271–280 of 599 posts
Made me more aware of how I should act in a relationship.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Rosie-Project-Novel-Graeme-Simsion/dp...
John Fowles, French Lieutenants Women, really gets the details of how society has changed from the 19th century to the twentieth century. I would recommend 19the century great novels, that really was a golden age of literature, so many great works came out in the period near the mid of the century. Also George Eliot, in the current context, would recommend her novel Romola, set in Florence, perhaps the finest treatme…
The Futurological Congress by Lem.
I read "His Master's Voice" as a teenager and was deeply touched by it. Every other Lem Book was downhill from then.
* _The Chronicles of Prydain_ (https://www.goodreads.com/series/40371-the-chronicles-of-pry...)
* _The Chronicles of Narnia_
* _The Hobbit_
* _John MacNab_ (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/161001.John_MacNab / http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300621.txt)
* _The Postman_ (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/889284.The_Postman)
Adult
* _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_ (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20058/20058-h/20058-h.htm) - what is the right size for things in this world? A gentle introduction to the romance of the small and distributism.
* _A Leaf, by Nigel_ (http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Leaf_by_Niggle) - Tolkien's allegory.
* _The Space Trilogy_ by C. S. Lewis - the adult version of _The Chronicles of Narnia_
* _All Hallow's Eve_ (https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/All-Hallows-Eve/978150400668... / http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400061.txt)
* _The Eschaton Sequence_ (https://us.macmillan.com/series/theeschatonsequence/) - if you like Neal Stephenson's imagination of future society, if you are amazed by Iain Banks' scope, if you think that Asimov is brilliant ... you'll want to read this 6-book sequence.
Excellent, recommend by others in this thread already:
* _The Lord of the Rings_
Stranger in a strange land, by Robert Heinlein.
I read it far to early in my life. About 14 or so. definitely loved it.
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. You'll finish it in an evening. I didn't get how it impacted me at first, but I knew that I was deeply affected by it. It was what made me internalise the idea that struggle doesn't necessarily lead to external reward.
I don't get that book. He couldn't get the fish in the boat because it was too big, right? But then sharks started to eat it. They were making the fish smaller. At some point before it was completely eaten it could have fit in the boat! At least then he would have had something to sell.
A lot of friends that I respect and people on HN recommended "Master and margarita". I have only got back into reading ~4 years ago, so I haven't gone through all the great literature, but this felt different right after its midway point (starting with Satan's ball). My advice is to look for a translation with plenty of footnotes, because historical context plays a big part. It's different to anything I've ever read,…
The burgin and o’connor translation is by far the most excellent english version. chapter end-notes that tell you all the soviet jokes you missed.
Surprised how no one mentioned Little Brother[1] by Cory Doctorow and the sequel Homeland[2] It's near-future Sci-Fi and since it was written in 2008, it's more or less present now. It dives into a lot of topics that are relevant nowadays 1. https://craphound.com/littlebrother/ 2. https://craphound.com/homeland/
Still my favorite book of all time. I ended up spending a few years doing crypto research after reading it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 i…