Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#31

Post by niobe » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 12:54 AM UTC

Dune series. Still a unique and thoughtful take on a future space-faring humanity.

The idea of the 'Butlerian Jihad', a galactic wide outlawing of AI basically, seems even more prescient today than it would have in the 60s when it was written.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#32

Post by johannesrexx » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 12:57 AM UTC

Alfred Morgan's The Boy Electrician

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#33

Post by cblum » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 12:58 AM UTC

Dune. So many thought-provoking quotes throughout the books, especially the first one. This one pops up in my head often, many years after having first read the book:

"Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?"

Also Starship Troopers. Reading it made me somewhat regret not joining the military.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#34

Post by MailleQuiMaille » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 1:17 AM UTC

Lord of the flies.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#35

Post by dmitrygr » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 1:23 AM UTC

Atlas Shrugged. Amusing Ourselves to Death. Animal Farm. Cat's Cradle. Brave New World. Fahrenheit 451. Flowers for Algernon.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#36

Post by sprkwd » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 1:52 AM UTC

Masquerade, by Kit Williams. He hid a treasure in the UK and wrote a book with clues on how to find it.

Such a wonderful thing to discover as a child.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#37

Post by User23 » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 2:03 AM UTC

The Illuminatus! Trilogy.

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#38

Post by sans_souse » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 2:07 AM UTC

Siddhartha

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#39

Post by sandwichsphinx » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 3:25 AM UTC

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick (2012)

Re: Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?

#40

Post by sam29681749 » Mon, Oct 07, 2024, 4:51 AM UTC

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #7

Catcher in the Rye, Salinger captures that feeling of being a lost teenager while at the same time thinking that we know everything. It's an amazing book to read as a teen.

I second this. I read it at school and felt such a strong connection with Holden (as did everyone else that read it) and it really showed me there is so much more value in books outside of simple entertainment. I would also recommend Botchan by Natsume Soseki for the same reasons (although I came upon this much later in life).