Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card
Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
31–40 of 63 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#32Gödel, Escher, Bach - the best book ever hands down!
I have this book sitting next to me, but I never read past the first chapter. Could you tell my why I should read it over the dozens of other books on my reading list? It just looks so dense.
Yes, it is dense, and difficult in parts - but take your time. It took me a long time and several attempts too - but was well worth it. I still go back and read sections again to get a better understanding of some of the concepts. It is very unique and original synthesis of many diverse topics weaved together - logic, computer science, genetics, philosophy, intelligence and consciousness - around a central idea. The central idea is about self-reference and strange loops - as in logic with Godel's theorem, in music - as in Bach's fugues which curl and twist, and Escher - whose drawings such as two hands drawing each other - capture the surreal nature of these strange loops. If you are a programmer, or ever had an interest in Artificial Intelligence this book presents some compelling ideas on how intelligence or even consciousness may emerge out of these strange loops. Even if you are not a programmer, this book will change the way you think about thinking!
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#33I was "forced" to read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in school, and it's still my favorite, forced or not. One of the best parts about that school.
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#34Sci-Fi: The Dune series. All of them. There is no excuse to give up after the first one. Frank Herbert was a philosopher who worked in the medium of the sci-fi novel.
Fantasy: "The Worm Ourobourous". If Christoper Marlowe had invented the fantasy novel genre, this is what he would have written. The prose makes modern fantasy look like milquetoast.
Criticism: "The Art and Craft of Drawing" by Vernon Blake. The best attempt to capture the mental processes involved in drawing like the Masters. It was written in the 1920s when artists could still draw like the Masters and knew the tradition.
Programming: "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp". A gymnasium for the programming mind.
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#35Gödel, Escher, Bach - the best book ever hands down!
+1! I'm approaching the final chapter, and it's been a great read!
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#36Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl, the first edition (a.k.a. "The Perl Edition", http://regex.info/ for more information about the book and its editions) It's my standard litmus test judging a programmer; if you haven't read or don't care to read a book on regular expressions, then I probably don't want to write code with you. It's also useful to remind people who think they're nerds because they own a…
Good grief.
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#37Goethe's Faust. It's more densely packed with brilliance than anything else I've ever read.
I second. For sure you also did read the original German version? :)
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#38Best overall: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and its less well-known sequel, Lila Best fantasy in terms of most imaginative and full of wonder: The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. (I know, everyone saw the crappy movie; it simply does not do the book justice.) Best Scifi: The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Didn't you find Endymion and The Rise of Endymion brutally painful?
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#39Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#40Suttree by Cormac McCarthy.