Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#11

Post by pathik » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 4:00 AM UTC

PG, hands down. Besides him, I also enjoy the writings of Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Richard Dawkins and some more.

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#12

Post by rwl » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 4:13 AM UTC

forkandwait wrote: post #8

My grandfather's favorite essayist was E. B. White. He wrote for the New Yorker in the middle of the last century, as well as writing Charlotte's Web and a ton of other books. I don't remember the content of anything he wrote (except that rural Maine was really nice), but his prose style was amazing.

I love E. B. White. The year I read "One Man's Meat" (a collection of his New Yorker columns about his life in Maine from the WWII era), I think I gave it to six people for Christmas. He was a true master of the form.

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#13

Post by asher » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 5:13 AM UTC

G.K. Chesterton

A century old, but often still relevant.

For instance: The Modern Martyr

http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/all-things-consi...

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#14

Post by george_george » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 7:03 AM UTC

Theodore Dalrymple is great.

This is one of his best: http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_3_urbanities-how_and_how...

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#15

Post by timruffles » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 12:10 PM UTC

anukulrm wrote: post #7

Matthew Arnold's essays are very interesting and fun to read. He is from lay 1800s but the writing is superb!

Culture and Anarchy, or the others? What's it like reading from a US perspective (I'm UK)?

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#16

Post by timruffles » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 12:12 PM UTC

'The Idler' has some great stuff (http://idler.co.uk/); apart from that Alaine de Botton is my favourite.

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#17

Post by Nicolo_Borghi » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 1:33 PM UTC

Italo Calvino and his "Six Memos for the next millennium" should be a must-read for every developer/entrepreneur

He speaks about literature but I personally see the Memos having a lot in common with how to make a lean startup.

They are:

   1. Lightness
   2. Quickness
   3. Exactitude
   4. Visibility
   5. Multiplicity

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#18

Post by schn » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 3:01 PM UTC

Dijkstra is very entertaining.

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#19

Post by kksm19820117 » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 6:15 AM UTC

wwortiz wrote: post #4

I really like Isaac Asimov's essays, at least most of the ones I have read. There are a huge number of them on many topics too: http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/essay_guide.html (A little searching and many/most of them are on someones website somewhere)

This site doesn't seem to be loading at the moment.

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favourite essayists?

#20

Post by zoomzoom » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 4:43 PM UTC

Willwhatley wrote: post #3

Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (1976) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Selzer I've read only this book of essays. His shining part is an unusually polished eloquence. -- Most of Umberto Eco is interesting at least. -- I like Montaigne. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/montaigne/m-ess...

Montaigne is also cool because he gets credit in most English deptartments for inventing the "essay" - at least in it's modern form. Kevin Kelly at kk.org is a good read for tech thinking.