OP. But I would say the filter is working. If you would
| treat somebody like an idiot for liking a book you don't
| like, I indeed, would want you filtered out of my circle of
| friends.
| travisjungroth wrote:
| It's not just liking a book, as if they named some cliche
| young adult novel. It's the magnum opus of the author's
| philosophy as a novel. They're dismissing them for the
| philosophical views they're celebrating.
|
| It's the other end of the spectrum from disliking someone
| because their favorite book is The Grapes of Wrath or A
| Brave New World. I actually agree with the values expressed
| in those books, and I can also understand someone not
| wanting to be friends with me because of it.
|
| But at least if you're going to have friends with a
| different philosophy, seems like a better move to reach
| across to people who believe in community and collaboration
| over self-interest and individualism. That's just me,
| though.
| Y_Y wrote:
| I can like a book without agreeing with it.
| cactacea wrote:
| And have it change your life?
| dmitrygr wrote:
| > And have it change your life?
|
| Yes, a literary work can both be life-changing and not
| something you agree with.
|
| EG:
|
| I do not at all agree with Marx. Me and others reading
| his works changed my life irrevocably. Ditto for Hitler.
| travisjungroth wrote:
| But you do get that if you said "The best book I've ever
| read was Mein Kampf in 8th grade. Changed my life." then
| some people _very reasonably_ won 't want to be your
| friend, right?
| dmitrygr wrote:
| You had me until "reasonably". I'd rather friends who
| have read than friends who prefer ignorance.
| Y_Y wrote:
| Would you befriend someone who said, "The best book I've
| ever read was Mein Kampf in 8th grade. My life, however,
| was entirely unaltered thereby."?
| travisjungroth wrote:
| Absolutely. You could say the ideas are well presented or
| it provided a contrast that clarified your own thinking.
| But, if someone asks "What's your favorite book?" and you
| say "The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in
| 8th grade. Changed my life." then... come on. You either
| like it or are quite the tricky communicator.
|
| "Someone dropped it off a bridge, hit my abusive step-dad
| and killed him dead. Soft spot for Ayn Ran ever since,
| beliefs aside." _That 's_ someone I'd want to be friends
| with.
| Y_Y wrote:
| Tricky communicators make the best friends.
| hgomersall wrote:
| On a tangent, did you find brave news world describing a
| dystopia or a utopia? I find myself convinced of both
| depending on my mood.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| Brave new world describes ... approximately the 21st
| century 1st world countries' upper-middle class. We are
| living it. TokTok/YouTube is soma.
| dh2022 wrote:
| OP is playing checkers; the rest of HN is playing chess....
| tb_technical wrote:
| I'm only smart enough to play checkers. But I'm happy with
| my lot in life.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| I would do the same. But maybe that's the kind, us?, of
| person OP doesn't want to do anything with at all.
| uoaei wrote:
| This is the root of why folks did not appreciate those cringy
| "social experimenter" kids growing up.
| lolinder wrote:
| > I think you're dismissing the people such as myself that
| would note you as an idiot without comment and move on
| wanting nothing to do with you.
|
| > Edit: tests ... with people you just met is an ineffective
| way to navigate the world. My 2c
|
| Do you see the irony here?
|
| I wouldn't personally run the kind of test OP is running, but
| I think that even in your case the test succeeded: they've
| successfully separated themselves from someone who is
| inclined take one aspect of who they present themselves as
| and immediately put them in a box, label them, and dismiss
| them. They don't have to _know_ that you 're that kind of
| person for the filter to be effective.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| How about "tests with an obviously high risk of systematic,
| invisible false negatives are bad"
| lolinder wrote:
| Is it a false negative if the point of the test is to
| filter out people who will immediately assume that anyone
| who likes Atlas Shrugged is someone that they don't want
| to know better?
|
| It's not a filter I would choose to use, I'm just saying
| that OP isn't providing a failure case--the filter is
| still doing its job there.
| jerjerjer wrote:
| Few books are more indicative of people I'd like to
| filter out immediately than Atlas Shrugged. It's about as
| close to saying "screw other people" as possible.
| llamaimperative wrote:
| Yeah I guess if their filter is literally "will this
| person stop talking to me if I like Atlas Shrugged" and
| not actually something like "will this person engage in
| respectful disagreement with me."
|
| Of course the first test is useless, so I suspect they're
| trying and failing to produce the second test.
| zanellato19 wrote:
| I think the filter is quite effective, I wouldn't want to
| be friends with anyone who has such a strategy!
| cactacea wrote:
| Dunno, testing people like that is such an incredibly
| unhealthy and misguided way to talk to people that I have a
| very hard time thinking I'm missing out here. Maybe that's
| just me though
| lolinder wrote:
| Yeah, it's likely that the two of you wouldn't get along.
| I think that's the point, though.
|
| They want to associate with people who would respond with
| curiosity to a controversial statement, you don't want
| anything to do with someone who likes Atlas Shrugged and
| you aren't interested to know more. The filter worked and
| neither of you waste your time!
| cactacea wrote:
| I think that is a bit of a misunderstanding of where I'm
| coming from here. Their assumption is that there is a
| limited subset of reasons why someone would not engage on
| this specific topic. I pointed out another that they may
| not have considered since this _requires_ an assumption
| of intent that is unwarranted and in my opinion, unwise
| to make.
| lolinder wrote:
| What they're looking for:
|
| > I know they can either tolerate ideas they hate
|
| Your explanation:
|
| > would note you as an idiot without comment and move on
|
| Maybe I'm also misunderstanding what you're trying to
| communicate, but it sure sounds to me like your
| motivations are exactly what they're trying to filter out
| of their life.
| jerjerjer wrote:
| There's a difference in reaction I think. Two people can
| hear "I love Atlas shrugged" from a new acquaintance and
| one would start arguing that it's a bad book and anyone
| who likes it is dumb, etc. Another would say OK, but will
| think that the speaker is dumb.
|
| Basically there's no way to find if someone would
| "tolerate ideas they hate" or not if they refuse to
| engage with the idea altogether. The second guy in my
| example looks like he would tolerate these ideas but he
| won't.
| andrepd wrote:
| No! That is not at all what is happening here!
|
| >respond with curiosity to a controversial statement
|
| It's not _about_ being a "controversial statement" (the
| implication being anyone who reacts against it is a
| close-minded woke or something like that). It's about "I
| read it in 8th grade" + "it changed my life and it's
| still my favourite book". Honestly swap out for any book
| and it would be equally cringe to boast about how your
| thinking has not evolved or matured since you were 12.
|
| > you don't want anything to do with someone who likes
| Atlas Shrugged
|
| No, I don't like anything to do with someone who boasts
| about being immature in such a crass manner. For that
| matter, I also don't like anything to do with people who
| would intentionally lie and manipulate their interlocutor
| on their first meeting.
| abeppu wrote:
| > If they react inappropriately, I'll be cordial and treat
| them with respect, but I don't want to be friends. If
| they're way too supportive - the same rule applies.
|
| > Really, I'm just looking for people who won't jump down
| my throat on a faux pas.
|
| I think when cactacea says "huh, ok", this is neither
| inappropriate, or "jumping down someone's throat", or being
| "way too supportive" -- so I think by tb_technical's stated
| standards, cactacea has "passed" the filter, but is
| understandably alienated.
| lolinder wrote:
| Right, but the end goal of the filter isn't just to have
| a list of passes and fails. The filter exists because OP
| doesn't want to associate with people who are overly
| ideological--one way or the other.
|
| If someone silently puts OP in a bucket and never reaches
| out again, the end goal is still achieved.
| jancsika wrote:
| There's a second problem here. OP is either unaware or
| doesn't care that they're being filtered by people who are
| wary of others who _knowingly and consistently lie_ to
| strangers as the common case of getting to know one
| another.
|
| I think most adults have a sensible aversion to that. In
| fact I'd go so far as saying that this common filter is to
| social cohesion what determinism is to a programming
| language. I'm happy to have an escape hatch for novel
| cases, but there are _very_ good reasons for the common
| case being common.
|
| Edit: clarification
| andrepd wrote:
| No, I don't see the irony. GP is making a judgement based
| on a statement that paints him as a crass individual (to
| say the least). GGP is making a judgement based on _how
| people react to his own statement that is actually made-up
| to sound crass on purpose_.
| heyjamesknight wrote:
| > I think you're dismissing the people such as myself that
| would note you as an idiot without comment and move on
| wanting nothing to do with you.
|
| Sounds to me like you failed the test.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| Yeah you gotta go around assuming that anyone might lie to
| you about their favorite book in order to use your reaction
| to determine something about your personality. This
| behavior is normal and good.
| joenot443 wrote:
| You missed the point, I'm afraid. What's neither normal
| nor good is writing someone off as an idiot because their
| taste in books differs from yours.
| vundercind wrote:
| I am having trouble seeing how this doesn't just, one way or
| another, filter for people unfamiliar with both the literary
| and philosophical merits of Atlas Shrugged.
|
| Possibility 1: A too-enthusiastic reaction. Filtered.
|
| Possibility 2: A too-negative reaction. Filtered.
|
| Possibility 3: a neutral-enough reaction to not get filtered,
| but at least some parts of their opinion just shifted toward
| the negative and wary. If not filtered, at least now
| _distant_ for some time.
|
| Possibility 4: a neutral-enough reaction because they have
| low familiarity with the book. Only pairing that passes
| unscathed.
|
| I'd recommend saying Twilight instead. It doesn't come with
| garbage-politics implications (at least, simply liking the
| book doesn't)
|
| [edit] hm. But then people being enthusiastic fans of it
| isn't as useful a filter. This is tricky. Having it be
| something big fans of which are usually unpleasant is a
| benefit for filtering the other people, but sends false
| negative signals about yourself.
| kstrauser wrote:
| I agree. "Atlas Shrugged" isn't "Mein Kampf", but if
| someone told me MK was their favorite book, I'd back away
| slowly without stopping to figure whether they were making
| some clever commentary on open-mindedness and subtlety of
| thought. Now, if you told me you'd read Atlas Shrugged or
| Mein Kampf and found a nonzero set of ideas worth thinking
| through, at least to evaluate whether or why your own
| personal philosophy was able to determine they were bad
| ideas, let's have that conversation! But your _favorite_?
| Uh, I think my wife needed something in another room.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Canticle for Leibowitz was pretty good.
|
| Regardless of political opinions, that monologue in the middle
| of Atlas Shrugged is some quite poor writing. TBH if someone
| said their Atlas Shrugged was their favorite book, I would
| assume they were making some sort of political statement, which
| seems like a bit of an intrusion on what otherwise ought to be
| a fun chat about books.
|
| I was a teenager when I read her books, and these days mostly
| disagree with her politics. It was a while ago, but I vaguely
| remember The Fountainhead being a better read than Atlas
| Shrugged.
| eej71 wrote:
| I've re-read The Fountainhead about a dozen times and find a
| few new gems each time I go through it.
| tb_technical wrote:
| The idea that the people are not ready for certain
| technologies strongly resonates with me. Every day I find
| myself falling further and further out of touch with new
| technology.
|
| Never read The Fountainhead.
| jjmarr wrote:
| The best part of the monologue is in-universe, it supposedly
| takes 3 hours, but everyone on YouTube takes 4-5 hours, which
| means John Galt was speaking at 1.5x speed.
|
| Honestly Ayn Rand's sexual politics are more interesting than
| her economic politics. The books are mostly about masculinity
| and its definition. The ideal men in her books are immutable
| flawless beings, and the (good) women learn to define
| themselves by dating progressively better men.
|
| In Atlas Shrugged, Dagny goes from Francisco d'Anconia (no
| ambition playboy) to Hank Rearden (ambitious steel magnate
| that's a slave to the state) to John Galt (genius that
| refuses to compromise on anything). Dagny achieves
| fulfillment by collecting personality traits from the people
| she dates--which ultimately leads to her realization she is
| the one responsible for her own self-actualization (kind of
| contradictory lol).
|
| The Fountainhead engages with this more, because the
| conformist Keating is portrayed as more harmful than the
| physically abusive Roark.
|
| I'm convinced Ayn Rand defined the "sigma male" and she'll
| get no credit for it as a woman. She engages with the concept
| much more than the manosphere, because her sigma males end up
| poor, homeless, and societally unsuccessful because of their
| inability to compromise.
|
| Contrast the dream sold to young men on social media, which
| is "not compromising on anything will make you rich and
| attractive!"
|
| I don't agree with Rand's value system but she accurately
| describes what happens to people that hate compromise. The
| only reason why one would be a sigma is if one prioritizes
| "being right" over every other aspect of one's life.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Like I said, it was a million years ago, and I was a
| teenager so I didn't really engage with the material as
| deeply as you seem to have. But I vaguely recall Roark
| being the main viewpoint character in the Fountainhead,
| while Dagny was in Atlas, right?
|
| I think that is one thing I enjoyed about the Fountainhead,
| it felt a little more grounded because, even though the
| main character is this egoist superman guy, we at least are
| with him as he's having a bad time.
|
| I just remember Gault being this rumor hiding off in the
| wilderness or whatever, then he shows up with his sci-fi
| engine, drops pages and pages of dialogue, and... wins? I
| forget how it ends for him, tbh.
| silenced_trope wrote:
| That monologue was PAINFUL. My god not just the length of it
| but what an absolute blowhard to deliver such a self-
| righteous diatribe. I forgot about that until you mentioned
| it!
| lordnacho wrote:
| Have you considered that someone who hears Atlas Shrugged is
| your favourite book might react similarly?
|
| I'd be polite, but note you down as either an immature thinker
| or someone who likes to provoke. With a little more prodding,
| possibly also one of those people who has to be right about
| everything, and this is their hill.
|
| I guess I'm on passive radar and you are on active.
| tb_technical wrote:
| I have considered it. I generally don't like people who fly
| off the handle immediately.
|
| I really like your radar analogy
| FrustratedMonky wrote:
| I think you are missing point, not everyone is up for an
| inquisition at every new meeting. Using this method, people
| that agree with you might just move on, because they don't
| feel like probing you. You are turning away people that
| would agree with you just because they don't want to argue
| with you. You also haven't given any reason for them to
| even try'.
|
| Or better example:
|
| Person 1: I like Atlas Shrugged (secretly don't but use it
| as a test when meeting people)
|
| Person 2: Amazing, I also like Atlas Shrugged (secretly
| don't, but don't want to argue with another Atlas Shrugged
| fan boy, so just nod head and agree, and just looking how
| to end conversation and move on).
| znpy wrote:
| > Have you considered that someone who hears Atlas Shrugged
| is your favourite book might react similarly?
|
| I'm not the author of the post you're replying to, but that
| line of reasoning reminds me of an hiring bias that I read a
| while ago: avoiding a bad hire is more important than getting
| good hire.
|
| In this context this could mean that the tb_technical really
| cares about avoiding people with extreme viewpoints, even if
| that means missing a few people they might get along with.
|
| > I'd be polite, but note you down as either an immature
| thinker or someone who likes to provoke. With a little more
| prodding, possibly also one of those people who has to be
| right about everything, and this is their hill.
|
| Weirdly enough, to me (as a third person) it seems you're
| proving tb_technical's point anyway: you still have some
| strong views on the matter, you just would not express them.
| Still somebody that, according to tb_technical's writing,
| they wouldn't like to be friends with. The main difference
| here is that the feeling is reciprocated by you.
|
| The more comments I read, the more tb_technical's idea sounds
| good.
