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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?

#301

Post by b3b0p »

All my others have been posted already, except:

Shadows of the Empire [0]

When I read it the intriguing parts were that it took place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Also, I still play and love the game on N64 (also on PC and on GOG). I never thought I would read and actually enjoy a Star Wars book. Dash Rendar is eternally burned into my memory and my favorite Star Wars character of all time now. I think I need to read this again after typing this. Even my dad liked it and he is not into Star Wars.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9549.Shadows_of_the_Empi...

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

#302

Post by mkolodny »

throwanem wrote: post #144
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…

Ready Player One? Why?

It's one of my favorite books. Totally explains why Facebook would buy Oculus for $2 Billion. Ready Player One shows virtual reality's potential to infinitely expand our world. It's also just a really fun book with a ton of interesting pop culture references.

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

#303

Post by downerending »

frabbit wrote: post #190

The Bible (Old and New Testaments), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, The Constitution of the United States of America and Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.

Read Ecclesiastes, and you'll wonder what such a seemingly modern/timeless take on reality is doing among the other books. It's a bit hard to parse, but read a paraphrase to get started.

(Also recommend Heinlein's short story Ordeal in Space, on the subject of fear/phobia/duty.)

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

#304

Post by wrycoder »

Very influential in my teens:

Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner

USA by John Dos Passos

Cache Lake Country by Rowlands

First adult book I read all the way through (I was fascinated! Re-read it recently and enjoyed it.):

The Mysterious Island by Verne

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

#305

Post by bpanon »

0-_-0 wrote: post #267
adaisadais wrote: post #251

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 imaginati…

I never thought of it like that before, that reading sci-fi at an early age opens up your imagination to what's possible, in your life and in the world. It definitely had that effect on me now that I think about it.

Bezos and Musk also were heavy sci-fi readers in their youth.

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

#306

Post by SergeAx »

"The Mysterious Island". It was my first book by Jules Verne, and it striked me with it's utter realism. Most his other books, like "20000 leagues under sea" or "Journey to the center of the Earth" are based on a fictional devices or exceptional characters, but Cyrus Smith became for me a realistic exemplar of a man using his engineering skills and knowledge to change his life and world around him.

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

#307

Post by psychometry »

rohith2506 wrote: post #4

Three body problem. I couldn’t recommend this trilogy enough.

Probably the worst novel I've ever read. The author has no feel for character development, dialogue, pacing, etc. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but anyone who thinks this is a decent novel has never read anything good.

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

#308

Post by booleandilemma »

ivankirigin wrote: post #291
Dowwie wrote: post #264

I finally read Frank Herbert's "Dune" this year and I'm so happy about the decision to finish the book. In the book are several references to what is known as the "Litany Against Fear". You may have come across references to it in pop culture, where the beginning is often cited. For instance, Elon Musk references it often. The Litany in its entirety: > "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-dea…

I just read 1Q84, and decided that it was the worst book I've ever read. Now reading Dune, for the first time since high school 20 years ago. There is a solid argument to only read classic scifi until the reviews are so good that you can't ignore it, or if you learn to trust the author. Dune is an incredibly textured far future. Ecology, waves of anti-technology, post-humanism, politics, and nuanced characters.

1Q84 was the only novel that I've had to "speed read". It was several hundred pages too long.

My least favorite book of all time has to be The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford.

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

#309

Post by psychometry »

eatwater123 wrote: post #265
metroholografix wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Counterpoint: I can absolutely imagine myself re-reading TBP series multiple times; I've already re-read it once since reading it a year and a bit ago.

Read some better fiction and you'll lose that urge quickly enough.

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

#310

Post by dmtroyer »

vector_spaces wrote: post #44

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. This book changed my life. I read this book when I was maybe 17? And read it again last year, a decade and a half later. The most powerful lesson I learned here is what anthropologists call cultural relativism. This book also taught me that everyone is under the influence of Mother Culture and her stories. I think internalizing this can help a lot with understanding other people, building sel…

Same. When I think of my self development, reading this book was a large milestone for me.
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