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Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#601

Post by 0xBDB »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #295
kbelder wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked Atlas Shrugged.

Why? What redeeming qualities does it have that make you prefer it to less mediocre books?

Not the person you were responding to, but if you ignore the hundred-page speech (which isn't that difficult to do) it's a fairly serviceable pulp sci-fi romance novel. It's far from Shakespeare and far from my favorite thing I've ever read, but it'll do in a pinch.

I don't care for the philosophy/politics, but I've read a lot of good sci-fi that I didn't care for the philosophy behind. I like Starship Troopers, which isn't as fascist as some people think but is certainly right-wing. I like Orson Scott Card, regardless of what I think of his opinions on gay people. I like the Culture novels, which are lowkey anarcho-communist. I like China Mieville, and he's an unsubtle hardcore Marxist.

Those are all much better than Rand, but not totally out of the ballpark (I think the Fountainhead is actually much better written than Atlas Shrugged).

I agree with the original thread comment: people who can't separate literary and political merit are usually pretty tiresome in lots of other ways.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#602

Post by CuriousSkeptic »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #362

These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars. I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me. I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read. Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books ar…

> I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books,

That’s the best part! Coming back to the simple life on Faldors farm again.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#603

Post by WillAdams »

_A Short History of the Printed Word_ by Warren Chappell --- also his _The Living Alphabet, and his cousin Oscar Ogg's _The 26 Letters_ because they inspired in me a lifelong love of the written word and of books, resulting in a career in typography and book composition.

I'd also recommend Robert Bringhurst's _The Elements of Typographic Style_.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#604

Post by enasterosophes »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #362

These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars. I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me. I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read. Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books ar…

When I was a kid, what got me into reading novels was Weis & Hickman's Darksword Trilogy. I loved the heck out of that series. I re-read it about once a year well into my 20s. Re-reading it in my 40s, it's definitely kind of cringe, but even now I still think it has some cool ideas.

The thing is, those books got a kid into reading. Now I've read thousands of books, but all my later pretentions to literacy started from that one experience which everyone else in the world would judge as junky.

I don't claim they're the best by most metrics. But as a catalyst for reading, they're right up there.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#605

Post by hinkley »

a_square_peg wrote: post #487

Woah - this is strange. This was posted yesterday but I see that the timestamp has changed so it's only 4 hours old now. The timestamps for the comments seem to have changed also.

I think it’s a bug in how they merge threads. I saw this glitch in the Matrix a couple weeks ago. Went to respond in a thread and found I already had the day before. It was first thing in the morning in and telling me I posted four hours ago. Uh, no.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#606

Post by netcoyote »

carabiner wrote: post #508
krupan wrote: post #294

Nobody has mentioned: - The Lord of the Rings. It is the secret gateway for us nerds to get into literature and poetry (do not skip the poems!). Read all the reference materials like The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, J.R.R.'s letters, the books his son Christopher edited and published, etc. If the poems seem weird or don't make sense, research why they are worded and structured the way they are. - The Master and Margarit…

Obscure wtf? It's a classic of Russian literature and taught in every Russian lit class.

That would make it obscure to just about everyone I know, except perhaps one of my friends who grew up in the Ukraine.

https://xkcd.com/1053/

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#607

Post by scrumper »

lotsoweiners wrote: post #106

I would probably have to say The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I’m a sucker for fat historical fiction books and this one delivered everything I want from that type of book.

It's certainly rich, and the trilogy is satisfying to read, but I had to stop with his giant epics because he's just so relentlessly cruel to his characters. Every remotely sympathetic female character is going to spend at least a decade being repeatedly raped. Every ordinary man is going to have his family murdered and be enslaved. Yes the stakes might be elevated that way and for sure his chosen time period wasn't exactly kindly to those at the bottom of the social pile, but after a while it just felt gratuitous and more reflective of some pathology in Ken Follet's mind than any desire to tell a good story.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#608

Post by bityard »

As long as we're using "best" in air quotes, I'll throw in a suggestion for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's victorian-era alternate reality fantasy. Which is something I never would have imagined liking.

Yes, it borrows a LOT from existing stories. To the point that it's nearly a pastiche. But it is incredibly well done and you appreciate it more when you learn that it was the author's first novel. I recommend skipping all of the footnotes on the first read through and saving them for the second read, if you go back for more.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#609

Post by dmitrygr »

travisjungroth wrote: post #600
dmitrygr wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And have it change your life? Yes, a literary work can both be life-changing and not something you agree with. EG: I do not at all agree with Marx. Me and others reading his works changed my life irrevocably. Ditto for Hitler.

But you do get that if you said "The best book I've ever read was Mein Kampf in 8th grade. Changed my life." then some people very reasonably won't want to be your friend, right?

You had me until "reasonably". I'd rather friends who have read than friends who prefer ignorance.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#610

Post by edanm »

nextcaller wrote: post #403
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #362

These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars. I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me. I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read. Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books ar…

I couldn't get enough of the Goosebumps series when I was a kid. Just encountering the books and looking at the covers was an experience. I would get them from the school library.

Same! The first books I really remember reading for myself.
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