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| > In this context this could mean that the tb_technical
| really cares about avoiding people with extreme viewpoints,
| even if that means missing a few people they might get
| along with.
|
| That's a defensible idea. Making friends with the wrong
| people can _really_ mess up your life.
|
| And yet, I keep reading about this epidemic of
| loneliness...
| dogleash wrote:
| > The more comments I read, the more tb_technical's idea
| sounds good.
|
| Yeah, they're just doing a bit. A fairly tame bit for that
| matter. There's an expression "giving someone enough rope
| to hang themselves" that I think fits here.
|
| Depending on crowd and delivery I might not clock it as a
| bit. But even someone earnestly answering Atlas Shrugged,
| they know what they're doing and that deserves at least a
| few followups. Probably a bit mischievous myself. "Oh,
| that's cool, because I always wanted to find someone I
| could ask why the statue is doing squats instead of
| shrugs?"
| FrustratedMonky wrote:
| Exactly. I agree with OP. I don't think Atlas Shrugged is the
| best book around.
|
| But by using a negative to judge the response of the other
| people, the other people could just as easily be judging him.
|
| Now both parties are looking down on each other. When really
| they agree.
| analogwzrd wrote:
| If I met someone who said that _any book_ was their favorite
| book, and then didn 't remember anything about the book or
| had any value for the ideas that it advocated for, then I'd
| have to consider that person a bit of a manipulator.
|
| Being disingenuous is just a bad first and only data point to
| give someone about yourself.
| hinkley wrote:
| I'm going to note you down as a manipulator and not only keep
| myself away from you but anyone I care about.
| Vegenoid wrote:
| I know almost nothing about Atlas Shrugged, besides that it is
| very political, but this seems a strange and deceptive way to
| interact with people. I can't imagine it is very good for
| establishing trust with someone even if they "pass the test". I
| would think that many level-headed people you seek to select
| for would not appreciate being tested in this way, but I
| suppose you are selecting for a very specific kind of person
| who would find these kinds of social games and tests
| interesting.
| bee_rider wrote:
| It is political, but it is also not a good book. Like, it has
| a gigantic monologue in the middle where one of the main
| characters just stands there and expounds on the theme of the
| book, for many pages. It is not well written.
|
| If somebody said they liked... some books by Heinlein or
| whatever, there's a guy with some Political Opinions. But he
| can _write_. It is believable, picking a Heinlein book isn't
| an obvious political test.
| DonaldPShimoda wrote:
| > for many pages
|
| For those who do not know, this is an understatement. The
| monologue is some 60 pages long.
| swasheck wrote:
| my feeling is that it's a "badge" book and by that i mean,
| you wear it as a badge in order to signal your fluency in
| pro/anti objectivism conversations. conversations about it
| remind me of my post-high school experiences with peers
| while discussing movies. people always chose apocalypse
| now, the crying game, or the usual suspects as the "best
| movie in recent memory" and the reasoning was generally
| because they wanted to appear thoughtful/cerebral, but
| edgy, but also down with a little popcorn movie violence or
| other human vice. it was a signal, not a preference.
|
| as such, i found atlas shrugged to be a dull, self-
| indulgent thought piece that was aesthetically and
| technically unappealing. however, it is an important work
| that has influence on philosophies of human politics.
|
| but that's just, like, my opinion, man
| bee_rider wrote:
| IMO a piece of fiction works better as a "badge" in this
| sense if it can be defended as a really good work of art
| in-and-of itself, without the message behind it. Part of
| the game is that being the one to obviously introduce
| ideology into the discussion is a bad opening move.
|
| Like what if the other party doesn't take the political
| bait and starts talking about train sex or whatever?
| tb_technical wrote:
| If someone starts talking about train sex, the ensuing
| conversation is going to be an absolute riot
| swasheck wrote:
| wholeheartedly agree. i guess the message i was trying to
| convey is that i see people wearing familiarity with the
| work of art as a badge, not that i've badged them with
| it.
|
| anyway, yes, political conversations would be far more
| productive if they discussed train sex over against rand-
| based political/economic theory
| WalterBright wrote:
| When I was younger "2001" was my favorite movie. As I
| grew older, "The Wizard of Oz" moved into the front.
| There's never been another movie remotely like it, before
| or since. It stands alone.
| sn9 wrote:
| This is a great example.
|
| Learning someone enjoys Rand's writing/philosophy
| diminishes them in my eyes, but Heinlein is just good taste
| in scifi.
| WalterBright wrote:
| Consider Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". A looong, socialist
| monologue takes up a big chunk of the book. It's the
| socialist version of "Atlas Shrugged".
| tdeck wrote:
| The West Wing is this for American liberals.
| tdeck wrote:
| Honestly I would probably ask OP whether they re-read it as
| an adult and whether it held up on second reading. I know
| I've gone back to things I liked in 8th grade that seem
| very cringe to me today.
| ziddoap wrote:
| Responding to a genuine question of interest with some sort of
| test says a lot about you. I guess your filter works both ways,
| because I would not want to associate with someone who does
| this.
|
| Edit: Watching my points go up and down on this one has been
| interesting! I didn't realize people were so divided on whether
| or not it's okay to lie and test people as some sort of
| friendship filter.
| rpdillon wrote:
| It is somewhat odd to ask someone about their favorite book
| and instead get a lie that's intended to test whether or not
| you'll be a good friend. It's also completely offtopic for a
| discussion about folks' favorite books.
| tb_technical wrote:
| Fair. It's a bit of a bait post.
|
| But the OP _did say_ by any metric of "best".
|
| And I did post three of my favorites at the end, too!
| grecy wrote:
| > _The best book I 've ever read was Atlas Shrugged_
|
| I didn't read it until I was well into my 30s, but I very much
| enjoyed it. Not the best I've ever read, but I have read it a
| few times now.
|
| I don't agree with a lot of it, and I can't relate to some of
| the characters personally, I just think it is extremely well
| written. The characters and their motivations are very well
| laid out, and we get to go on a journey with them.
| billbrown wrote:
| Congratulations on your independence. May I recommend her
| other novel The Fountainhead, which is about the war between
| individualism and collectivism within a person?
| grecy wrote:
| I enjoyed that also, but found it much less character
| driven and I got lost in the weeds somewhere
| chrisfosterelli wrote:
| I was pretty similar. I heard so much about it that I figured
| I should read it, but that wasn't until my late 20s. I feel
| weird telling people I liked it because of how it's used as a
| categorizer. It's obviously a flawed philosophy and I don't
| agree with huge chunks of it -- but its a book that just
| sticks in your head and the ideals it espouses are
| attractive.
|
| Honestly I think of it as a piece of media similar to
| superhero movies. The practical reality of superheros
| implemented literally would likely be a complete catastrophe.
| But watching fictional superheros do acts of good is
| inspiring.
| soufron wrote:
| Man, what an ass way of choosing your friends... I doubt it's
| optimal.
| d1str0 wrote:
| I think you just proved his point. This response is clearly
| quite aggressive and over the top and thus falls in the camp
| of being unlikely friends vs. someone who takes a more
| cordial approach.
| jachee wrote:
| Cordial or not, I certainly wouldn't want to be friends
| with someone sociopathically "testing" me like that. It's
| literal anti-social behavior.
| tb_technical wrote:
| No one deserves to be friends with anyone, actually -
| it's something two people decide mutually.
|
| To see it any other way reeks of entitlement.
| tdeck wrote:
| [delayed]
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| I don't view someone giving me a test on first meeting as
| "cordial" either.
| wsintra2022 wrote:
| Very amurican I'd say.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| >Not because I remember anything about it, or believe anything
| it espouses, or even like it all that much, but because it's a
| useful filter for obnoxious people in meatspace.
|
| Nietzche fills this role for me. Thinking he was right is a big
| red flag. But not knowing of him makes your opinions on
| philosophy meaningless.
| Amezarak wrote:
| I find a good follow up question is oh? what do you think
| he's all about? And if they start talking about master/slave
| morality or the ubermensch, then change the subject and move
| on,
| qudat wrote:
| That's interesting because the Genealogy of Morality was
| his greatest contribution as far as I can tell.
|
| Is there something in particular that feels most egregious
| about master/slave morality or do you have some reading
| attempting to reject the ideas?
| Amezarak wrote:
| You will see very quickly whether or not the person
| understood Nietzsche to have been writing almost entirely
| prescriptively or descriptively. The former almost always
| holds a caricature of Nietzsche's thought as the edgy
| truth.
|
| GoM is an interesting work on his ideas about the
| historical evolution of social norms and the
| psychological motivations behind them in many cases; in
| either it or TGS he says that a really comprehensive work
| on the evolution of norms throughout human history and
| different societies in different conditions would be
| invaluable, and that his work is only sort of a first
| step on an enormous undertaking. Unfortunately, we never
| much took it up. Maybe that's inevitable, since Nietzsche
| in a rare normative moment says the exception should not
| become the rule; we don't want a lot of people to not
| take their norms so seriously they reflexively reject
| serious consideration of their contingent character. If
| they do, you don't have much of a society.
|
| It's certainly very hard for people to seriously think
| about these problems. Plenty of very smart people take
| thinkers like Rawls seriously, where Nietzsche's work
| clearly shows it to be without any serious foundation.
| You could of course still make a claim for moral realism,
| but it requires the acceptance of ideas the same people
| are usually allergic to.
|
| But even more than that, Nietzsche is full of really
| incredible ideas and insights worded in clever ways. TGS
| is brilliant. When someone talks about these subjects I
| usually gather they didn't really engage. Those topics
| are what come up in almost all secondary sources where
| they are treated superficially or often, like Russell,
| almost maliciously wrong.
| hluska wrote:
| So, you will lie about your favourite book to socially engineer
| people? That would be the end of any friendship even if your
| favourite books are actually good reads. Why would I want to be
| friends with someone who will lie to qualify me? I don't put up
| with that amongst mobile device salespeople and that's a small
| investment.
| tb_technical wrote:
| This is fine. People don't have to be friends, you know? And
| it's ok not to be friends with everyone.
|
| I just know what types of people I like to hang out with -
| and they're typically people patient enough to put up with my
| dumb ass.
| hluska wrote:
| The only thing wrong with this whole thing is that you
| think it's okay to start relationships with a lie. Thats
| not okay. It demonstrates a lack of integrity.
|
| Your friends deserve better.
| tb_technical wrote:
| Perhaps, but they do seem to like me. Should I warn them?
| Tell them I'm dangerous?
| EFreethought wrote:
| > Your friends deserve better.
|
| Maybe they don't.
| el_memorioso wrote:
| What happens later in the relationship when you reveal you lied
| about your favorite book as some weird social vetting process?
| It seems the insincerity would turn a lot of people off.
| tb_technical wrote:
| Believe it or not its made quite a few people laugh
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| As someone who also hates extreme non-nuanced views, and
| seeks people who are thoughtful and emotionally level, I
| don't think I would be put off at all.
|
| In fact I'd guess that if you really did talk with tb for a
| while, you would probably pick up that Ayn Rand is not a fit
| for the beliefs they convey.
| influx wrote:
| I do the same thing except substitute The Communist Manifesto.
| tb_technical wrote:
| A really close friend of mine did this to me, actually. With
| this same exact book. It's how I learned the trick.
| SkyBelow wrote:
| Now I'm left wondering how well this would work substituting
| in different books.
|
| Different religious texts? Especially if you pick one that is
| not part of the primary religion of the area you are located
| in.
|
| A Modest Proposal? Probably the worst choice. Most won't
| recognize it and the few who do will assume satire in your
| response. (Also, essays aren't books, but who is counting.)
|
| A certain book by Nabokov?
|
| What about someone who seriously considers the question, but
| then says that they've read many books but don't really have
| one they consider the best? Too much of a non-answer?
