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Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

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Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#451

Post by rsfern »

rukuu001 wrote: post #347
wallflower wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I went on to learn French just so I could read it in the original print. That is one of my mom's favorite books! Can you please elaborate about the process of getting there/how much practice it took to get you towards the point where you could enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo in its native French? Right now, I am studying Spanish and my reading comprehension in Spanish is low. It is not enough to understand somethin…

I used Harry Potter as my first Spanish book :) I recommend it!

I'll second the Harry Potter books -- I've been reading the Sorcerer's Stone (electronically) in Portuguese after working through Duolingo. It's nice because I am familiar with the story and there's loads of new vocabulary, which I look up (after guessing) by switching to a translation app.

If you're on iOS, the built-in dictionary app will give you Spanish->English.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#452

Post by Dowwie »

anonyfox wrote: post #372

Rich dad poor dad. It's not the most professional book on the topics, sure. But the content is written in a very accessible manner and I give it to young friends that are about to throw away their life because they were never exposed to any other mindset but "underclass". It is really shocking to me, that bright young people (with a bachelors degree) choose to go for a crappy paid hamsterwheel job, barely make ends m…

Rich Dad Poor Dad is a great gift for those who are beginning their careers. It influenced my thinking and motivated me in many important ways. Today-- 13 years since my first reading -- I realize that what I'm doing today (4 years into entrepreneurship) is based on beliefs that took root during that first year out of university that I studied texts such as Rich Dad Poor Dad. Other texts included Tom Peters's books (The Brand You, Re-Imagine!), The Magic of Thinking Big, and The Millionaire Next Door.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#453

Post by maw »

wallflower wrote: post #328
ComputerGuru wrote: post #264

The Count of Monte Cristo , by Alexander Dumas. I'd read thousands of books, novels, and other literature and never had an answer to "your favorite book?" and thought I just wasn't meant to ever have one... Until I read it. Since then, I've bought copies solely to have on hand to gift to people I actually care about. To drive home the point of just how much I loved this book, I went on to learn French just so I could…

> I went on to learn French just so I could read it in the original print. That is one of my mom's favorite books! Can you please elaborate about the process of getting there/how much practice it took to get you towards the point where you could enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo in its native French? Right now, I am studying Spanish and my reading comprehension in Spanish is low. It is not enough to understand somethin…

If you stick with Spanish and really learn its grammar inside and out you'll have a much easier time with French later on. Their vocabularies are very similar and the differences in grammar are minimal for the most part.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#454

Post by peckrob »

taneq wrote: post #377
swframe wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to give Dune to my teenage relatives and it usually turned them into avid readers; they would thank me later. I noticed that it doesn't hold the interests of the recent teenagers in the family; it is hard to get them to start and even harder to get them to finish. I think competition from the internet, youtube and cellphone is just too strong. That is horrible because developing a passion for reading helps lot…

I read most of the Dune books back when I was a teenager, and despite being a usually voracious reader I found them very hard to get into. Worth the effort, mind you, but it's definitely a series which requires some investment.

This is very close to how I feel about Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. I read them because many of my friends who were also sci-fi readers raved about them.

I enjoyed Red Mars but I really had to slog through Green Mars and Blue Mars. Red Mars was fun and interesting, but I could have done without a few hundred pages of Sax Russell talking about plants in Green Mars.

I think worldbuilding books take a certain level of investment, even among voracious readers.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#455

Post by tomp »

rsfern wrote: post #451
rukuu001 wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Harry Potter as my first Spanish book :) I recommend it!

I'll second the Harry Potter books -- I've been reading the Sorcerer's Stone (electronically) in Portuguese after working through Duolingo. It's nice because I am familiar with the story and there's loads of new vocabulary, which I look up (after guessing) by switching to a translation app. If you're on iOS, the built-in dictionary app will give you Spanish->English.

What translation app do you use (unless it's the built-in one)?

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#456

Post by RegW »

cure wrote: post #148

Fiction, because it is so funny: * Good Omens, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman [1] I wish Pratchett and Gaiman had written more books together. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060853980?ref_=sr_1_1&pld...

I gave this to one son when he was about 18, along with a pretty much complete set of Discworld: http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/discworld-reading-order/. These were collected over many years, so a bit of a wrench. The best of which might be: "Wyrd Sisters" (Shakespeare), or "The Truth" (Newspapers). He can make fun of pretty much anything, while still showing it great affection.

Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" is a great book for reading to younger kids. Weird, creepy, but strangely uplifting, even if it does begin with a triple murder. I can't remember which kid took that.

I bought Robert Silverberg's "Nightwings" in the 80s and read it several times. I was going to give away but couldn't find it, so I had to buy a new copy and read it again first. This seems to anticipate a lot that followed, from genetic modification to drastic climate change, but it is essentially about a character trying to cope in a mad world.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#457

Post by shabinesh »

I am not much into fiction, my gift depends on the kind of person I gift to, few books I most of the time prefer gifting,

1. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche, for those spiritual minds. I am a huge fan of this book, I am traveling this week to Dharamshala to learn about Buddhism after reading this book.

2.Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, for those aspiring young minds.

3. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, for my adventure loving friends. I had an intense desire to see Mt.Everest after reading this book, I traveled to Everest base camp.

4. Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, for everyone, I don't remember how many I have gifted.

5. Imitation of Christ, I have gifted it, but haven't read it myself. It's in my list.

6. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#458

Post by peckrob »

henrik_w wrote: post #359
peckrob wrote: post #232

I read a lot of Science Fiction for fun. These are a few of my favorites that I've given to other people: 1. Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter. When I think of epic hard science fiction, the Xeelee Sequence books spring to mind. With a story line that spans millions of years (and a few dozen books), this collection of short stories is a good introduction to one of the best and most underrated sci-fi series out there.…

+1 for The Martian - fantastic book!

The Martian is a great gateway for casual readers into sci-fi. One person I gave The Martian to loved it so much the next week they asked me for another recommendation. I recommended John Scalzi's Old Man's War.

He's now reading the Foundation series.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#459

Post by DanBC »

sneak wrote: post #417
fennecfoxen wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're interested in reading someone's books without paying for them, I propose there are several decent alternatives: 1. Do the legal thing and go down to the local library, even at some inconvenience to yourself. 2. Drop the smug sense of moral superiority. 3. Stick up for your moral superiority by making a sacrifice by depriving yourself of the pleasure. It doesn't make a whit of difference in the economy, but…

> 1. Do the legal thing and go down to the local library, even at some inconvenience to yourself. How the fuck is that any different than my torrenting the epub and reading it on my iPad? The exact same words, read by the exact same person, for the exact same amount of value transferred between the exact same people. Stop it with this meaningless worship of the fiction of intellectual property. PS: Downloading conten…

> How the fuck is that any different than my torrenting the epub and reading it on my iPad?

In England authors get a (tiny) fee when their books are borrowed from a library.

Is that not the case in the US?

https://www.plr.uk.com/

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#460

Post by hollander »

warpas wrote: post #367

"Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Great book about how and why people respond to incentives. A lot of good examples told through fascinating stories supported by data.

Don't shoot the dog, by Karen Pryor, about operand conditioning, the effects of positive and negative reinforcement. This is a fun book, and very informative.
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