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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?

#411

Post by egypturnash »

hansvs wrote: post #339

I've really enjoyed lurking through the comments and seeing everyone's suggestions (thanks! my reading list just increased by 25 books, lol!). Out of fiction, I read mainly fantasy/sci-fi. Here are a few of my picks (which I don't think have been mentioned yet). - The Worlds of Chrestomanci and _everything_ else by Diana Wynne Jones; it was this and 'Chronicles of Narnia' which first introduced me to fantasy as a chi…

I feel you should be giving credit to Moebius for L’Incal as well! IMHO the prequels Jodo did with other artists suffered greatly for the lack of Gir’s delicately crystalline transcendence in both art and script, no matter how beautifully they were drawn.

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

#413

Post by KerryJones »

Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

It's _based_ on a true story (but added to it), but the concepts of living in the moment and philosophy for how to treat loss and our reaction to it has made both the movie and book one of my favorites.

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

#414

Post by torotonnato »

dbattaglia wrote: post #322

Strongly recommend “Rant” by Chuck Palahniuk. It takes a little effort to get into the testimonial style writing but unfolds into an epic tale of dystopia, time travel and traffic.

Loved that book! The car salesman gave plausible description of sales techniques. I don't know how effective they are, but Chuck goes to great lengths to absorb little "professional" hacks in the real world to give life to his characters.

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

#415

Post by egypturnash »

marvion wrote: post #26

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy + all parts. It's a common recommendation for exactly that - but I'm amazed by how much it's in the back of my head and gives me support. Especially in the current time. I can't point to an exact quote.. but I'm listening to all audio books(as background noise) by Douglass Adam's for the last weeks and it just feels like there is a part in the books for almost every weird situatio…

Does “all parts” include “...And Another Thing”?

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

#416

Post by torotonnato »

maremmano wrote: post #23

Hands down: Papillon by Henri Charrière. If you think you are going through a difficult period. If you don't know what resilience means. If you really want to change the way you see life. Read this book. Really.

Amazing, check out "The star rover" by Jack London, you may like it

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

#418

Post by egypturnash »

gonehome wrote: post #314

I have a list here with a lot that I like (some with links that are free to read online): https://zalberico.com/about/ To pick a couple though: - The Nix (best novel I’ve read in a long time): https://www.npr.org/2016/08/31/490101821/the-nix-is-a-viciou... - Lake Success - Permutation City - Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality ( https://www.hpmor.com/ ) - True Names - Any of the stories by Ted Chiang, but spe…

HP&TMOR is kind of terrible on many levels but it may have saved my life; I was mindlessly reading it in the depths of a long, gloomy Seattle winter when something it said about the way the Dementors work made me look up from my tablet and go find a garden shop, from which I got a two foot square sun lamp that kept the suicidal urges at bay for most of the rest of my winters in that grey, gloomy town.

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

#419

Post by dnr »

jesuslop wrote: post #69
weeksie wrote: post #39

Depends on how old you are, or for me it did. Some books resonate at different points in a person's life. The fiction that's had the most impact on me as an adult was all stuff I read in my early 30s. * Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller — Perfect for a single man in his 30s. Very solipsistic and hedonistic, which is a great way to explore that decade. Each of the books in the series is a novel length prose poem. Absol…

For a lover of Borges, what would you recommend first from Chiang?

He only has two collections published so far. I thought the first one (Stories of Your Life and Others) was slightly better than the second (Exhalation), but both are good.
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