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| I've done that too. My reaction to their responses wasn't
| exactly neutral either.
| michaelmrose wrote:
| Wouldn't this only be a functional recommendation if you were
| planning on being the sole determinant in whether the
| relationship moved forward because your response could pretty
| obviously be used as their filter just as easily?
|
| Whenever I hear about that author the only thing I can think of
| is her adoration of a strong man in the person of a killer who
| kidnapped a little girl and propped up half her body in a car
| to ransom her back to her father then pushed the half a corpse
| into the street and drove off with the money. Then I think
| about her retiring on welfare.
|
| > "Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why
| they should," she wrote, gushing that Hickman had "no regard
| whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a
| consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology
| of a Superman. He can never realize and feel 'other people.'"
|
| https://www.alternet.org/2015/01/how-ayn-rand-became-big-adm...
|
| It's not a fair comparison but when someone says their favorite
| author is Rand I have a similar response as if they had said
| "Hitler". I can tolerate ideas I hate but see little profit in
| trafficking too much with sociopaths. Perhaps you don't either
| else why do you avoid those who are "way too supportive"
| tb_technical wrote:
| > Wouldn't this only be a functional recommendation if you
| were planning on being the sole determinant in whether the
| relationship moved forward because your response could pretty
| obviously be used as their filter just as easily?
|
| This is a really good point, actually, but I _am_ counting on
| this. What I 'm trying to select in strangers is patience
| (also humor). If someone gives me shade in a silly enough
| way, everything is permitted.
|
| Also, a nitpick, being friends with someone _is_ solely up to
| you. If either you or someone else don 't like each other, a
| relationship effectively cannot happen (although, there are
| exceptions, first impressions can be overcome).
|
| So rather than even trying to predict what someone else is
| thinking, I just don't try (and pretend it's not a factor). I
| go with my gut, and most of the time it works out great for
| me.
|
| I'll add some context though, most of the time I do this in
| dingy dive bars and small town pubs. People aren't typically
| very cerebral there, so it works.
| kouru225 wrote:
| My response would be to slowly distance myself from you without
| you noticing.
|
| And if I'm drunk I'll laugh at you.
| kwar13 wrote:
| Deep thought. For 8th graders I suppose.
| freetanga wrote:
| My strategy is that if they reply "Atlas Shrugged", I reply
| "Really? Nice to meet you! By chance my name is Atlas!", then
| shrug and walk away.
|
| Let's meet soon
| dsizzle wrote:
| Can you summarize what kind of responses you get? I'd like to
| believe I'd quickly figure out this too-on-the-nose response
| wasn't serious and it'd lead to a laugh and more interesting
| discussion
| tb_technical wrote:
| Yeah that's normally how it goes, actually.
| drzephyr wrote:
| 15 years ago I had a colleague who was obsessed with Ayn Rand.
| I didn't know anything about Ayn Rand and her philosophies. I
| was/am good friends with that person.
|
| Fast-forward a decade and I know who Ayn Rand is and her
| philosophies. I know generally what type of people adhere to
| her philosophies and they are the opposite of who I would
| normally associate myself with.
|
| My opinion of my friend has not changed now that I am more
| familiar with Ayn Rand. It provides additional background for
| some of the values that my friend has, but does not change who
| that person is or my ability to be friends with them.
|
| I think that a lot of times it is easy to distance yourself
| from someone who has opposite beliefs from you, but at the end
| of the day, I don't think that is the only criteria in
| determining if someone is worth associating with.
| tb_technical wrote:
| I completely agree with you, and I have similar sentiments
| with my friends who hold different views.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| > If they're critical in a way I can appreciate
|
| What about people who are critical in a way you'll never know?
| Personally I might check off a "don't ask for book
| recommendations" box in my head and never mention it to you
| again
| tb_technical wrote:
| I write off not knowing things I'll never know. Not worth the
| time worrying about it.
| luddit3 wrote:
| Starting out a relationship by lying seems like a horrible
| idea.
| jrflowers wrote:
| "I lie to people's faces to conduct a test around a mundane
| question in order to safeguard myself from the 'meatspace'
| ruffians that don't like Ayn Rand" is a hilarious strategy.
|
| As an aside, it kind of seems like Atlas Shrugged _actually is_
| your favorite book. You don't appear to care what others think
| about Neuromancer or The Dying Earth but you literally require
| a specific and narrow set of feelings about Objectivism to pass
| The Test. (And obviously, it is the _feelings_ that you
| mandate, _not_ the lack of social graces, as you have noted
| that you don't mind if others politely stop talking to you even
| after passing The Test. They do not _feel_ positively enough
| toward Ayn Rand and as such are not worthy of your time)
| tb_technical wrote:
| I don't like Atlas Shrugged and you can't convince me
| otherwise. The most interesting paragraphs in that book were
| rants about cigarette brands, and even that was a total bore.
|
| Neuromancer is enjoyable, but mostly because I enjoyed
| cyberpunk inspired media before reading it. Seeing all the
| influences Neuromancer had on books, movies, anime/manga, and
| even half life mods was a real treat. That and I empathized
| with Case - in my youth I was addicted to amphetamines, and
| it was a really nasty habit to kick.
|
| As for Dying Earth, although the first wizards story is a
| little bit of a slow burn, seeing the elf sisters come back
| for their own pieces in the anthology was a real treat.
| Seeing the disturbed one overcome her sickness and find love
| was a fun triumphant end for her character arc. I'm also a
| DnD player, so seeing the early inspiration for the spell
| slots mechanic was a really cool experience for me.
|
| But, really, what _really_ annoys me about what people _like
| you_ do is interrogate people for purity. I lost too much
| time in my youth trying to keep people, who I thought were my
| friends, like you happy.
|
| That sort of stress isn't worth it. People who act this way
| are not a positive influence on my life, and I just don't
| have the time for it. And it's perfectly acceptable not to
| want to be friends with people who accuse other people of
| being too chuddy.
|
| It's just gross, man
| jrflowers wrote:
| >I don't like Atlas Shrugged and you can't convince me
| otherwise.
|
| > I lost too much time in my youth trying to keep people,
| who I thought were my friends, like you happy.
|
| This is pretty much a summary of John Galt's long speech.
|
| Also,
|
| https://fablesofaesop.com/the-fox-and-the-grapes.html
| tb_technical wrote:
| I'm not surprised that in over 1000 pages, a parallel can
| be drawn by a statement, from a character from the work
| in question, and a sentiment I hold.
|
| Stopped clocks and all that.
| jrflowers wrote:
| > Stopped clocks and all that.
|
| It's the fundamental point of the entire story. Like it
| is literally the thesis of the 1000 page book.
|
| Guy figures out that there are two tiers of people, good
| or smart or whatever (John Galt, you) and less good or
| smart or whatever (me, your childhood friends (???)), and
| the way to address this is for the Smart Goods to protect
| themselves from the Dumb Bads through their wily tricks.
| It is the plot to every ayn rand book
| tb_technical wrote:
| Yeah as I've said before - don't remember much of the
| book. But freedom of association isn't exactly a concept
| the rand lovers have a monopoly over.
| FrustratedMonky wrote:
| "but because it's a useful filter for obnoxious people in
| meatspace"
|
| It is surprising that a book can become such a barometer. I
| liked the book originally, it isn't a bad introduction to some
| ideas. But even when I was young was able to poke holes in it.
|
| But then many years later, it has become something like a
| 'flag' or 'rally cry' for certain segments of populating that
| either haven't read it at all, or have horribly miss-
| interpreted it, or most likely only idealized it by reading the
| first half.
| 015a wrote:
| Are you Scott Alexander?
| https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/12yn28h/com...
| tb_technical wrote:
| No, and I don't know who he is either.
| analogwzrd wrote:
| Is this some kind of test?
| tb_technical wrote:
| No I have no idea what any of this is about
| 015a wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_Star_Codex
|
| Its at least a bit interesting that this idea that "Ayn
| Rand exists as a roundabout litmus test for assholes" is
| quite weird, one I've never heard before, except from him.
| To arrive independently at the _exact_ same, weird
| conclusion, there must be something to it.
| andrepd wrote:
| So let me get this straight, you present yourself as a
| caricature of an obnoxious pseudo-intellectual, then "filter
| out" people who react against that? What a bizarre way to
| interact with people. Not only is it dishonest, you're also...
| making yourself look unappealing on purpose. I fail to see how
| this benefits you.
|
| I tolerate different ideas just fine, but anyone over the age
| of 20 who tells me "The best book I've ever read was Atlas
| Shrugged in 8th grade. Changed my life." will immediately
| strike me as a person I probably have little interest in being
| friends with.
| jrflowers wrote:
| > you're also... making yourself look unappealing on purpose.
| I fail to see how this benefits you.
|
| My more-depressing interpretation of this is the value comes
| as an explanation for being written off by others. Rather
| than being a way to filter others out, a person with multiple
| socially off-putting habits or a generally disagreeable
| demeanor can do This One Weird Trick to then point at their
| cleverness as the reason why they are standing in a room fun
| of people that don't want to talk to them.
|
| There is no need for self-reflection if everyone else is
| simply too gauche to understand how actually pro-social your
| nakedly anti-social ruse is.
| lpapez wrote:
| So your approach to a social situation with a new acquaintance
| is to give a dishonest answer to test whether they are willing
| to put up with your obnoxiousness in the future?
|
| I'm sorry but if someone disregards you at that stage I
| wouldn't say that they lack "social accumen to not go too hard
| in the paint early" as you say, rather that they have
| sufficient experience with difficult people and just chose to
| willingly ignore you for their own good.
|
| Even admitting to doing this is already off-putting to me.
| aanet wrote:
| > _Not because I remember anything about it, or believe
| anything it espouses, or even like it all that much, but
| because it's a useful filter for obnoxious people in
| meatspace._
|
| This made me chuckle wryly... :)
|
| In a previous life, I might have been on who got along very
| well -- at least intellectually -- with those who loved Atlas
| Shrugged and swore by it as the bible of their lives. Now, with
| some age and wisdom, it's the exact opposite.
|
| I myself wouldn't use a book as a filter for all things in
| social life... (for it generates way too many false positives),
| but I sheepishly admit to doing the same every now and then...
|
| Different strokes, different folks. -\\_(tsu)_/-
| tb_technical wrote:
| I'm glad you had a laugh. That's what I was going for - and
| normally how the interaction in question plays out.
| qudat wrote:
| I think your technique is working because a lot of people got
| triggered by your friend test.
|
| I kind of love it.
| nyeah wrote:
| But the best books _are_ "A Canticle for Leibowitz",
| "Neuromancer", and "The Dying Earth".
| oarla wrote:
| How much one likes Atlas Shrugged may depend on age as well.
| When I read it at age of 20, it was the best book I had ever
| read and almost a Bible for me. At 25, it had some great points
| that were worth adopting. At 30, it was mostly a fantasy, but
| entertaining. At 38, it is just not worth the time.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| So you're using a book as a political filtering mechanism. I
| don't see how that particular book has any relevance to this
| discussion then. You might as well just switch it out with "The
| Turner Diaries" or something similar.
| tb_technical wrote:
| Pretty much, yeah. Any controversial political book will do.
| justin66 wrote:
| > "The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th
| grade. Changed my life."
|
| The obvious followup question is _how did it change your life?_
| Under this gambit of yours I wonder how you 'd respond?
|
| I'm not interested in Ayn Rand or her bizarre fanboys but I
| think if someone said that to me I'd honestly be curious
| enough, not out of empathy but out of anthropological interest,
| to ask the question
| bradleyy wrote:
| I just have to say, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" shook me for a
| really, really long time afterwards. I'm not saying it's a bad
| book, it's quite thought provoking, but I took about 99 points
| of psychic damage from it.
| makeworld wrote:
| Why is that?
| tb_technical wrote:
| It's difficult to describe without spoiling the book. The
| only way I can describe it without spoiling the three arcs
| is to say it has a very bleak outlook on human nature
| GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
| I was instructed as an 11- or 12-year old to read aCfL. I
| thought it was clever the way the Middle Ages intersected
| with post nuclear war Earth as the setting. Questions
| about what is important, venerated, and why. What
| 'knowing' means.
|
| As to the bleak outlook, I don't remember enough (it was
| a long time ago), but a few years ago looked it up on
| Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Le
| ibowitz?usesk... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_M._
| Miller_Jr.?useskin=v... I learned that Arthur Miller Jr
| suffered from depression and chose to end his life with a
| firearm in 1996, age 72. I am always somewhat 'on guard'
| when I read works from people who were suffering with an
| illness like that, wondering how much of the story is
| infused with unnecessarily dour material when another,
| perhaps more upbeat approach, would have served the story
| as well. I guess I do not want to be dragged into
| depression by being overly bummed out by Fiction.
| type0 wrote:
| so do you proceed talking about "first impression" and
| relationship of individualism vs collectivism?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=First_impression_...
|
| -\\_(tsu)_/-
| jcbhmr wrote:
| Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover
| costco wrote:
| Probably The Singapore Story by Lee Kuan Yew or Titan by Ron
| Chernow. To me great biographies are more addicting than great
| TV.
| FigurativeVoid wrote:
| I just read "When We Cease to Understand the World," and it lives
| up to the hype.
| sprkwd wrote:
| Masquerade, by Kit Williams.
|
| He hid a rabbit made of gold and jewels somewhere in the UK and
| then wrote a book filled with clues and pictures on how to find
| it.
| runjake wrote:
| It changes all of the time, but one is Illusions: The Adventures
| of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Completely re-shaped my
| perceptions of reality.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusions_(Bach_novel)
|
| While I only made it halfway through, Atlas Shrugged had a big
| impact on me and my liberal, southern California upbringing,
| where I was under the assumption that certain things (food,
| healthcare, money, etc) were due to me by nature. I try to avoid
| preaching to others, but it considerably increased my self-
| resilience.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged
| DonaldPShimoda wrote:
| I am also a fan of Illusions. :)
| runjake wrote:
| _created: January 27, 2017_
|
| Very nice!
|
| I feel like there could be a secret society around Illusions
| references.
|
| (You'll understand if you read the book.)
| EverForever wrote:
| Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
| aporetics wrote:
| Now read "Experience" by RWE and your answer will change.
