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Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

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Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#251

Post by adaisadais »

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

My best friend in 7th grade had older siblings and they had all read Ender’s Game. He read it and told me I had to read it. Being the impressionable 7th grader (2006-7) that I was I gladly obliged.

I found the book to be deeply fascinating. It opened my eyes to ‘new’ technology like ‘ansible’ (can communicate anywhere in the universe instantaneously) and really opened up my imagination to what I could do with my life.

Growing up in rural South Carolina with dreams of being an explorer or an astronaut seemed kinda far fetched. Most people just wanted you to be a Dr. or Lawyer or get a job at BMW. Ender’s Game showed me that it was ok to be different. It was ok to love to read books and to think that one day I too could have an impact on society.

For what it’s worth: Mark Zuckerberg also had Ender’s Game listed in his books section on FB. But truthfully back in ‘07 I was busy writing poems on MySpace (FB wasn’t rural yet) hoping that I would one day be as influential as the Demosthenes character in Ender’s Game

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#252

Post by jkcorrea »

slothtrop wrote: post #176
jkcorrea wrote: post #10

The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged of course), it really rose my bar for great storytelling. Also the sandwich is pretty good.

Any particular translation or original French?

I have the English translation from Robin Buss/Penguin Classics, I think that’s the one you want in English.

Idk if the original French is much better, though I’ve heard it uses archaic language so if you’re reading for plot it might not be great. That also reminds me of something I think is really neat:

Dumas originally published the book as a series of volumes in a French newspaper over 2 years!

2 years! Can you imagine? I could barely put the book down when I first read it, that much suspense would kill me.. Also interesting how similar that is to the TV dramas of today.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#253

Post by radicalbyte »

ryan_w wrote: post #88

Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi - I recently started reading manga again and had heard about the series. It's an amazing feat of visual storytelling, jumping genres all the time, an incredible and vast world, and complex characters you can't help but love or hate. On the surface it looks fun and lighthearted but that facade is quickly thrown out to explore mature themes, ultimately culminating in an exploration…

Glad to see another manga fan.

One Piece, Monster and of course HxH have all impacted me.

For books, most people have already mentioned Dune, HHGTTG and The Culture series, so I'll have to add Flowers for Algernon.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#254

Post by hprotagonist »

tkamphefner wrote: post #169
hprotagonist wrote: post #12

see my nick, but in addition to stephenson, the books i come back to over and over again for comfort and wisdom include: - Lord of the Rings: The other bible. Not even the very wise can see all ends; be of good cheer. - A Wrinkle In Time: 9 year old me, there is such a thing as a tesseract, and there is also Mrs. Beast. - The Master and Margarita: apocalyptic reading from someone who knew, and a cat who always pays h…

This guy samurai sword fights. Your list includes Moby dick, which stands out to me as pretty different (much more intense read) than the rest. What'd you get out of it?

I think a lot of people overestimate Moby Dick. It's actually a pretty funny book in many places. There's a fart joke in the first 3 pages!

Still, melville had a lot to say about human nature, abolitionism, philosophy, xenophobia... name a pressing concern of american life in the modern age and you'll find echoes of it here, too.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#255

Post by grayed-down »

If by positive impact you mean most enjoyable, then:

The Godfather, Mario Puzo (Film good, Novel excellent) Anna Karenin, Leo Tolstoy (Best novelist ever IMO) Rendezvous With Rama Series, Arthur Clarke (Great) Replay, Ken Grimley? (Cool story)

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#256

Post by libraryofbabel »

jimduk wrote: post #231
libraryofbabel wrote: post #163

It's interesting seeing how many of my touchstone books turn up in other people's lists. Here are some I didn't see yet: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness. My favorite Le Guin (the Dispossessed is pretty good too). Shockingly original when it was published in 1969; the portrait of the society and culture on Gethen still feels unique. A slow burn at the beginning, but builds to a dramatic conclusion. Patric…

All of the above, Life and Fate is essential, but also add Middlemarch: George Eliot - grown up problems, don't lie, be careful around money Bleak House: Charles Dickens - avoid lawyers, don't let money get to you More left field - Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend - consistency is over-rated; any Houllebecq - keep thinking; Quartered safe out here - George McDonald Fraser - generation close to ours,…

+1 to both Middlemarch and Bleak House - I generally go for the Russians over the Brits when it comes to 19th century fiction, but those two are the exception. And both Eliot and Dickens certainly influenced Tolstoy, at least according to this list of books he himself compiled: http://www.openculture.com/2014/07/leo-tolstoy-creates-a-lis...

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#257

Post by tingol »

rtkaratekid wrote: post #146
adamredwoods wrote: post #139

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm This book resonated at a perfect time for me, opened my eyes to what peace in human mind could be, peace through acceptance, and above all the rejection of strict god-judging religions. This was important because instead of chasing "happiness" I began to work towards "contentness" which has lead to minor emotional improvements in my l…

Just finished reading this and found it incredible how one book could reveal so much of myself to myself.

What did it reveal? I found it to be the most overrated book I've encountered so far. I'm positively inclined towards Buddhism but it was just cheap mysticism whenever it was time to say something meaningful. A trope of Hesse's in general...

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#258

Post by atlasunshrugged »

rsync wrote: post #109
raintrees wrote: post #11

Much of Neal Stephenson's work provides me inspiration, similar to William Gibson's work. It envisions future tech/life that stirs me to see if I can create some of it.

He is, perhaps, my favorite contemporary author. I have a fairly predictable "best novels ever written" list which includes _War and Peace_, _Anna Karinina_, _Brothers Karamazov_ and _Dune_ ... but I would also place _SevenEves_ on that list. I found _Fall Or: Dodge in Hell _ to be terrible, however.

I also didn't love Fall Or: Dodge in Hell as a book, but found the concepts within it interesting (especially around the media curation each person has as I'm advising a startup that monitors disinformation campaigns)

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#259

Post by frinxor »

Balgair wrote: post #105

Though not my life per se , I find the fiction in the USMC's reading list to be very .. interesting. It's a strange mix of more popular titles and super niche books. It's all focused on war-fighting, but it gives a great look into the Marines: GATES OF FIRE: AN EPIC NOVEL OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE by Steven Pressfield STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card READY PLAYER ONE by Erne…

Speaker for the Dead (sequel to Ender's Game) was magnificent

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#260

Post by virgil_disgr4ce »

metroholografix wrote: post #224
Jkol wrote: post #103

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, aka Three Body Problem. Explored existential topics in a way I've never encountered anywhere else. I truly believe that decades from now this series will be viewed as the LOTR of our time. I've recently been reading the Foundation series, and have found the concept of The Mule character to be incredibly eye opening. I can't say directly it's had a positive impact on my life but it…

I found all 3 books to be vastly overrated and mediocre at best. I would bet money that in 10 years, few will even remember them. The translation doesn't help, but the issues with the books go beyond it. It's obvious that Cixin Liu is not a good writer. The characters in TBP are cardboard cutouts and his pacing and framing of ideas awful. I feel that there is merit in his imagination but it'd be better presented in a…

I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I genuinely can't figure out the enthusiasm for TBP.
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