I'm curious if anyone here is going to offer The Bible as the greatest book he has ever read.
I do.
The Bible has changed more lives than any other book, movie, or song you can name.
Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
61–63 of 63 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#62For fiction, I'd vote for the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.
He's often mocked for deploying the less-visited corners of the OED, but some people love that sort of joy in language. The antihero has never been done better, and the inversion of the whole 'wake up in a fantasy land' trope is brilliant and explored to its logical conclusions.
Give it to Book 2 of the First Chronicles ('The Illearth War') before you decide whether you like them.
Re: Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
#63Sci-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 at…
But STAY AWAY from any Dune follow-up novels written by Herbert's son, including the "final" one of the series. Just terrible, it breaks your heart.