| mekpro wrote:
| Zero to One
| gadders wrote:
| I think you can only answer this at a point in time - the book
| you loved at 20 may not carry the same weight at 50.
|
| For now, though, I really enjoyed Plutarch's Parallel Lives. He
| compares the life of an ancient Greek and Roman - EG Alexander vs
| Caesar.
| redleggedfrog wrote:
| Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris." Really got me into a lifetime of
| thinking about what comprises life and our relationship, as
| humans, to other life forms. Has informed my personal philosophy
| ever since.
| drhodes wrote:
| The Planiverse
| creature_x wrote:
| Steppenwolf By Herman Hesse. It's remarkable how a fictional
| character written by someone a century ago can resonate so deeply
| with a modern person. But then again, that's a common thread
| amongst great literature. I recommend this book to anyone
| struggling with loneliness or feeling like they haven't found
| their footing in this world.
|
| "Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at everything
| else."
| flenserboy wrote:
| Give his _Glass Bead Game_ a try; it is dense, delightful, &
| its content would appeal much to the denizens of this site.
| Triphibian wrote:
| Narcissus and Goldmund is great. It feels like he's re-
| approaching themes from Siddhartha, but that notion of paths
| taken is worth exploring again and again.
| creature_x wrote:
| Agreed! There is definitely overlap between the three books
| but my recollection of Siddhartha and N&G is that Hesse
| dwelled more into how hedonic pleasure corrodes the soul.
| On a side note, you'll get along well with Doestevesky's
| Brothers Karamazov if you found N&G affecting.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Not sure how I feel about the on-going vanishing of efforts
| to create The Glass Bead Game as a computer
| interface/programming methodology.
|
| I want it to be something workable which helps folks in their
| use of computers, but the more I work with node programming
| interfaces and so forth, the more I worry that the fact that
| there is no universally agreed-upon answer to the question:
|
| >What does an algorithm look like?
|
| and that such systems are strongly-bounded complexity-wise by
| screen size, that they simply aren't workable beyond
| small/toy problems and educational usage, i.e., Blockly.
| creature_x wrote:
| I actually started with The Glass Bead Game, but I found it
| too dense. Perhaps I'll give it another try!
| eatrocs wrote:
| As much as I love Hesse - Plato's Republic allows me to channel
| the ghost of Socrates whenever I'm in need of company.
|
| Back on topic - I would recommend all of Hesse's books.
| Glassbead is my personal favorite, but I wouldn't start with
| that.
| low_tech_love wrote:
| +1 for this one, it's such a delightful experience to read.
| pks016 wrote:
| My favorite is Siddhartha.
| slothtrop wrote:
| Baudolino by Umberto Eco. I like all his works, but this one is
| the most moving and epic. I still think of it.
| illwrks wrote:
| Not the best book, but the maddest was IQ84 by Haruki Murakami.
| It's a wild story and lead me down a path to read several of his
| other books.
| cbracken wrote:
| If you enjoyed 1Q84, and haven't yet read the Wind-up Bird
| Chronicle, there's a little bit of a connection you might
| enjoy.
|
| The first Murakami book I read was Hard-boiled Wonderland and
| the End of the World, and it's still one of my favourites, with
| a new translation by Jay Rubin coming out later this year. The
| book of his that's always spoken to me the most is South of the
| Border, West of the Sun.
|
| If you're ever in Tokyo, consider visiting the Murakami library
| at Waseda University. It's got a small cafe downstairs,
| sometimes with live music performances, and lots of nooks and
| corners for sitting and relaxing with a book. There are copies
| of all of his books, and tons of translated copies in many
| languages.
| rurp wrote:
| Cloud Atlas would be my choice for fiction. The novel covers an
| incredible range of interesting ideas and great writing.
|
| Antifragile for nonfiction. It really changed the way I think
| about how both the natural world and human institutions function.
| delecti wrote:
| I truly loved Cloud Atlas. It's also a rare example where the
| book and movie adaptation both lift each other up (though I saw
| the movie first, and can't know if I would have felt that way
| in the other direction). I felt like the movie is better at
| emphasizing the thematic connection between each story, while
| the book is better at showing the impact of each story on the
| next, and showing that each story exists for the characters in
| the next. I loved the movie even more after reading the book.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| It was hilarious, and I learned a lot of new words.
|
| That said, the first/last story was a bit of a grind because
| of the language style.
|
| I didn't think the movie captured it at all. The trailer is
| great though, and got me to read the book.
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| Deadhouse Gates
| greenie_beans wrote:
| as i lay dying by william faulkner
| jimbob45 wrote:
| I've been immensely enjoying Harry Potter and the Methods of
| Rationality. It's free, fun, and I don't find myself having to
| skip unnecessary paragraphs ever.
|
| https://hpmor.com/
| asimovfan wrote:
| The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue - Dahui Zonggao
| (1089-1163)
| Tainnor wrote:
| I'd question that it's the "best" if you read it as an adult
| (though it's probably still good), but I feel like _Sophie 's
| World_ by Jostein Gaarder (which I read as a child / young teen)
| has influenced me and my outlook on the world more than maybe any
| other book I've ever read since.
| ljhsiung wrote:
| _East of Eden_ by Steinbeck really changed my college mindset on
| what it means to be "good" and "evil", "right" and "wrong".
|
| It's really hard to describe what the book's about. It's an epic,
| through and through, and all epics are hard to detail precisely.
| Inter-generational trauma? Handling one's "sin"? Making a
| livelihood after repeated failure, be it yourself or external
| factors?
|
| Contrary to my first sentence, there is one character that I
| would describe as pure evil. But I feel that just supports one of
| the conflicts; however incredibly rare, what can an individual do
| when they come across a bonafide force of evil?
|
| It is dripping with Biblical imagery, and Steinbeck's prose is
| rambling and tangential for some (though poetic for me), and his
| characters are not "realistic" and larger than life (but that's
| what makes them pop off the page for me and so memorable. I guess
| it's always a balance).
|
| "Now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."
| Insanity wrote:
| It changes all the time. For fiction, I would say "Augustus" or
| "Stoner" (by Williams).
| t-writescode wrote:
| I've got 3 different non-fiction books for me:
|
| Thinking Fast and Slow. This book discusses how we think and at
| what level and where some of the shortcuts we use when thinking
| occur and what impact they have on us. It really was one of the
| best books I've ever read; and like many books on that subject,
| you don't have to read the whole thing to get a lot out of it.
|
| The Dictator's Handbook. This is the book that spawned the video
| essay series by CGP Gray: Rules of Rulers (
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs ). It has been a
| strong recommend for me on how and why the political world is the
| way it is.
|
| Brain Lock: This is a book about OCD and it discusses a method of
| helping manage the symptoms and manifestations of OCD that
| creates a measurable and material change on the brain itself.
| Like self-help books, it does repeat itself quite a bit over the
| second half of the book. If you struggle with OCD, I do recommend
| it.
| ta1243 wrote:
| I remember reading "One Day", quite a long way through the book.
| I was sat in economy on an Emirates flight back from Islamabad,
| it was 4th November 2010, and it hit my like a truck when I got
| to _that_ bit.
|
| Might not be a "good book", but it was certainly memorable.
| Maro wrote:
| As a teenager I read 'Catch 22' over and over.
|
| I read Feynman's 'Surely You're Joking', and that led to me
| becoming a physicist.
|
| For software engineering, all the essays in Fred Brooks'
| 'Mythical Man Month' were formative.
|
| Rand's 'Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged' were also thought-
| provoking.
|
| For investing, reading Warren Buffet's 'Letters to Investors'
| shaped what I believe works.
|
| The best business book I've read is 'Invent and Wander' and
| 'Working Backwards' about Amazon culture.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| As far as enjoying it at the time I was reading it?
|
| The Once and Future King.
|
| I was on summer vacation while camping and fishing and I read the
| entire book in a couple of days in the evenings. Maybe it was the
| lack of distraction, but the Arthurian legend of that book has
| influenced a ton of modern fiction.
| DanielBMarkham wrote:
| Anna Karenina. Nothing mind-blowing. I didn't see a light in the
| sky.
|
| I read a lot, fiction and non-fiction. When I read Tolstoy, I
| remember thinking "What sort of dark magic is this?" He drew
| characters in a way I haven't seen since. I _knew_ these people.
|
| I remember this book, decades later. I remember a lot of what
| I've read, but Tolstoy was the man. I have no idea how or why his
| magic worked.
| fhchl wrote:
| Anna Karenina is a masterpiece of a novel. I highly recommend
| it as well.
|
| I often jokingly mention that this is the first book that ever
| made me want to get married. While many now that the novel
| describes the tragic life and relationships of Anna, only those
| that read it will now that here is another, as important and
| positive story, about the love between Kitty and Levin.
| throwaway2203 wrote:
| That novel helped me understand love.
| JacobiX wrote:
| I second this... to this day, I am in awe! Such a profound and
| readable book in the same time. Each character lives within me,
| and in many situations, one of them emerges :)
|
| As Nabokov said, it is the supreme masterpiece of 19th-century
| prose.
| kukkeliskuu wrote:
| Actually it is mind blowing. For example, it has exact
| description of a flow state in few paragraphs.
| g8oz wrote:
| "The years of rice and salt' by Kim Stanley Robinson
| myrmidon wrote:
| "Vehicles: Experiments in synthetic psychology" by Valentino
| Braitenberg.
|
| Has shaped my outlook on artificial intelligence more than
| anything else, and this was written in 1984, long before GPT-3
| was a thing. Absolutely "mind-blowing" in that it deconstructs
| and then reassembles your understanding of what a mind _is_.
|
| Best short story: "The Egg" (by Andy Weir); just read it, is very
| short, no spoilers.
|
| Best entertainment/fiction: "Murderbot Diaries"
|
| Is highly entertaining, very unique protagonist, raises some very
| interesting ethical/philosophical questions and does far-future
| sci-fi worldbuilding insanely well.
| sebg wrote:
| Just read the egg. Amazing! I had read Weir's other works and
| somehow missed this. Thanks for sharing!
| camjw wrote:
| Not sure which one I would pick but the Culture series by Iain M
| Banks probably had the most impact on me.
| Triphibian wrote:
| Best book I've read in a long time: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
| -- it's not often that literary fiction reads as smoothly as a
| Stephen King book. It's a coming of age story, a drug story, a
| heist story all rolled up.
|
| Best book I ever read (for myriad other reasons) probably remains
| Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- never has a book amused me
| like that. I don't think much about my sensibility, beliefs, way
| of looking at the world would be quite the same if that book
| hadn't have come along when I was eleven and said, "you're okay,
| you're not alone. Don't panic."
| Rendello wrote:
| There are 2 books that have fundamentally shifted my thinking:
|
| - _The Dictator 's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always
| Good Politics_.
|
| This has been covered by CGP Grey and now has a Netflix
| adaptation, so I figure it lies well within the HN Zeitgeist
| already. There's a lot to debate in this book, but I
| fundamentally didn't understand political power before reading
| it.
|
| - _Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and
| Controlling Men_.
|
| I have a more complicated relationship with this one, in fact I
| never finished it. It's about men (mainly) who are abusive in
| relationships, and how they are able to manipulate their
| partners. It hits close to home because I've seen a lot of that
| growing up, and I've seen a lot of women close to me end up in
| abuse in a predictable but devastating cycle.
|
| The primary controversial idea is that domestic abuse can be from
| man-woman, man-man, woman-woman, but the author pretty much
| discredits woman-man abuse. I don't think I can reconcile that
| with my own experience. But, where it changed my thinking was a
| chapter about "it's not emotions, it's values". I'd grown up
| knowing the importance of emotions and being open and
| communicative, but I was never able to put to words the
| disconnect I was feeling. Emotions are secondary, it's what one
| values that determines their emotions and actions, whether it be
| in an abusive relationship, or in any other place or time in the
| world.
|
| It really shifted how I think about the world, and let me sever
| connections to people I was kept in my life because they'd had a
| bad childhood or whatever. I realized that they would never get
| over their turmoil, because they valued using it to hurt others.
| namlem wrote:
| Dictator's Handbook completely changed how I think about
| politics. Strongly second that one.
| shaftoe444 wrote:
| Middlemarch. It has everything.
| mncharity wrote:
| "I read books [...] I've read a couple of books a week for [...]
| 50 [years]"[1] - Jim Keller (CPU designer) with Lex Fridman. OT,
| but I like the reminder that reading can be a voluminous
| endeavor.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA&t=5043s
| jestinjoy1 wrote:
| Children's Literature: Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
|
| Tech: Code the hidden language of computer hardware and software
|
| Non Fiction: Talking to My Daughter
| bcantrill wrote:
| Obviously a very reductive question -- even if sharpened slightly
| to "most influential" book. I will reduce it even further: one of
| the few books that I have read twice (and the only one that has
| exerted different, profound influence on me on each read) is
| Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine." This is a book that every
| engineer should absolutely read, though not without an uncritical
| eye for Tom West and Data General. I wrote about my second read
| of "Soul" five years ago[0], and I know that there are folks who
| have read it on my recommendation -- and I don't think anyone has
| regretted it.
|
| [0] https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2019/02/10/reflecting-on-the-
| so...
| gyre007 wrote:
| I finally read it recently (few months back or so) and I
| thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the many takeaways for me was how
| similar the SW world is to the HW one when it comes to actual
| human being behind engineering -- I guess I shouldn't be
| surprised but for some reason, the book reinforced that notion
| in my head. I'm sure I will read it again at some point.
| rors wrote:
| Eric Hobsbawm's tetralogy on the long 19th century: Age of
| Revolution, Age of Capital, Age of Empire, and Age of Extremes.
|
| A truly epic date-driven summary of how the industrial and
| political revolutions of the 19th transformed the world.
| SigmundA wrote:
| I love hard sci-fi and I keep going back to Blindsight:
| https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
|
| Making a distinction between intelligence and consciousness was
| interesting and I think applies to current AI systems, at least
| that what came to mind when seeing ChatGPT for the first time.
