Life is too short to read crummy books. So after reading the review on Blade Runner 2049 which touched on PKD and Nabokov I have decided get Pale Fire. I am curious what you would recommend on top of that (I was also planning to get A Confederacy of Dunces). That said, take a penny leave a penny, if you haven’t read A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again or Gibsons’ Neuromancer, try and make time. They’re exquisite!
Ask HN: What are some must read books?
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Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#2*The review was a popular post on HN last night for anyone who has not read it, I rather enjoyed it :)
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#3The True Believer by Eric Hoffer.
Anytime I hear about a new movement or school of thought I go back to that
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#4Thanks for the recommendations. I’m feeling old, so I’ll add:
Edith Grossman’s translation of Don Quixote (1609! The more things change, the more they stay the same)
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (I thought I knew the story until I actually read the book—whoah, that opened my eyes to our relationship with technology and industry and how we use energy)
Dracula, by Bram Stoker (from Blindboy’s podcast episode “Paddy Dracula” I learned Stoker is from Dublin, son of a Protestant mother who told him stories, bedridden until seven years old, about the horrors of cholera)
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville (further awareness of how we convert resources, this time before petrol, and for the descriptions of sea life and human relationships)
For background, I’m also into contemporary sci-fi and fantasy and would have an easier time going without electricity than without books, unless I was part of a community that carried on storytelling traditions.
Two others: Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard, both about ecology and reciprocity, guiding how I garden, parent, and relate to the bleeding edge of life in general.
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#5The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. Anytime I hear about a new movement or school of thought I go back to that
Awesome, this sounds super interesting, thanks!
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#6The Brothers Karamazov. It really is as good as it's reputation would make you think
It's fascinating to read a novel written 200 years ago in a country completely unlike mine, but see so many traits and characters that I know and have met in my life today. Dostoevsky has this un-nerving ability to see through people like they are transparent, and show their innermost depth in a few sentences
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#7Thanks for the recommendations. I’m feeling old, so I’ll add: Edith Grossman’s translation of Don Quixote (1609! The more things change, the more they stay the same) Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (I thought I knew the story until I actually read the book—whoah, that opened my eyes to our relationship with technology and industry and how we use energy) Dracula, by Bram Stoker (from Blindboy’s podcast episode “Paddy Dr…
Wow thank you for taking the time to write this list I really appreciate it! I have always wanted to read Don Quixote but had trouble figuring out which translation. This is awesome I will for sure be getting that one and perhaps some others. Have a great Monday.
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#8The Master and Margarita, Burgin/O'Connor translation
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#9Chaos by James Gleick
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?
#10The power and the glory by Graham Greene. Crime and punishment by Dostoevsky.