|
| Also vampires being real apex predators brought back from
| extinction with a decent explanation as to why they don't like
| crosses is just entertaining to me.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I wondered if I would see that here. It is an interesting read,
| packed with ideas. Not exactly light reading.
| colinator wrote:
| Borges: Selected Non-fictions. Think his fictions are good? His
| non-fictions, imho, are even better. You can read three sentences
| and feel like you just listened to a symphony - you get that
| constant Borges wit, erudition, mystery. The English translations
| are SO good. Are they even better in Spanish?
| gyre007 wrote:
| I devour Borges' books. I thik my most favourite is Fictions
| but the library of babel was pretty good, too.
| intellectronica wrote:
| The Mind is Flat by Nick Chater
|
| (so hard to pick just one, and I may be affected by recency bias,
| but that's my finalist right now)
| sotix wrote:
| I didn't know it at the time but Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I
| read it in high school and didn't think it meant much to me. I've
| been rereading it recently and realized a lot of insights and
| observations it has on living a simpler life are core beliefs I
| follow. It's funny reading it again and discovering how great of
| an impact it had when I originally read it to write a paper for a
| high school English class.
| zwieback wrote:
| Middlemarch by George Eliot
| bkandel wrote:
| The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. It changed the way I think
| about what's important, both to me and to other people and
| societies.
| brainzap wrote:
| I am still discovering new best books, recently "bird by bird"
| which taught me and made me laugh.
| chiefrubberduck wrote:
| autobiography of a yogi
| standardUser wrote:
| Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking
|
| I find a lot of my successes are driven by building powerful and
| convincing narratives about my own life and circumstances.
| Unfortunately, the anti-smoking messaging that comes form every
| website, doctor and other resource all parrots the same tired
| arguments I had been hearing since the 90's. My earnest efforts
| to find new perspectives hit the same wall of propaganda every
| time. This book offered me multiple new perspectives, it relieved
| me of the shame placed on me by other resources and social
| stigmas, and it acted as an upbeat and optimistic cheerleader.
|
| I quit 7 years ago when I finished the book and haven't had the
| urge to smoke since.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| Is there a book like this for ice cream and sugary desserts?
| standardUser wrote:
| He later wrote multiple books on weight loss. Search for
| "allen carr lose weight" and you will find several. I don't
| know if his other books are held in as high regard as his
| quit smoking book. This one seems especially relevant: "Allen
| Carr's Good Sugar, Bad Sugar"
| jppope wrote:
| question: I'm not a smoker, but would the information be able
| to be generalized?
| standardUser wrote:
| I think it was uniquely suited to break through the
| homogenous anti-smoking propaganda and offer new
| perspectives. Though he did write similar books about alcohol
| and diet.
| why5s wrote:
| Mistakes Were Made by Carol Tarvis and Elliot Aronson. It's a
| long discussion on the mechanics of cognitive dissonance and
| self-justification.
|
| --
|
| "A man travels many miles to consult the wisest guru in the land.
| When he arrives, he asks the great man:
|
| 'O wise guru, what is the secret of a happy life?'
|
| 'Good judgement,' says the guru.
|
| 'But, O wise guru' says the man, 'how do I achieve good
| judgement'
|
| 'Bad judgement,' says the guru"
| delecti wrote:
| Diaspora by Greg Egan. No other book has caused such a seismic
| shift in how I think about consciousness, personhood, continuity
| of self, the enormity of the universe, and practicalities of
| galactic timescales. It also triggered quite a few existential
| crises (which nearly goes without saying, given all that).
| hannofcart wrote:
| Reading this right now. I resonate with everything said in the
| comment above.
| b5 wrote:
| Great choice. There's so much to love in that book.
| mrexroad wrote:
| Came here to say this. I finally read it last year for first
| time and was delighted. It has aged rather gracefully as well.
| edanm wrote:
| A great book.
|
| I personally prefer Permutation City - for similar reasons. I
| don't think a book has quite affected my thoughts on what
| consciousness means quite as much as that book, and it's very
| interesting to boot.
| dvdhnt wrote:
| The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch
| Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell
| Shorto.
|
| Before the English took New Amsterdam, it was a thriving
| settlement full of interesting economic ideas and gripping
| narratives. I can't recommend this book enough. The audiobook is
| great, so I bought the paperback. 10/10
| airstrike wrote:
| Picking a "favorite" is generally hard. I once learned that the
| best way to phrase this question is in the form of e.g. "What are
| some of your favorite books?" so the responder doesn't have to
| force rank their all-time-favorite in their head, which can feel
| taxing. So I'll name two:
|
| I'm actually a bit surprised to not see "Brave New World"
| mentioned yet. That was a life-changing experience to my teenage
| self
|
| And since someone else has already picked Steppenwolf by Hesse,
| I'll mention Demian instead.
| dbg31415 wrote:
| Agreed.
|
| I remember getting assigned this book in high school, I think
| Freshman Year, and not being able to put it down. Just left me
| with this feeling of, "Shit, if we sacrifice freedom and
| individuality for happiness and a sense of security then we're
| really going to be fucked." I know that's probably too
| political for HN, but man, the message I got from this book has
| resonated loud and clear with me ever since.
| Vegenoid wrote:
| "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. It's
| hilarious, absurd, and surprisingly thought-provoking. There are
| many philosophical questions and lessons that are not really
| presented as such (though they aren't hidden, either).
|
| I read it when I was young, it really shaped my sense of humor
| and got me thinking about some of life and the universe's big
| questions.
| aktau wrote:
| Me too. I still cherish the black hardcover I got on my first
| trip to the US for $20 (must've been around 2006). This one:
| "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Five Complete Novels and One
| Story".
| antod wrote:
| Yeah that was going to be my answer too. They're some of the
| few books I've actually remembered stuff from.
|
| The absurdity and slant on looking at things helps keep life in
| perspective (wasn't trying reference the Vortex there).
|
| I remember occasionally when really get absorbed in it, that
| strangely the absolute absurdity almost starts seeming
| plausible.
|
| And, I start seeing the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation all over
| the place now....
| lcall wrote:
| Here are some translation recommendations (I haven't read them,
| but would add _War and Peace_ , which I have read, and which is
| freely available on gutenberg.org):
|
| 10 of the best novels in translation into English
|
| https://www.deseret.com/entertainment/2024/10/06/best-books-...
| tikkun wrote:
| When I Say No I Feel Guilty.
|
| Never Split The Difference.
|
| The Gift of Fear.
|
| Those 3.
| brontosaurusrex wrote:
| Groving up: Papillon (Henri Charriere - 1969) & Samurai! (Saburo
| Sakai -1957) Lately: Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir - 2021)
| Obviously: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - 25th
| anniversary edition (Steven Levy - 1984/2010) also: I've read all
| the books from David Thorne, last one: Let's Eat Grandma's Pills
| (David Thorne - 2022)
| hermitcrab wrote:
| "Papillon" is a great read. But it's veracity is highly
| suspect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papillon_(book)
| kiernanmcgowan wrote:
| The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut - I re-read it about once a year.
| It hits a nerve for me and helps me focus on whats important.
|
| "A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to
| love whoever is around to be loved."
| krupan wrote:
| Nobody has mentioned:
|
| - The Lord of the Rings. It is the secret gateway for us nerds to
| get into literature and poetry (do not skip the poems!). Read all
| the reference materials like The Silmarillion, The Hobbit,
| J.R.R.'s letters, the books his son Christopher edited and
| published, etc. If the poems seem weird or don't make sense,
| research why they are worded and structured the way they are.
|
| - The Master and Margarita. Obscure and very unique. Make sure to
| get a good translation (if you don't know Russian) that has some
| annotations to explain the "inside" jokes/references
| carabiner wrote:
| Obscure wtf? It's a classic of Russian literature and taught in
| every Russian lit class.
| netcoyote wrote:
| That would make it obscure to just about everyone I know,
| except perhaps one of my friends who grew up in the Ukraine.
|
| https://xkcd.com/1053/
| afthonos wrote:
| Famously well attended courses, those, in the English-
| speaking world... ;-)
| Izikiel43 wrote:
| > taught in every Russian lit class.
|
| Most people outside of russia and probably ex soviet
| republics don't have mandatory Russian literature classes.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Agreed. It comes up a million times on HN and has an enormous
| amount of ratings on Goodreads, #3 in Russian lit behind only
| 1 book of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: https://www.goodreads.com/b
| ook/show/117833.The_Master_and_Ma.... It is widely popular in
| the English-speaking world; not obscure.
| massung wrote:
| U "Mastera i Margerity" lushchee nachalo iz vsekh knig, kotorye
| ia kogda-libo chital!
|
| And chapter 2: Pontious Pilate absolutely sealed it for me; I
| love that book!
| elliotec wrote:
| The Dawn of Everything, GEB, and House of Leaves are probably my
| top 3.
| imjonse wrote:
| For fiction no idea, really hard to come up with a criterion and
| that is great actually.
|
| For non-fiction, by far the one that had the most novelty factor
| and effect of my worldview probably Chomsky - Understanding
| Power. Not 100% because it's almost a tie with Manufacturing
| Consent - this one being much darker.
| typedef_sorbet wrote:
| As someone who used to read voraciously as a kid, and nearly
| stopped entirely as I burned out throughout school, _There Is No
| Antimemetics Division_ , and later _Ra_ by qntm got me back into
| reading by reminding me how _satisfying_ science fiction can be.
|
| _Antimemetics Division_ is a fantastic read if you 're at all a
| fan of the SCP Wiki -- being the author of some of the
| foundational entries in the wiki, like SCP-055 (https://scp-
| wiki.wikidot.com/scp-055), qntm shows a deep understanding and
| appreciation for the SCP universe and uses it to tell a
| compelling story about ideas, memory, and sacrifice.
|
| It's worth noting that you can't currently buy a physical copy of
| this book anymore, but the original story is still available to
| read for free on the SCP wiki. https://scp-
| wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub
|
| _[light spoilers in this paragraph]_ This book caught me during
| a particularly difficult part of my life, when I was struggling
| with depression and self-doubt. Reading something that framed
| ideas as being things that are not only infectious and mind-
| altering, but _killable_ was comforting for me, and gave me hope
| that I could climb out of the hole that I was in.
|
| _Ra_ , on the other hand, is a book set in a completely
| different universe, one in which magic not only exists, but is a
| _bona fide_ scientific study, having been discovered in the
| 1970s. It starts out by exploring the ramifications of magic 's
| use as self-defense, but evolves into mystery when the main
| character witnesses her mother performing magic that by all
| accounts should be impossible, compelling her to devote her life
| to uncovering the phenomena's true nature and origin.
|
| This one is considerably longer, and paced slower than
| _Antimemetics Division_ , but in my opinion is no less
| satisfying. The parameters by which magic works in-universe feel
| believable and self-consistent, and so do the reasons behind why
| some mages are able to bend them. The ending does feel slightly
| unsatisfying when the book is taken as a complete work, but when
| considering that _Ra_ was originally released as a web serial
| over the course of years, I feel it 's a bit more forgivable that
| the landing wasn't stuck perfectly.
|
| What's particularly interesting to me about _Ra_ is that after
| completion, the author hosted a Q &A thread on their site where
| people were able to ask questions about how certain mechanics of
| magic work in-universe, and the answers given by qntm show just
| how much thought and care they put into making magic feel less
| like a hand-waved _deus ex-machina_ and more like a complete
| system.
|
| Highly recommend both of these, as well as qntm's other works if
| you're looking for something that scratches a particular sci-fi
| itch.
| agigao wrote:
| The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann The Man Without Qualities -
| Robert Musil The Gospel to According Jesus Christ - Jose Saramagu
|
| etc.
| BryanA wrote:
| The "best" book I ever read was Moby Dick because everybody tells
| me it was, and because I could never make it through Ulysses. The
| book that was the most fun to read was The Count of Monte Cristo.
| And my favorite book is The Diamond Age.
| vburg wrote:
| Flowers for Algernon
| agigao wrote:
| - The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann
|
| - The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
|
| - The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago
|
| - Moby Dick - Herman Melville
|
| - The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa
|
| - The War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
|
| etc.
|
| I can't do "The" xD
| danenania wrote:
| > The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago
|
| Have you read Blindness? I liked The Gospel According to Jesus
| Christ, but personally I liked Blindness a lot more.
| asimpletune wrote:
| 1001 Arabian nights and The Odyssey
| Rugu16 wrote:
| Meditations by marcus aurelius
| objektif wrote:
| Can you please recommend the best version to read of this for a
| beginner?
| Rugu16 wrote:
| Pick any from library or best sellers from amazon
| stronglikedan wrote:
| The Holy Bible
| JourneyToLunar wrote:
| Absolutely, it is very impressive that it has been preserved
| for so long. (Since we humans tend to destroy stuff...) And it
| is the book that is most printed and distributed around the
| world. Plus available in the most languages of all books. That
| alone makes it the best book.
| soulbadguy wrote:
| I am not sure about being the best, but one book that really felt
| special and still does is :
|
| - The beginning of infinity by David Deutsch.
|
| This book really ignited my love for epistemology in general, and
| the nature of scientific progress and understanding.
|
| Another notable book for me :
|
| Finite and infinite games by James Carse.
|
| I find the book fascinating if only because the concept the
| author is describing is both intuitive and counter - intuitive at
| the same time.
| dempedempe wrote:
| Everybody has already mentioned most of the best books I've read,
| so I'll mention one that I haven't seen on this thread yet - The
| Little Schemer.
|
| Unless you're actively working through a bunch of
| problems/examples, reading most books is a form of passive
| learning. That is, you are simply being told information. The
| Little Schemer is the only book I know of that is written almost
| entirely in the form of increasingly intricate questions to the
| reader (active learning). There are maybe about two dozen or so
| statements ("Laws" as the author calls them). Everything else is
| a question in an extended Socratic dialogue aimed at refining the
| reader's knowledge of Lisp, how computation arises from
| recursion, computation in general, and lambda calculus
| culminating in the y-combinator.
|
| The Little Schemer is the most unique, most fun, most educational
| (in the sense that it _forces_ you to work your way through it)
| book that I've read. Moreover, it's a great way to grasp
| computation in a more abstract sense.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| For me it's either "Cry, the Beloved Country" or "Slaughterhouse-
| Five".
|
| EDIT: Oh wait, or maybe it's "The End of the Affair", or "Je
| l'aimais".
| weakfish wrote:
| Fiction: The Way of Kings, and by extension, the rest of the
| Stormlight Archive. Some seriously fantastic therapy mixed into
| the beautiful fantasy world.
| jppope wrote:
| Probably "Zorba the Greek"
| Saturdays wrote:
| The Courage to be Disliked
| jamager wrote:
| I can second this! Almost the only book of its kind I actually
| liked, not going to say that "it changed my life", but it was
| quite eye opening
| abhaynayar wrote:
| Siddhartha.
| bitcurious wrote:
| Hm.
|
| If I say best as in long lasting, "Master and Margarita" uniquely
| has the power to make me feel a kind of romance when I remember
| it, not just while reading.
|
| The short story "Fumes the Memorious" changed in a literal sense
| how I perceived the world, at least for an hour or so.
|
| "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" was the best self-help book I've
| ever read, and fundamentally changes my politics as well. I came
| to recognize the significance of true and perceived agency as a
| factor in mental health.
|
| "Seeing like a state" was the worst written and edited book I've
| read that I nevertheless recommend to people because the ideas
| therein are fascinating.
|
| It's an impossible question, as the list of answers only gets
| longer with time spent on looking for answers. So I suppose
| Master and Margarita, as that was the first answer.
| jll29 wrote:
| ChatGPT: roll up this thread, extract all author-title pairs that
| describe books, and look up the corresponding amazon.com links
| where I can buy the whole set.
| mellosouls wrote:
| Collected Works of Shakespeare
|
| _The Tempest_ was my way in. Hated him as many did at school,
| but when my path was my own I decided there must be something to
| the extraordinary reverence in which he was held so I decided to
| have another go.
|
| I had to plough through for a while rereading until I finally
| "got" the flow.
|
| After that it was a long journey through some of the most
| beautiful words and thoughts I'd ever encountered, my life
| genuinely deepened and enriched.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they
| are literary scholars.
|
| I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to
| give a damn what y'all think of me.
|
| I probably liked David Edding's _Belgariad_ series, along with
| the _Mallorean_ series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and
| go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy
| read.
|
| Also, Glen Cook's _Black Company_ books are awesome. It 's a
| toss-up, between them. Eleven books, in that series. His _Garret
| PI_ series are fun, but really kind of "filler."
| scovetta wrote:
| David Eddings' books are also my favorite of all time, agree
| about Belgariad and Mallorean. That reminds me that I should
| start them again. Thanks for bringing back a great memory!
| will-burner wrote:
| A great fantasy book is "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin.
| The whole broken earth trilogy by Jemisin is amazing. Here's to
| fantasy books!
| jamiek88 wrote:
| That IS great, but hardly trashy!
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I really enjoyed that series. My mother was a geologist, and
| it was a fun time.
| loufe wrote:
| I second the Black Company. I recently turned some friends onto
| it and got back in as a consequence. It was such a great twist
| on how a dark fantasy reads. Totally agree for Garret PI.
|
| I'll have to add my other fantasy favourites : The Kingkiller
| Chronicles (though be prepared to be left hanging) and the
| Stormlight Archives are truly excellent.
| kaladin-jasnah wrote:
| Came here just to search for the Stormlight Archive. I mean,
| my username is a reference to that series (:
| cannonpr wrote:
| Scifi here but the most embarrassing one I have to admit to
| loving is the stainless steel rat series by Harry Harrison.
| jamiek88 wrote:
| In this vein, junkie Kindle Unlimited sci fi hits that spot for
| me too.
|
| Currently reading a huge series with easily digestible books by
| Ryk Brown The Frontiers Saga.
|
| Also anyone remember the old Sten books? There's a modern rip
| off that's very good, amusing and has cartoon violence it's
| called the Undying Mercenary series by BV Larson.
|
| And finally, Taken to the Stars and Backyard Starship get
| honorable mentions but really there is pretty much infinite
| versions of this shiz.
| nextcaller wrote:
| I couldn't get enough of the Goosebumps series when I was a
| kid. Just encountering the books and looking at the covers was
| an experience. I would get them from the school library.
| edanm wrote:
| Same! The first books I really remember reading for myself.
| test1235 wrote:
| I've probably read certain Discworld books more than a few
| times, if they fit under this category of 'junky'
| bityard wrote:
| I'm midway through my second reading through the Discworld
| series. Several years ago I discovered that they were just
| the right mix of interesting enough to read yet sedate enough
| to not raise my adrenaline that I could read them and
| reliably fall asleep within 5-15 minutes of going to bed.
| This was a godsend because prior to discovering this, it took
| my brain anywhere between 1-2 hours EVERY night to settle
| down enough to actually fall asleep, if it ever happened.
| Lifelong chronic insomnia solved!
|
| (I'm not sure this is the glowing review that most authors
| aspire to, but here we are.)
|
| Anyway, MOST Discworld books are well worth the time. A few
| are difficult to follow because Pratchett tried a bit too
| hard to rely on context. And he often reuses major plot
| points. But the narration and dialogue are more than clever
| enough to make up for any of these.
| allturtles wrote:
| > These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove
| they are literary scholars
|
| I see a wide variety of answers ITT. Some are very "literary"
| fiction e.g. _Ulysses_ , others are lighter fare like _Harry
| Potter_ , there's also a wide variety of non-fiction works from
| self-help to electronics manuals to philosophy. Have you
| considered that other people might actually have different
| tastes than you, and aren't trying to "prove" anything?
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| C'mon. This is HN.
|
| People are trying to posture and prove all kinds of things.
|
| Of course folks have different tastes (I'm the redneck
| engineer, in my family. Most of my other siblings think James
| Joyce is _da thang_ , but they are also into posturing).
|
| But it also intimidates folks into not sharing some really
| good stuff.
| A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
| << But it also intimidates folks into not sharing some
| really good stuff.
|
| That is probably the saddest part that good things don't
| have enough time/chance to spread. I like to think that
| there are more Adams, Pratchetts out there, but they remain
| largely undiscovered due to this society pre-approved list
| of things you can 'consume'.
|
| And good here does not automatically mean "Ulysses" ( which
| I hated -- and quite possibly misunderstood ). Some stuff
| can be just lazy popculture level navel gazing, but it does
| not mean it can't be fun as it revels in excess at the same
| time ( Rick and Morty comes to mind -- yes, it is not a
| book, but I am making a point.. how many kids you see
| reading for fun ).
|
| << People are trying to posture and prove all kinds of
| things.
|
| Agreed, but it still does not seem as bad as other internet
| locales. And maybe it comes with socialization. At certain
| point we learn no one really cares. I know I stated some
| mildly pretentious stuff before. Seemed like a big deal
| then; now it is just an amusing memory.
| dvaun wrote:
| > People are trying to posture and prove all kinds of
| things.
|
| I would hope that it's a mixture of personalities posting
| here, rather than a subset of people who are following some
| personal agenda.
|
| This crowd is hopefully mature enough to avoid this type of
| behavior.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Well, there's careers being made, egos being stroked, and
| insecurities being salved.
|
| It's not just a shared interest community. YC isn't a
| benevolent organization, and many of the folks,
| hereabouts, have some pretty serious cred (and
| money/power). Lots of folks want to get on their good
| side, and may think that frontin' is the best way.
| iamacyborg wrote:
| Black Company is fun and the recently published editions by
| Midworld Press are really nice.
| gregorymichael wrote:
| I've read all 20+ of the Jack Reacher books, some multiple
| times. Best bedtime reading I've found. Fun enough I actually
| want to go to bed. Shallow enough that if I miss a page or two
| because I'm drowsy, no big deal.
| CuriousSkeptic wrote:
| > I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books,
|
| That's the best part! Coming back to the simple life on Faldors
| farm again.
| enasterosophes wrote:
| When I was a kid, what got me into reading novels was Weis &
| Hickman's Darksword Trilogy. I loved the heck out of that
| series. I re-read it about once a year well into my 20s. Re-
| reading it in my 40s, it's definitely kind of cringe, but even
| now I still think it has some cool ideas.
|
| The thing is, those books got a kid into reading. Now I've read
| thousands of books, but all my later pretentions to literacy
| started from that one experience which everyone else in the
| world would judge as junky.
|
| I don't claim they're the best by most metrics. But as a
| catalyst for reading, they're right up there.
| djkivi wrote:
| I quite enjoyed David Eddings books when I was younger as well.
| It came as a shock when I learned that he and his wife had been
| jailed for child abuse, which only became known after he died:
|
| https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2020/05/it-has-been-reveale...
| Popeyes wrote:
| Marion Zimmer Bradley too.
| wduquette wrote:
| I loved the _Belgariad_ and _Mallorean_ years ago, and re-read
| them many times. Eddings then came out with a new series, whose
| name I've surprised; I read the first book and hated it.
|
| And then, as I got older, I started to realize that most of the
| "good guys", other than Garion, were deeply-flawed awful people
| who would not be nearly as funny or heroic in real life as they
| were made out to be in the book. (Picture Polgara smashing
| everything in sight as she has a tantrum. Belgarath's no
| better.) And then I couldn't read them anymore, which is a
| pity.
|
| It's not that I "outgrew" the genre by the way. I read as much
| fantasy as ever. But not this.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| _> I read the first book and hated it._
|
| That was probably _The Elder Gods_ series ( _Crystal Gorge_ ,
| et al).
|
| It is _awful_. I suspect it was written while he was dying of
| cancer, and his wife had a great deal of input.
|
| _The Redemption of Althalus_ is ... _bearable_ , but not his
| best.
|
| I enjoyed _The Elenium_ and _The Tamuli_ series. They had a
| lot of the character of _The Belgariad_ , but bloodier.
| m463 wrote:
| > I prefer junky fantasy books.
|
| Kindle books like that are what fill in the gaps in my free
| time. One recent fantasy series I liked was The Good Guys/The
| Bad Guys by Eric Ugland. Somehow kept me turning pages.
|
| some others (not fantasy) Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey;
| Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin;
|
| But sometimes there is a lot of dreck to wade through.
|
| Been thinking of making a "stop reading and discard book" list
| like:
|
| - main character has unknown/dead parents, is secretly "the
| chosen one"
|
| - no plot, character goes there, minimal opposition, gets all
| the stuff.
|
| - anything harem
| varjag wrote:
| Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.
| freetanga wrote:
| Many, but one of my personal, is Catch 22.
|
| The complexity of the structure, the humor, and the painful
| exhibition of human stupidity makes it a book for the ages.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| 'Catch 22' had quite an effect on me when I read it as young
| man. I'm not sure whether I will read it again, I'm worried it
| might dissapoint some 40 years later.
| brodouevencode wrote:
| The Holy Bible
|
| It's the entire basis for the western world.
| Snild wrote:
| As a kid, Krabban Konrad, "Kermit the Hermit" in English
| (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_the_Hermit), was one of
| my favorites.
|
| In high school, 1984 hit me hard.
|
| As an adult, I'd pick Pojken som fann en ny farg (literally
| translated "The boy who found a new color"). I really liked it's
| ultra-short chapters, making up snapshots of a romance and family
| being built and falling apart.
| xlaacid wrote:
| Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs bio. I legit disliked Steve Jobs. I
| could not put this book down for the week it took to read. Then I
| became an Issacson junky. He just digs into the minutia and makes
| it digestible.
|
| Currently reading Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Will appeal to
| philosophy nerds mostly. Fascinating how a kid of 26 changed the
| fields of philosophy, mathematics, and economics, but no one
| really knows of him.
| latexr wrote:
| For an interesting deep dive on everything wrong with
| Isaacson's Jobs' bio.
|
| https://hypercritical.fireside.fm/42
|
| https://hypercritical.fireside.fm/43
| bobetomi wrote:
| Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins.
|
| He goes into so much detail about training to become an
| astronaut, his first spaceflight, training and planning for the
| Apollo missions, and talks about so many of the details and
| complexities of spaceflight that I had no idea about before.
|
| For example, in the early space walks, they didn't consider how
| difficult it is to use simple tools in microgravity and without a
| surface to sit/stand on. The astronaut got completely exhausted
| just keeping himself still while turning a wrench, because when
| you turn the wrench, it pushes you and starts moving and spinning
| you, and when you try to correct it, you'll most likely
| overcorrect and then have to correct that, and then correct that
| overcorrection, etc.
|
| And the level of planning and training for the off-nominal
| scenarios is crazy. They picked the top 30ish most likely failure
| scenarios and practiced the responses to them in simulators until
| they're muscle memory, and have detailed checklists for hundreds
| of other ones (which they also practice, just not as much). For
| example, when Neil and Buzz land on the moon, they'd be awake for
| about 10 hours, so they had to decide whether the plan was for
| them to open the hatch and walk on the moon right after landing,
| or get a night of sleep and do it "next morning". The problem
| with doing it immediately was that, if something went wrong,
| they'd have to abort and get back to the command module, but then
| they'd end up being awake for 20 hours while handling an
| emergency. On the other hand, they realized that they wouldn't be
| able to get sleep right after landing on the moon anyways.
|
| His writing style is awesome: it's easy to read, explains
| technical details in a really easy to understand way, and quite
| funny.
| marcusverus wrote:
| Sounds fantastic, just bought a copy. Thanks!
| dlevine wrote:
| I really enjoyed Factfulness by Hans Rosling et al.
|
| Potentially a bit dated now, but A New Kind of Science by Wolfram
| was pretty eye opening.
| supportengineer wrote:
| Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
| baanist wrote:
| Type Theory and Formal Proof
| (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/type-theory-and-formal-...)
| zendaven wrote:
| In terms of info per dollar, you can't beat Littler Books' master
| collection.
| mondobe wrote:
| I read Tristan Donovan's "Replay: The History of Video Games" in
| middle school (back when my own access to video games was very
| limited, so I had to resort to reading about them), and it
| partially influenced me to pursue game development myself.
|
| A lot of my current knowledge about the game industry comes from
| things I learned in this book (or used as a base for further
| research later on). Each chapter is a vignette into a different
| era, technology, and country, up to the indie boom of the 2000s.
| It's not a life-changing read by any means, but it's an extensive
| and memorable one.
| lolinder wrote:
| _The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People_ by Stephen Covey.
|
| No other book has made as significant a difference in both my
| personal and professional life. Concepts like the emotional bank
| account and seeking first to understand (then to be understood)
| have been the key things that have helped me find a partner,
| develop a relationship with her, and develop a great career where
| I'm given a lot of autonomy and trust to solve problems in my own
| way.
|
| I find myself teaching concepts from the book to coworkers while
| mentoring them through work-related interpersonal problems and
| without fail they come back ecstatic about what a difference it
| made in their work relationships.
|
| I genuinely can't recommend it highly enough.
| aquir wrote:
| The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
|
| She was a great visionary and turned the Science Fiction genre
| upside down. This book is a thought provoking story; an "An
| Ambiguous Utopia" (this is the subtitle of the book. It really
| makes you think but also a mocking glass for our society. Close
| second is The Left Hand of Darkness from the same author.
| aloisdg wrote:
| I am reading it right now. I will leave this thread to avoid
| any spoil.
| aquir wrote:
| Yeah, I was thinking about putting a little summary but I
| don't want to spoil the fun and also, it's hard to summarise
| this book in a few sentences
| WillAdams wrote:
| I would seriously have to consider her _The Lathe of Heaven_ as
| my nomination.
| matrix87 wrote:
| Probably Brothers Karamazov
|
| I didn't really understand what it was trying to tell me when I
| first read it, the ideas just sort of ruminated. I read it when I
| was either 19 or 20, was completely at odds with who I was then
| but helped me grow as a person
|
| The way that we think about individual agency and self-interest
| in modern society is at odds with what our emotional needs are.
| He makes this point in many of his books
|
| The way that he describes guilt is incredibly accurate. He's very
| good at seeing and describing emotional conflict
|
| I also grew up as a non-religious jew but reading him made me
| realize that christianity has more ideological depth than what I
| initially thought
| the_panopticon wrote:
| +1, especially the 'Grand Inquisitor' portion. And a close 2nd
| would be Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment.'
| mikhmha wrote:
| I read it this year. I loved it. I think if I read it a few
| years earlier it would be totally lost on me.
|
| For my self what I found interesting is the depiction of Russia
| in the 19th century, and the on-going transition from a peasant
| agrarian society into "modernity" and all the confusion it
| creates. I am not Russian, yet it all seemed so familiar to me.
| Why? Because I think this same transition is going on in my
| ethnic country - though 200 years later. Because the archetypes
| of people shown, the attitudes among former aristocrats and
| landowners, inefficient (and unserious) bureaucracy,
| conflicting ideas about religion vs secularism, inferiority
| complex towards "modernism", changing views of women's role in
| society, etc I've seen all the same things.
|
| And of course, the book finally convinced me that I should not
| give into nihilism and pessimism even when everyone around me
| does.
| Snacklive wrote:
| I love the fantasy style of Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive
| by Brandon Sanderson
|
| But on the lighter side i consider the Murder Bot series by
| Martha Wells having a charm that i just find lovely
| purpleblue wrote:
| Catcher in the Rye was the right book for me at the right age. It
| really set a North Star for me as to what I wanted to be when I
| looked at myself in the mirror.
|
| Funny how as I grew older, I found myself understanding more and
| more about what the older characters were saying, without me
| sacrificing what made what Holden Caulfield ring so true to me.
|
| Fun fact: in university at the bookstore they had a written poll
| as to what your favorite book was (before the Internet). I was
| one of the first ones and wrote down Catcher in the Rye. A month
| later I read in the school paper that Catcher in the Rye was the
| winner that year, and it was the first time that the Bible didn't
| come in first place.
| mynameisash wrote:
| Out of curiosity, when did you read it?
|
| It's one of those books that everyone's heard about, but I find
| not many people have read. I myself hadn't read it until about
| six years ago (in my late 30s). I was underwhelmed by it. Maybe
| the book hit a lot harder when it came out than it does in
| modern times?
| confidantlake wrote:
| I read it at 12, got nothing out of it. Read at 16, thought
| it was the best book in the world. Read it at 22, got nothing
| out of it.
| muzzy19 wrote:
| 48 Laws of Power. Gave a deep understanding of how people
| manipulate each other to gain influence and dominance. A must
| read if you want to advance your career or avoid being
| manipulated at work.
| rodolphoarruda wrote:
| Dune Chronicles, the 8 books, as I consider them one single long
| story told in +4000 pages. The God Emperor of Dune (4th book) I
| consider to be the apex of the story.
| csours wrote:
| I'm kind of shocked that anyone would recommend anything after
| book 4. (Book 4 is the last one I would recommend. As far as
| I'm concerned you can get everything you need from summaries
| for everything after that.)
| mightybyte wrote:
| The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/366821.The_Evolution_of_...
|
| See also https://ncase.me/trust/ for a really nice 30-min
| interactive summary of the ideas presented in the book.
|
| My rough definition of "best" here is "most potentially impactful
| to humanity" (see also Andrew Breslin's Goodreads review).
| noufalibrahim wrote:
| Hard to say really. One of the few (if not only) books i wish i
| could unread was the fountainhead
| joshdavham wrote:
| The best books I read last year were the "Three Body Problem"
| books by Cixin Liu.
|
| It's a science fiction series about aliens, space travel and the
| universe and they're easily the best books I've read in a while.
|
| I genuinely can't remember the last time I got that absorbed in a
| series. I'd read until the early hours of the morning and
| sometimes just sit at the edge of my bed for like 20 minutes just
| contemplating the universe. Highly recommend.
| cambaceres wrote:
| The coolest thing about them is that he solved the Fermi
| Paradox, I definitely buy his explanation.
| yreg wrote:
| The dark forest was one of the most popular Fermi solutions
| long before Liu's books, people just didn't refer to it by
| that name. Take a look at Fermi paradox Wikipedia article
| revision history.
|
| I don't think Dark Forest is a good explanation, though. If
| you were one of the first space-faring civs and meant to
| avoid competition by striking younger civs preemptively, you
| could spread von Neumann probes all over the galaxy and
| either keep new civs at some technology level cap or destroy
| all the planets right away.
|
| Also, there is no stealth in space, so you can just send a
| relativistic kill missile to any worlds where civs pop up,
| without having to step foot outside of your home system.
|
| Isaac Arthur has made many videos I like on these topics, but
| admittedly they are pretty long. E.g.:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlhHE2VA1ic
| light_hue_1 wrote:
| I love the book, but he didn't solve the Fermi Paradox. Nor
| did he come up with this explanation.
|
| If that was the question, there would be far simpler answers.
| Like encryption. An encrypted signal looks like noise. Or
| point to point communication, which is far more efficient
| anyway.
|
| The Fermi paradox is also about another question. Why can't
| we find alien or their artifacts in the solar system? Any
| species that wants, could, with not much more advanced
| technology than we have, if it wanted to, essentially settle
| the entire galaxy in a few million years. von Neumann probes
| being one of the early ideas for how to do this. Species
| could do this even in the dark forest situation, but for some
| reason despite the universe being 13.8 billion years old, no
| one has bothered to. That's pretty strange!
|
| The dark forest also isn't his invention. He invented the
| term, but the idea dates back at least to Greg Bear from
| Forge of God in 1987. He called it a "vicious jungle". Liu
| Cixin did state it in more game theoretic terms though.
| dmonitor wrote:
| I was interested in the series until I heard the worldbuilding
| bit about how the aliens have FTL 12-dimensional supercomputers
| the size of an atom that can cause hallucinations and interfere
| with particle accelerators from orbit. Author basically just
| gave the antagonists god-powers to prove some kind of point
| about how hopelessly pathetic humans are?
| edanm wrote:
| I don't think it's humans that are hopelessly pathetic, it's
| just species that are less advanced technologically, mostly
| because of developing later compared to another species.
| Izikiel43 wrote:
| > FTL
|
| They are not FTL, they are lightspeed.
|
| They managed the computers through quantum entanglement.
|
| It's not god powers, imagine 21st century humanity vs middle
| ages humanity. Like Arthur C. Clarke said, "advanced enough
| science is no different than magic" or something along those
| lines.
| dmonitor wrote:
| My understanding was that they sent the computers faster
| than light while their ships were traveling at sub-
| lightspeed, or something like that, which is why they could
| get here and fuck up the planet centuries before their
| fleet would make it.
|
| My point, though, is that we're making up a fantasy world
| where the impossible is possible, and a bleak universe
| isn't more "realistic" than a hopeful one. It bothers me
| that people try to praise the "realism" in these books.
| They might as well have just sent Frieza to blow up the
| planet. It's within the same realm of possibility.
| gknoy wrote:
| I don't know why, but I could NOT get into it. I read what felt
| like 2/3 or 3/4 of the first book, and still felt like I had no
| clue what was going on, and it felt like a difficult slog (for
| reasons I don't understand), much like how the Silmarillion
| felt to me. I wish I had enjoyed it, because every review or
| bit of spoilers I've seen about it sounds like a fantastic
| story, so I don't understand why it was so unenjoyable to read.
|
| Meanwhile I'll read any chapter of a Neal Stephenson book and
| feel the comfort of a tea and warm blanket on an (imaginary)
| dreary day, and never care about the overall plot, and only
| feel remotely bad about not finishing the book.
| Izikiel43 wrote:
| Agreed, I read the 4 of them in 4 days, easy reads, very
| interesting. I like how 4 (which Cixin Liu recognized as canon
| despite being a fanfic originally) completed the story vs how
| it ended in 3.
| mppm wrote:
| Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber shifted my worldview
| quite significantly.
|
| In the fiction department, I've never encountered anything to
| match HPMOR, even though I disagree with half of what it says
| nowadays.
| yreg wrote:
| The Selfish Gene; Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
| jamager wrote:
| Fiction: The little prince
|
| Non fiction: Maus
|
| ie. the best and worst that humans can be.
| cambaceres wrote:
| I read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Miserables by Victor
| Hugo and I loved both of them, can recommend.
|
| Seveneves is an amazing book, just make sure you skip the last
| part.
|
| If you are into history I can recommend The last days of the
| Incas by Kim MaqQuarrie, it's just an insanely interesting
| description on how the Incas was conquered, it feels like you're
| there man.
|
| If you like evolutionary biology/phsycology then check out The
| Red Queen - Sex and the evolution of human Nature by Matt Ridley.
| ChumpGPT wrote:
| >The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
|
| Amazing books....
|
| +100
| ink_13 wrote:
| > Seveneves is an amazing book, just make sure you skip the
| last part.
|
| It's funny that you say that. My impression after reading it is
| that Stephenson really just wanted to write the last third, but
| felt that he needed a bit of backstory, and so wrote the first
| two-thirds.
| ElevenLathe wrote:
| I read /Cannery Row/ once a year, and have for over ten years. I
| am a Steinbeck fan, and this is my favorite of his, but I'm not
| sure if I keep doing it because it's really the best or if I just
| enjoy judging my own changes in outlook against a standard unit
| of literature. I suspect it's the latter but it's a short book
| and I recommend anyone read it at least once.
| readingnews wrote:
| Honestly, not making this up, I have no idea how any of you have
| time to read.
|
| Last few books I read (non-{technical,programming,electronics})
| were in college. Perhaps a few for fun, mostly for class.
|
| I work all day, when I am done with work, I have house work to
| get done. Every single time I grab a book and think "I will read
| this book", heck even technical,programming,electronics books I
| _want_ to re-read, time vanishes, I put it up and get too busy.
|
| Reading these comments, seems like a lot of people read books. I
| have no idea how you all find the time.
| thcipriani wrote:
| I've been reading Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon
| Johnson. This was the best book I've read at overcoming my
| initial expectations (Johnson is a hugely flawed human being,
| wowza).
| iFred wrote:
| Transall Saga by Gary Paulson. One of those young adult survival
| stories he was known for writing but with a sci-fi element. The
| book has been living rent free in my head since an elementary
| school book fair 26 years ago.
| a_square_peg wrote:
| Woah - this is strange. This was posted yesterday but I see that
| the timestamp has changed so it's only 4 hours old now. The
| timestamps for the comments seem to have changed also.
| hinkley wrote:
| I think it's a bug in how they merge threads. I saw this glitch
| in the Matrix a couple weeks ago. Went to respond in a thread
| and found I already had the day before. It was first thing in
| the morning in and telling me I posted four hours ago. Uh, no.
| masa331 wrote:
| War and peace. You get to build a very close relationship with
| multiple characters whose life is unwinding during one of the
| greatest histories of human
| seer wrote:
| I've read many books, fiction and nonfiction, but the one that
| has truly changed me for the better in the long term, was "How to
| win friends and influence people".
|
| Its premise is extremely simple (simplistic even) and you can
| boil it down to "just listen to people". But it did affect me -
| maybe because it finally made it "click" how humans work.
|
| And further more, I did recommend it to my friends, and whoever
| managed to actually read it, changed too, sometimes literally
| overnight.
|
| Honestly it was incredible to witness people who used to be jerks
| to transform into thoughtful and tolerant people right in front
| of my eyes.
| kkfx wrote:
| Well, I have no "best" but some, if you really want just one: The
| Science Of Government, Founded On Natural Law, by Clinton
| Roosevelt also available freely:
| https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items/sciencegovernme00roo...
| it's strange at first, but if you accept the first pages in 15'
| you'll learn today economy at a whole.
|
| If you are still hungry, Propaganda by Eduard Bernays would be
| the second.
| snarf21 wrote:
| Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
|
| The first 90% of this box is awesome (I think the last part is a
| little too hand wavy). However, it helps you understand so much
| of _how_ people think, including you. I think it also explains
| much of how we shorthand so much of our "thinking". It implies a
| lot of how tribal humans are in our actions and beliefs which
| bleeds into religion and philosophy. There is no book I recommend
| more and the implications and understanding this highlights can
| be life transforming.
| wsintra2022 wrote:
| The Red Book Liber Novus, Life changing, genuinely. I think it's
| a historical and cultural work that stands alone.
| gjkood wrote:
| The best non-fiction book I have ever read is 'The Making of the
| Atomic Bomb'[1] by Richard Rhodes.
|
| Fantastic early history of the people that eventually comprise
| the Manhattan Project. I feel any person who is interested in
| physics should read the book.
|
| It is mindblowing the scale of the facilities that they had to
| build to generate a very small amount of the fissile material
| needed.
|
| Strangely enough, I started on (a few times already) the second
| part, 'Dark Sun' [2], which is about the making of the Hydrogen
| Bomb focused on Edward Teller but I haven't been able to complete
| it yet.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-
| Rhodes/dp/...
|
| [2] https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Sun-Making-Hydrogen-Bomb-
| ebook/d...
| malshe wrote:
| It is challenging to define what's "best" but I used a simple
| criterion to write this comment: the book I have read the most is
| the best book for me.
|
| With this criterion, Based on a True Story by Norm Macdonald is
| the best book. Each time I reread it, I find a new nugget! And as
| a bonus, this book is also available as an audiobook narrated by
| the author himself.
| eatrocs wrote:
| Thanks to Plato's Republic - I have two bffs living rent free in
| my head.
| WalterBright wrote:
| "How To Win Friends And Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
|
| There's a good reason why it's still in print.
| bwb wrote:
| From The Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple
| https://shepherd.com/book/from-the-holy-mountain
|
| I read this in my early 20s and it had a huge impact in changing
| the course of my life, sending me traveling over a Christmas
| break, and changing my entire perspective. He is an amazing
| author and this book is beautiful.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| He also does a very good history podcast, 'Empire':
| https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/empire/id1639561921
| bwb wrote:
| Ah good to hear, I just downloaded some episodes last month
| and need to get on that :)
|
| And bought his new book!
|
| Do you have a fav of his?
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I haven't read any of his books, yet. But I probably will.
| nph278 wrote:
| Christianson and Chater's "The Language Game". This book changed
| the way I viewed everything, and also led me to read "The
| Philisophical Investigations", which I would also put up there.
| ChumpGPT wrote:
| There is no best. Books mean different things at different times
| in your life. When I was a kid, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings,
| Conan Saga, where the greatest books ever written and I still
| think they were amazing but, my reading interests have changed,
| here are a few of the best books I've enjoyed reading recently.
|
| The War of Art - Pressfield Outlive - Attia The Fourth Turning -
| Strauss
| xlii wrote:
| When I'm asked about best book I always bring up ,,The Last
| Ringbearer" by Yeskov.
|
| It's a fanfic in LOTR universe, and it wasn't very interesting
| when I was reading it but it revolved around a twist that helped
| me develop critical thinking skills.
|
| In short and without too much of a spoiler - it's about
| relativism of everything, including history and importance of
| narrative in shaping perspectives.
|
| Somewhat similar to much later Indoctrination Theory in Mass
| Effect games.
| WillAdams wrote:
| "History is written by the victors" would be the succinct way
| to describe it.
| jechasteen wrote:
| I want to answer this question as if you asked which book had the
| biggest impact on me, that I remember with the most fondness, the
| one I wish I could forget so I could experience again from zero.
|
| Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Long and sometimes tedious, as
| his books can be, but the characters are so memorable. Bobby
| Shaftoe is one of my all-time favorites. The book takes place on
| two timelines, involving two generations of characters, that have
| interesting parallels. The audio book narrator does a great job,
| if you're into audiobooks.
|
| Runner-up would be Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. His best,
| IMO.
| hinkley wrote:
| I still use Stephenson's definition of "failing an intelligence
| test" from those books. I'd heard the term before, but the
| example he uses is concise.
| sommeeeR wrote:
| C the programming bible
| s1291 wrote:
| "Analyse numerique pour Ingenieurs" (en: Numerical Analysis for
| Engineers )by Andre Fortin. This book changed my life 12 years
| ago!
| light_triad wrote:
| Not a best seller but if you like Continental philosophy, The
| Tears of Eros by Georges Bataille is profound and disturbing.
|
| The central thesis of the book is that eroticism and death are
| inextricably linked - that the most intense erotic experiences
| often involve elements of sacrifice, and the transgression of
| taboos. The author argues that this connection between Eros and
| Thanatos - the drives of life and death - is a fundamental part
| of the human condition which he sees as a means by which humans
| confront their own mortality and the limits of their existence.
|
| The conclusions are often questionable but the scope of the work
| and the historical deep dive makes for quite a ride.
| msg wrote:
| Because Anna Karenina is already listed,
|
| I'll plug Scandal by Shusaku Endo. It is by a Japanese Catholic
| novelist and was written near the end of his career (lifetime
| achievement award timeframe).
|
| It is about a Japanese Catholic novelist near the end of his
| career, who is accepting an award when he is accosted by
| reporters asking about rumors that he has been seen carousing in
| the red light district. He decides to investigate the rumors, but
| he isn't ready for what he's going to find.
|
| It's a kind of meta, semi-autobiographical interrogation of the
| author and the pillars on which he built his life, that in some
| ways would be impossible to adapt to any other medium.
| WillAdams wrote:
| _A Short History of the Printed Word_ by Warren Chappell --- also
| his _The Living Alphabet, and his cousin Oscar Ogg's _The 26
| Letters_ because they inspired in me a lifelong love of the
| written word and of books, resulting in a career in typography
| and book composition.
|
| I'd also recommend Robert Bringhurst's _The Elements of
| Typographic Style_.
| bityard wrote:
| As long as we're using "best" in air quotes, I'll throw in a
| suggestion for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna
| Clarke. It's victorian-era alternate reality fantasy. Which is
| something I never would have imagined liking.
|
| Yes, it borrows a LOT from existing stories. To the point that
| it's nearly a pastiche. But it is incredibly well done and you
| appreciate it more when you learn that it was the author's first
| novel. I recommend skipping all of the footnotes on the first
| read through and saving them for the second read, if you go back
| for more.
| edanm wrote:
| A wonderful, wonderful book. Highly recommended.
|
| > Yes, it borrows a LOT from existing stories.
|
| Honestly, I don't connect to this - this book has such a unique
| voice, so unlike most fantasy. And the plot is so different
| from the typical Tolkien-esque fantasy you normally find.
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| I was going to recommend it for the footnotes.
|
| Anyone who makes up a fake history for a book then adds
| footnotes arguing for a different interpretation of that fake
| history really tickles me.
|
| Really enjoyed Piranesi by the same author too. Reminded me of
| some of the odder parts of Iain Banks catalogue.
| elashri wrote:
| For me that would be "How experiments End"
|
| This book is written by a science historian with science
| background. It gives a real perspective about how scientists
| reached concensus about some of the nowadays well known facts in
| physics. It goee through some technical details and history
| including people involved and how personalities and the
| circumstances around these times affected the progress. If you
| read it you might find it somehow difficult with some technical
| details although he tried to simplify it. But once going through
| that you will find that each chapter is really a journey that you
| will enjoy.
|
| I really recommend it for people interested in learning new stuff
| and also enjoy some reading down the line. And get a first hand
| look into how things are usually done in physics.
| hinkley wrote:
| A number of my favorites have already been mentioned so I'll
| round out the list with Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall
| Kimmerer.
|
| If you have kids, an interest in gardening, or a curiosity about
| Native American culture, this book will hit you in all three.
|
| I got it on audiobook, and felt like I wanted to use a
| highlighter on every fifth sentence. So I bought a paper copy so
| I can just open to random pages and start reading.
| binarin wrote:
| The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan - spent the most time reading
| it and got the most value from it. This book series is my device
| for the language learning. It was translated into Russian so
| painfully slow I've just forced myself to read it in English,
| learning the vocabulary and grammar on the way. Later I did it
| intentionally with Dutch, and now I'm going to do the same with
| Spanish.
|
| It's so big you can reread it as many times as you want and still
| be surprised by the details you no longer remember. In the end
| I've read it 2 times in Russian, 3 times in English and 1 time in
| Dutch - and I'm not going to stop.
| _whiteCaps_ wrote:
| Wow. I'm a fast reader, and it took me ages to finish that
| series. Reading it 6 times would take a lifetime of effort for
| most people.
| melody_calling wrote:
| The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell.
|
| Taught me everything I needed to know about being a painter.
|
| Perhaps not the 'best' book ever, but certainly one of the most
| impactful for me as a common-or-garden 18-year-old realising for
| the first time that our political and economic systems aren't
| some sort of almighty edict and _could_ be critiqued.
| MrDrDr wrote:
| The Origins of Virtue - Matt Ridley
| (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Virtue) The book
| provides an evolutionary argument for altruism. It significantly
| changed the way I thought about human behaviour and morality.
| baruchel wrote:
| Without a doubt, "Exact thinking in demented timed".
| l72 wrote:
| "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs.
|
| This book completely changed how I view my city and other urban
| areas. I am now much more in-tune with my urban environment and
| understand how different aspects of it affect me emotionally.
|
| It also led me to going back to graduate school for a degree in
| urban design and sustainability, and my focus is now how I can
| use my computer science background to improve my environment.
| MPSimmons wrote:
| Nonfiction:
|
| - The Goal, Eli Goldratt - changed the way I thought about
| getting things done. The Theory of Constraints is important to
| anyone who makes things.
|
| Fiction:
|
| - Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I love me
| some Sherlock Holmes, and nothing is more Sherlock Holmes than
| Hound of the Baskervilles. Terrific writing, great story, spooky
| setting. Love it.
| cl3misch wrote:
| "Nonlinear dynamics and Chaos" by Steven Strogatz.
|
| It's the only textbook I really read during my university
| education (sad to admit). Even though I consider it a textbook
| and not pop-sci, it's incredibly approachable and teaches a
| framework about dynamical systems which was completely missing
| from all other courses I took.
|
| Sounds like a humble brag. But it being the only book I managed
| to read really makes it stick out for me!
| MrDresden wrote:
| In the fictional corner I must place the Nights Dawn Trilogy and
| Dune.
|
| Other corners don't really have a best book, for me. Recently
| read 'Emperor of all maladies' and found it a fascinating journey
| through cancer, both as an illness and as a research subject.
|
| Also recently read 'The Grand Chessboard' which was also
| fascinating for a completely different reason.
| 39896880 wrote:
| Master of the Senate by Robert Caro. The entire series is worth
| it, and I am waiting on the edge of my seat for the last book in
| the LBJ series.
| miramba wrote:
| Based on the amounts of re-reads: Das Boot. A soldier and artist,
| caught in the strangest of circumstances, either under the most
| extreme, life threatening danger or waiting for it, both in slow
| motion. Fascinating, state of the art technology, a miracle of
| science, but with a need of highly trained, expendable slaves
| running it for a single immoral purpose. Completely dependent on
| other peoples decisions, sitting far away in front of a chess
| board, ready to sacrifice him at any given time for their
| strategic goals. Any attempt to escape, to scream on the insanity
| of the situation or even to question it are grounds for immediate
| execution. Based on a true story. I'm reading this book for 30
| years and the authors ability to describe the nightmare that
| happened to him still haunts and fascinates me.
| datavirtue wrote:
| Genesis Revisited
| vonrosen2000 wrote:
| The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. The audio book is also
| great. The writing style is gripping and it's a very funny book
| despite being about a serious subject: WWI. It also gives a sense
| of how much pressure the leaders were under and how some managed
| while others simply broke as initial plans went awry. The author
| makes clear how individual decisions made huge differences and
| the entire outcome of the war could have been very different
| based on the personalities of those involved. These personality
| insights and descriptions really shine through. The book is not a
| definitive history of the start of WWI by any means but it is
| highly entertaining and reads quickly.
|
| The chapters about Turkey can be skipped since they don't seem to
| fit in with the rest of the book. I found them boring.
| netrap wrote:
| I guess Ender's Game since it got me into reading again as an
| adult. I love all Vernor Vinge as well.
| GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
| The best book I've ever read has been The Art of Computer
| Programming, Volumes 1 thru 7.
|
| https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html
|
| History, Philosophy, Mathematics, and more!
| 7874cole wrote:
| Dare to Succeed by Van Crouch.
| dogman1050 wrote:
| Ken Kesey - "Sometimes a Great Notion"
|
| A very rich, very human story generally about what drives people,
| with a river as an unrelenting foe. I think.
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| As a subset of "best" I read "The Daughter of Time" because it
| was voted the best crime novel ever.
|
| It was good. A modern (well, 1951) detective solves a historical
| mystery while bedbound.
|
| As for things that might be "Best" with a capital B I Loved
| pretty much everything by Umberto Eco.
|
| Neal Stephenson used to feature an NYT quote on his website that
| described his works "bogging down into lectures like Umberto Eco
| without the charm", so if you like the historical lectures in
| Neal Stephenson, check him out.
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